Jamaica: Impunity for sexual violence in Jamaica

Index Number: AMR 38/004/2006
Date Published: 11 June 2006
Categories: Americas, Jamaica

Each year thousands of women and girls in Jamaica are sexually assaulted in their communities, their schools, their workplaces, their homes and in the street. The state is failing to effectively prevent and investigate these abuses and also to punish the perpetrators. For many women and girls in Jamaica, domestic violence includes sexual violence, and women are not always protected from rape within marriage. Marital rape is not a statutory crime, meaning that prosecution is difficult. In addition, sexual violence is spreading sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS.