World

One rape every 26 seconds in South Africa

by Sanjay Jha | November 18, 2008 at 12:42 am

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Crime against Women is big problem in South Africa and Rape is endemic in South Africa. Recently Academy award winning actress and activist Charliz Theron was appointed UN messenger of peace. She will focus on ending violence against women under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's initiative. In her first salvo she said that a woman is raped in every 26 seconds in South Africa.

"The statistics on rape cases were quite horrific," Theron told a news conference at UN headquarters in New York on her first day at work, joining nine other existing Messengers of Peace to help advance various UN campaigns.

"One in every three women is raped in her lifetime and the number was devastating," Theron said. "It is getting worse."

Theron founded the Cape Town Rape Crisis Centre in 1999 to deal with the widespread cases of rape and the high number of people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. But she said she now needs the support of the UN to fight rape more effectively.
"It's very exciting to work for the UN because it gives you access to the source of information and the responsibility," she said.

Theron founded The Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project in partnership with the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) to help improve the lives of poor children and their families in her native South Africa, particularly those suffering from HIV/AIDS.