Global News

A seven-year-old girl in Zimbabwe is raped. The rapist bribes the local police and so escapes arrest. The girl’s parents turned for help to the anti-corruption not-for-profit organization, Transparency International-Zimbabwe, which succeeded in securing a review of the case by the police’s Central Internal Investigations Department.

Eventually, there is some justice: Several policemen were penalized and the villain was sentenced to 15 years in prison. BUT, the rapist died in prison because of HIV/Aids – the seven-year-old rape victim is now HIV positive.

Over the last decade, Advocacy and Legal Advisory Centers (ALACs) have been established by national Transparency International organizations in 62 countries and they have been engaged in thousands of cases of corruption. The range of cases that ALACs seek to handle is wide – all too frequently, the victims of corruption, especially in poorer countries, are women and girls who rarely have the ability to obtain a fair police hearing, or pursue a court case with any hope of being taken seriously.

The original article can be found at www.huffingtonpost.com