Child Sex Abuse İn Tunisia Quadrupled Since 2010: Govt

Cases of child sexual abuse in Tunisia have quadrupled since 2010, a government report released Monday revealed.



The state-run Child Protection Mission on Monday said it had documented 289 cases of sexual abuse against children in 2014, as opposed to only 56 cases in 2010.



"Sexual exploitation of children rose throughout 2014 in comparison to previous years," Mehyar Hamadi, the organization's head, said at a Monday press conference held in capital Tunis.



"A failure to speak out against the sexual abuse of children at the family level is the reason the problem is not being adequately addressed," Hamadi said.



"A molested child can become a molester if they do not receive proper treatment," he noted.



He went on to say that his organization had begun receiving more complaints in 2013, after a three-year-old girl was raped by a nursery guard in northern Tunisia.



The incident sent shockwaves across Tunisia, triggering mass protests demanding the resignation of then-Women's Affairs Minister Sihem Badi.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Tunis