Non-profit organisation Women and Men against Child Abuse is on Monday expected to approach the High Court in Johannesburg in an effort to change the law to ensure that the legal system acknowledges the seriousness of all sexual violence cases, regardless of the elapsed time since the offence.
It said that section 18 of the Criminal Procedures Act currently stated that all sexual offences, other than rape, could not be prosecuted 20 years after the crime had been committed.
They wanted to bring the application to the court to argue that this section excluded survivors who had suffered many other forms of sexual abuse other than rape, and that these survivors should be given the opportunity to approach the criminal justice system for legal resource.
[Source: News24]
