Analysis of marital rape in Ethiopia in the context of international human rights

Abstract

This study focuses on marital rape in Ethiopia in the context of international human rights law. Marital rape refers to rape committed against women by their lawful husbands. Like rape that is committed by strangers, marital rape has a severe impact on the physical and psychological wellbeing of victims. Consequently, marital rape violates a range of human rights, such as the right to human dignity, right to bodily integrity, right to privacy, as well as the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Marital rape is recognised as one of the forms of violence against women under international human rights instruments ratified by Ethiopia. In addition, the Constitution of Ethiopia recognises the right to equality between women and men during marriage, and prohibits the enactment of laws and policies that discriminate against women. Studies have shown that the prevalence of marital rape is high in Ethiopia. Despite this fact, the Current Criminal Code of Ethiopia does not regard marital rape as a criminal offence and as a result there is no punishment on the part of perpetrators of this offence. Consequently, this gives husbands the license to rape their wives without any consequence. Owing to various socio-cultural factors, victims of marital rape in Ethiopia do not report these incidents to the police. The fact that there are no remedies under the criminal justice system, also discourages victims from reporting such incidents. This study, argues that by virtue of adopting human rights instruments at both the UN and AU level which prohibits violence against women, Ethiopia is under obligation to criminalize marital rape. South Africa is one of the few countries in Africa that criminalises marital rape. According to the 1993 Prevention of Family Violence Act, stipulates a man can be found guilty of raping his wife. Later on, the Act was amended by the Family Violence Act of 1998, which gives protection to victims of domestic violence. Despite the criminalisation of marital rape in South Africa, studies indicate that marital rape is still prevalent in the country owing to numerous socio-economic and cultural factors. Hence, from the experience of South Africa it can be understood that criminalizing marital rape alone is not enough to tackle the problem.