drawing up party lists created a gap for promotion of equal access to leadership and decision making by women. NGO Anti-Domestic Violence Council as a whole was ineffective due to lack of funding. Child Marriages Protection from Gender-Based and Domestic Violence There was an increase in reported child marriages. Freedom House’s Freedom in the World 2018 – Zimbabwe report noted that factors such as poverty, religion and lack of strong enforcement mechanisms have prolonged child marriages in the country.33 The GirlsNotBrides website, provided the following information: “Approximately 1 in 3 girls in Zimbabwe are married before their 18th birthday. Child marriage predominantly affects girls who live in poverty and in rural areas. Girls from the poorest 20% of the households were more than 4 times as likely to be married/in union before age 18 than girls from the richest 20% of the households.” 34 Lack of education and influence of religion were key drivers. While the law criminalises sexual offenses, including rape and spousal rape, these crimes remained widespread. Women’s group Musasa Project reported that sexual violence against women, especially rape, was on the increase in 2018. In 2018 alone Musasa reported receiving up to 384 cases of rape of which less than 50% were satisfactorily attended to.30 Musasa warned that many more cases went unreported. Almost a quarter of married women who had experienced domestic violence reported sexual violence, while 8% reported both physical and sexual violence.31 While conviction of sexual offenses is punishable by lengthy prison sentences, women’s organisations stated that sentences were inconsistent. Rape victims were not consistently afforded protection in court. The police referred for prosecution the majority of reported cases, although few were actually prosecuted. While the police Victim Friendly Unit (VFU) did a commendable job throughout the country to respond to rape and sexual abuse of women, significant protections that are supposed to be infused in the VFU process were lacking in several areas. Despite the enactment of the Domestic Violence Act in 2006, domestic violence remained a serious problem, especially intimate partner violence perpetrated by men against women. A large contributor to the perpetuation of a culture of rape and domestic violence was the low level of reporting of cases. Women were also reported to withdraw cases – especially in domestic violence matters. Not withstanding that many who experience domestic violence did not report, the JSC reported that domestic violence cases in the Magistrates Court increased from 10,786 in 2017 to 13,623 in 2018, a rise by close to 3,000 cases.32 The joint government- While conviction of sexual offenses is punishable by lengthy prison sentences, women’s organisations stated that sentences were inconsistent. 30. Musasa Project, http://www.musasa.co.zw 31. Ibid. 32. Judicial Service Commission, 2018 Annual Report, page 16. 33. Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2018 – Zimbabwe (section G3), 15 March 2018. 34. GirlsNotBrides, Zimbabwe, undated. 40 STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ZIMBABWE 2018