A victim of sexual abuse tells her story in the Sudanese capital in March. (AFP / Ashraf Shazly)

A Gender-Based Violence Specialist is appealing to survivors of Gender-Based Violence crimes not to erase tangible evidence if it is not yet reported to the police, adding that it is important in their quest for justice.

Erwau Emmanuel, Project Officer with Africa Life Aid, calls for sensitization of South Sudanese about the importance of preserving evidence, because, he said, the public lacks crucial knowledge about the issue.

He assumed that when a rape incident happens, the victim is bathed and cleaned, and the evidence is washed away – thus giving the perpetrators a chance to go unpunished.

Erwau Emmanuel spoke during the launch of a project to protect the rights of women and girls by South Sudan Law Society.

“Another issue we face is preservation of evidence in courts of law. They (investigators) do not depend on speculation or in rumors, they want tangible evidence or a witness who will come and give a testimony,” Erwau said.

“But if you look into our society, people do not know how to preserve evidence and that has given several perpetrators to go unpunished because the court of law depends on evidence and our people in the community do not know how to preserve evidence.”

“A girl was raped, and she is bathed and cleaned before going to police and there is nothing to show that she was raped. So, we need to factor this in our advocacy to train people how to preserve evidence so that they succeed when they reach the court of law.”

Mr Erwau further calls for establishment of Juvenile and Gender Based Violence courts in all parts of the country, citing that GBV is rooted in the societies.

“The issue of lack of GBV and Juvenile courts in the countryside is a problem. We have only one GBV and Juvenile Court in Juba, and the issue of GBV is deeply rooted in our society.”

“Almost every state shall least have a GBV and Juvenile court, but up to today, I have not seen anything in relation to that.”

“Then the issue of limited legal aid. The law society shall try to lobby with FIDA at least to provide legal aid to the vulnerable women at the grassroots because they are not in position to afford to hire a lawyer and yet in court you need a legal expert to represent you in the courts of law.”