Sexual violence rates in the Caribbean highest in the world – report

Like in many parts of the world the issue was considered private, Botti said. It was not until people like attorney generals were having to stay the executions of women and children that they realized that no one listened to the cries for help and the victims of domestic violence took the law into their own hands.

The law comes up for renewal every three years and each time changes are made to include other areas. In the US the offenders is charged even if the victim declines to press charges.

Gender is now being put into US foreign policy and the guidance for this now being written.

This is a new area introduced by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, who, Botti said, has been a “champion on women issues”.

Meanwhile, Lynn Rosenthal, the White House Advisor on Violence Against Women, who addressed the journalists at the State Department’s Foreign Press Centre (FPC), said a new survey had revealed that one in five women in the US are victims of rape, which is equal to 18 million women.

The majority of the victims are below the age of 25.

“One in three women in the US will be victims of rape, physical violence or stalking at some time in an intimate partner relationship and one in four women will be victims of severe physical violence,” Rosenthal said.

Read,the Trinidad papers

The former Fifa president Sepp Blatter has been accused by Hope Solo, the USA women’s football team goalkeeper, of having sexually assaulted her at Fifa’s Ballon d’Or awards ceremony in January 2013.

In an interview with the Portuguese newspaper Expresso, being published on Saturday, Solo, 36, claimed she “had Sepp Blatter grab my ass” at the glittering presentation of Fifa’s annual football awards for achievement during 2012. Solo presented the Fifa women’s world player of the year award on stage alongside Blatter, to her colleague on the USA team that had won the gold medal at the London Olympics, the striker Abby Wambach.

Blatter, contacted via his spokesman, responded to Solo’s recollection by denying that the incident took place. “This allegation is ridiculous,” he said.