Turning laws into action, and turning silence into justice.
What is the 160 Girls Project?
The 160 Girls Project is a unique legal initiative that challenges impunity for child rape. Born from a landmark Constitutional claim involving 160 rape victims (3-17 years old), it drives systemic change by ensuring the law protects every girl from rape consistent with the 160 Girls High Court decision.
Using Kenya as the pilot initiative, we work to enforce existing laws through different entry points into the justice system, Police, Judicial & Prosecution Engagement, Chiefs’/Youth community engagement and Virtual Justice Clubs, we create lasting equality change—making justice a reality for generations to come.
The Theory of Change
The Challenge:
Historically, police failed to investigate or prosecute defilement cases, leaving survivors without justice and significantly impacting the trajectory of their lives.
The Justice Solution:
The 160 Girls Project secured a landmark High Court decision finding 100% of the 160 Girls claims were unconstitutional and ordering the state to enforce laws protecting girls from sexual violence. Since then, e² has developed police, community, and judicial initiatives to ensure access to justice for all 11.3 million girls in Kenya.
The Challenge:
Historically, the existing laws intended to protect girls, and boys, from rape were often not enforced — leaving victims without justice and significantly impacting their health and the trajectory of their lives, and leaving perpetrators free to reoffend.
- 1/3 girls experience sexual assault in Kenya before reaching age 18 (UNICEF).
- 80% of students identify rape as the biggest obstacle to their studies.
- 30% of girls who are raped become pregnant as a result of the rape.
The Justice Solution:
The 160 Girls High Court decision gave The Equality Effect an effective tool to help guide the transformation of the justice system to ensure that the Court’s decision resulted in concrete equality change.
Watch The 160 Girls Video
Sustainability
Lasting systemic change is created by:
- Creating human rights-based partnerships that prioritize girls’ equality rights
- Institutionalizing the 160 Girls project curricula into police and prosecution colleges and judicial academies, and schools.
