therefore, the Committee concludes the Complainants did not have remedies to exhaust at a local level. 33. Pursuant to Section IX (1) (E), the Communication should be presented within a reasonable period after exhaustion of local remedies at the national level. The Committee is of the view that the Complainants have complied with this requirement since they brought the communication to the Committee after tying to obtain the court records for two years without success. V. DECISION ON ADMISSIBILITY 34. On the basis of all the above arguments and analysis, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child notes and concludes that the Communication submitted by the author has fulfilled all the admissibility conditions as laid down in the Committee‟s Guidelines on Consideration of Communication; and it is accordingly declared admissible. VI. SUBMISSIONS ON THE MERITS OF THE COMMUNICATION The Complainants’ Submission on the Merits 35. The Complainants‟ allegations are based on the fact that the authorities in Cameroon have failed to adequately and effectively investigate the crime of rape perpetrated against a minor. In their submission, the Complainants argued that rape is a violation of article 16 of the Children‟s Charter. The Complainants submitted that Article 1 and 16 (2) of the African Children‟s Charter oblige State Parties to effectively investigate all suspected cases of child abuse, including sexual abuse, and provide support for children who have been abused. According to the Complainants, the Government of Cameroon and its agents did not carry out any credible investigations into the sexual abuse and rape which was committed against TFA. Neither was there any form of support provided for her in the aftermath of the rape. 36. The Complainants also argued that the failure on the part of the Republic of Cameroon to discharge the obligation to investigate and prosecute the perpetrator thus amounts to a violation of the rights of TFA to dignity, personal integrity, and a transgression of the prohibition of all forms of exploitation and degradation as provided for under article 16 of the ACRWC and article 5 of the ACHPR, among other relevant provisions of international instruments cited, to which Cameroon is a party to. 37. The Complainants further submitted that rape amounts to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The Complainants argued that the term „cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment‟ is to be interpreted so as to extend to the widest possible protection against abuses, whether physical or mental. According to Complainants, rape, especially when committed against a child, has long-lasting and devastating effects that persist for years after the event. Survivors of childhood sexual trauma are at high risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, suicide, and other mental health problems. Childhood sexual trauma may also affect certain developmental processes, such as the ability to develop and maintain relationships. For instance, clinical observations have revealed that, some survivors display high-risk sexual behaviours (e.g., promiscuity) that may be attributed, in part, to modelling some of the behaviours shaped earlier in life by the perpetrator. Based on this, the Complainants submitted that the rape of a minor, such as TFA, reaches the threshold to be classified as torture and the State is complicit in this torture as it has failed to effectively investigate the crime and punish the perpetrator. 38. The Complainants also submitted that the failure from the side of the Government of Cameroon to investigate the complaints‟ applications of rape and sexual assault and the failure to provide protection and redress to the complainant constitute violations of the complainant‟s right to remedy and the Respondent State‟s obligations under article 1 of The ACRWC. Moreover, the Complainants submitted that the violence TFA suffered was an act of sexual violence, which targets women disproportionately. And hence the defilement of TFA constitutes gender-based violence which is a form of discrimination that seriously inhibits women‟s ability to enjoy and exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms on the basis of equality with men. And this impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of 7