society carry out various anti-GBV education and awareness raising programmes. 32. In order to address the poverty and economic dependence that predispose women and girls to exploitation, violence and abuse, economic empowerment for women and girls have been put in place at all levels from the grassroots. The promotion of women’s economic rights has enhanced women’s access and control over economic resources, which were among key contributors to ending violence against women. Research in the country has shown that when women depend economically on their partners, they are more vulnerable to abuse and violence. Poverty also forces some women and girls into subsistence sex work with limited negotiating power to use condoms, thereby exposing them to a high risk of HIV/AIDS infection. 33. Ignorance and insufficient knowledge and understanding of rights and laws put women and girls at risk of VAW. They are, for example unable to take advantage of the protection provided for in the GBV and similar laws. The existence of Access to Justice Office (AJO) at district level and the legal support and sensitization carried out countrywide by the Government and NGOs have greatly enhanced women and girls’ awareness of their rights and protection under the law and given them courage to seek protection. 34. Based on the available information, cases related to women trafficking in Rwanda are not common. However, the Government has put in place preventive mechanisms for any case that may arise. For example, the Organic Law n° 01/2012/OL instituting the Penal Code, in its art. 252, stipulates punishment, of between seven years to ten years, for offences of abduction, arrest, detention or transporting any person in order to make them slaves, sell them as slaves force them into begging, illegally adopt them on payment of a consideration, take them indecent pictures, in dangerous sports, in armed conflicts, live together as husband and wife for the purpose of torturing them or selling their organs. Though, the Ministry of Justice initiated the draft of at human trafficking training manual which will help in the prevention of such immoral behaviour. Page 77 of 105