Groups known as "family councils" are encouraging Nicaraguan rape victims to marry their aggressors, the Managua-based newspaper La Prensa reported.

In two cases that involved victims as young as 14, the girls' parents decided to turn them into the brides of the alleged rapists, who were more than 30 years of age, Martha Munguía, the director of the women's center Acción Ya, told the newspaper.

Even though sexual assault is a crime in the Central American country, the "family councils" suggestions are supported by a presidential order. They encourage families to consider "solving" rape cases through marriages instead of by filing criminal complaints, victims' families told the women's group, Munguía revealed.

In one case, a woman brought her granddaughter to an Acción Ya center because the girl suffered emotional problems after having been married off to an aggressor, the director said. The victim did not want to remain with the man to whom she was legally bound, Munguía explained.

"This brings us back to the time before the reform of Law 150 of the Criminal Code here in Nicaragua," Munguía insisted. "In other words, we are going backward more than three decades in managing (such violence)."

Law 150 establishes that rape will be punished with two to five years of prison time in the country. In the case of victims below the age of 14, the sentence can be as high as ten years behind bars.

But enforcement of the statute has been complex due to societal norms, said Lorna Norori, of Nicaragua's Movement Against Sexual Assault. Oftentimes, officials at police stations and prosecutor's offices suggest that victims marry their aggressor to "save the girl's honor," Norori explained.

And the efforts of the "family councils" may further aggravate the problem, Munguia said and Norori agreed. The women said that fewer and fewer victims file reports when they suffer sexual violence.

"There are fewer people because they are being sent to first fix the community," Norori said.

The activists are fighting the presidential decree they say legitimizes violence against women. The order, knows as "Executive Decree 42-2014," which helped create the "family councils, is unconstitutional, Munguia as Norori insisted.

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