WORLD NEWS: MADAGASCAR PASSES BILL TO CASTRATE CHILD RAPE OFFENDERS
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Amnesty International called the new bill that would castrate juvenile rapists “cruel, inhuman, and degrading,” but Madagascar’s justice minister defended it on Friday.
After being passed by the National Assembly earlier this month, the bill authorising chemical and surgical castration was adopted by the upper chamber of the Senate on Wednesday.
According to Amnesty International, Antananarivo should abandon the draft law since it won’t address the paedophilia issue.However, Landy Mbolatiana Randriamanantenasoa, the minister of justice, told AFP that the sizable island in the Indian Ocean “is a sovereign country that has every right to amend its laws.”
“Faced with the resurgence of rape, we had to act,” she added, saying there were 600 rapes of minors recorded last year.
Up till now the minimum sentence for child rape was five years’ imprisonment, the minister added.
According to the measure, which AFP saw, “perpetrators of rape committed on a child under the age of 10” will be punished with surgical castration.For those who rape children between the ages of 10 and 13, it permits “chemical or surgical” castration; for those who rape minors between the ages of 13 and 18, it permits chemical castration.
Before President Andry Rajoelina signs the bill into law, it must still be approved by the High Constitutional Court.
Amnesty’s regional director Tigere Chagutah said legal castration was “inconsistent with Malagasy constitutional provisions against torture and other ill-treatment, as well as regional and international human rights standards.”
But Jessica Lolonirina Nivoseheno, of the Women Break the Silence movement, said castration could be a “deterrent” to a “rape culture” on the island, where many cases “are settled amicably within the family”.
Amnesty said “rape cases remain under-reported, and perpetrators often go free due to the victims’ and their families’ fear of retaliation, stigmatisation, and a lack of trust in the judicial system.”
Its Madagascar adviser Nciko wa Nciko criticised the law for failing to “focus on the victims”.
“Castration causes serious and irreversible harm. And we can have cases where an individual is found guilty and the courts (then) go back on the verdict and clear his name”, he told AFP.
AFP
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