A measure deemed
“cruel, inhuman and degrading”
by Amnesty International.
Madagascar passed a law this week to impose surgical or chemical castration sentences on convicted rapists of minors.
The text was adopted at the beginning of February by the National Assembly, then on Wednesday by the Senate, and must still be validated by the High Constitutional Court (HCC), before President Andry Rajoelina promulgates it.
According to the amendment consulted by AFP, a sentence of surgical castration is provided for
“against perpetrators of rape committed against a child under ten years of age”
.
But also “chemical or surgical”
castration
against rapists of children aged between ten and 13.
And chemical for rapists of minors between 13 and 18 years old.
“Cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment”
Amnesty International called on Antananarivo to
“repeal”
this text, affirming that chemical or surgical castration
“constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment”
and
“will not resolve”
the issue of child rape.
This measure is also, according to the NGO,
“not compatible with the Malagasy constitutional provisions against torture and ill-treatment, as well as with regional and international standards relating to human rights”
.
Madagascar, a large island in the Indian Ocean,
“is a sovereign country which has every right to modify its laws”
in the general interest, defended the Minister of Justice, Landy Mbolatiana Randriamanantenasoa, to AFP on Friday.
“Faced with the increase in rape, we had to act”
to
“curb”
the phenomenon, she added, specifying that last year 600 cases of rape of minors had been recorded.
“Before, the minimum sentence was five years”
in prison.
“We added an additional penalty of castration
,” which will be pronounced by the judge in addition, she said.
A “rape culture” on the island
Jessica Lolonirina Nivoseheno, of the
“Women Break the Silence”
movement , believes that there is a
“culture of rape”
on the island, where many cases
“are resolved within the family and amicably”
, and that the measures of castration could prove
“dissuasive”
.
Nciko wa Nciko, advisor for Madagascar at Amnesty, regrets, however, that this text, which poses an
“ethical problem”
, is
“not focused on the victims”
.
“Castration causes serious and irreversible harm. And we can have cases where an individual is found guilty and justice reverses the verdict and “
innocents him,” he further argues to AFP.