Child rapists will now undergo surgical castration

A controversial decision. Madagascar’s High Constitutional Court on February 23 upheld and upheld a bill passed by the country’s parliament establishing castration for rapists against minors. The sentence of chemical castration will now be automatically imposed “Against the perpetrators of the rape of a girl under ten years old”

. However, it will be left to the judges’ discretion for elderly victims.

Magistrates of the HCC went further than the parliamentarians’ initial request. The first version of the text actually imposed the penalty of surgical or chemical castration. However, the magistrates thought that chemical castration, “Having a temporary and irreversible character”Went against will “To definitely disable” Child criminals.

But the decision angered some organizations who saw it as an inappropriate response. This particular approval “Disparages the stereotypical image of the rapist”Gold “Madagascar has a culture of rape that takes place in homes, in the immediate environment of children and adolescents”.lamented Marie-Christina Colo, who founded the Women Break the Silence movement, according to our colleagues the world

.

“Right to Change One’s Law”

Even before the text was ratified, the NGO Amnesty International condemned it “Cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment”. These sentences are not consistent “Malagasy constitutional provisions against torture and ill-treatment, apart from regional and international human rights standards”she added.

The Minister of Justice, Landy Mbolatiana Rendrimanantesoa, however, said Madagascar “A sovereign country that has every right to change its laws.” in the common interest. “Faced with rise in rape, we have to act” for “break” The incident, she continued, topped the list of 600 cases of rape of minors last year.