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Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina has yet to sign the new law
Photo: BERTRAND GUAY / AFP
In Madagascar, perpetrators of sexual abuse of children will be castrated in the future, according to a new law. After the lower house, the Senate also voted for a corresponding bill on Wednesday. Convicted rapists of minors should therefore be surgically or chemically castrated. Before President Andry Rajoelina can sign the law, it must be reviewed by the Constitutional Court.
The sentence would be in addition to the five years in prison currently available for child abuse in Madagascar. The bill calls for surgically castrating abusers of very young children. Chemical castration would be used to rape minors older than 13 years.
“Cruel, inhumane and degrading”
Justice Minister Landy Mbolatiana Randriamanantenasoa told the AFP news agency on Friday that the country was trying to curb increasing cases of child abuse with the law.
The human rights organization Amnesty International, however, described the planned castrations as “cruel, inhumane and degrading.” Such a punishment violates human rights and also contradicts the laws against torture and ill-treatment in Madagascar.
kfr/AFP