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Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina at the United Nations (in September 2022)
Photo: Brendan Mcdermid / REUTERS
A highly controversial law is causing diplomatic tensions between the European Union and the government of Madagascar. This has demanded the return of the EU ambassador to the country, who had criticized a law to castrate child rapists.
"The Foreign Ministry of Madagascar has shown itself dissatisfied (...) and has demanded that the ambassador be replaced," said Nabila Massrali, spokeswoman for the EU Commission, to AFP on Thursday. This is now being discussed with the government of Madagascar.
The Malagasy Foreign Ministry declined to comment but said the letter should have remained confidential.
In February, both chambers of parliament in Madagascar passed a law that would require child rapists to be castrated in the future. The EU ambassador Isabelle Delattre Burger described the law as “unconstitutional”. "I don't think chemical or actual castration is a deterrent solution," she emphasized.
Amnesty speaks of “inhumane” punishment
The human rights organization Amnesty International called the punishment “cruel, inhumane and degrading.” Such a punishment violates human rights and also contradicts the laws against torture and ill-treatment in Madagascar.
At the end of February, the Constitutional Court approved the surgical castration of child rapists. The judges rejected chemical castration because it could be reversed. The bill initially proposed surgically castrating perpetrators of abuse of very young children. Chemical castration should be used when raping minors older than 13 years.
Justice Minister Landy Mbolatiana Randriamanantenasoa said in February that the country was trying to use the law to curb increasing cases of child abuse. At the time it was said that this was planned as an addition to the five years in prison currently available for child abuse in Madagascar.
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