Madagascar’s parliament recently approved a castration law proposed by President Andry Rajoelina, which states that anyone found guilty of raping a minor (children below ten years) will be castrated and face a life sentence.
The law is one of the promises made by President Rajoelina during his 2023 election campaign before he was sworn into power.
The international community has reacted to the passing of the law with Amnesty International labelling the new law as “cruel, inhuman, and degrading.”
“In Madagascar, 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,” Regional Director of Amnesty International, East and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah, said.
“Implementing chemical and surgical castration, which constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as a punishment for those found guilty of raping minors will not solve this and is inconsistent with Malagasy constitutional provisions against torture and other ill-treatment, as well as regional and international human rights standards.”
Here are four facts about the Castration Law
- The law places chemical castration and life imprisonment as the penalty for raping a minor in Madagascar. The penalty is reduced to castration and 15 to 20 years of hard labour if the victim is between ten and 13 years old.
- Before the new bill, those found guilty of raping a minor were charged between five to 20 years of hard labour. Speaking of criminals under the new castration law, the Madagascar Minister of Justice, Landy Randriamanantenasoa, said that the “society must know what they did and who they are.”
- The major criticism of the law holds that rape crimes are underreported and hence criminals may evade punishment due to lack of trust in Madagascar’s judicial system, fear of retaliation, and stigma.
- Human Rights groups argue that the Castration law would not address the root cause of the crime of rape against minors and would also violate the country’s constitutional provisions against torture, ill-treatment and other regional and international standards of Human Rights.