Cabinet approves ‘conditional chemical castration’ of rapists. What does it mean?
The draft suggested the chemical castration of first or repeated offenders subject to the criminal's consent as a form of rehabilitation.
- The Cabinet has suggested two anti-rape ordinances that called for the chemical castration of rapists with the convict’s consent.
- According to the law, if castration is ordered without the convict’s consent, he might challenge this before a court.
The approved Anti-Rape law proposes that the chemical castration of habitual rape offenders will be performed with the convict’s consent.
The Federal Minister of Law and Justice, Dr. Mohammad Farogh Naseem, chaired the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Legislative Cases to approve the Anti-Rape Ordinance 2020 and the Criminal Law Ordinance 2020 on Thursday.
The committee then approved both ordinances, which will be sanctioned as a law after approval from President Arif Alvi.
The draft suggested the chemical castration of first or repeated offenders subject to the criminal’s consent as a form of rehabilitation.
Conditional Castration
Dr. Naseem said that taking the consensus of the convict for castration is obligatory under international law. If chemical castration is ordered without consent, the convict might challenge this in a court of law.
The Minister added that if the offender disagrees to be castrated, he would be dealt with according to the Pakistan Penal Code. The law states either a death sentence, or life imprisonment, or 25 years in jail for such cases.
He also mentioned that it would be up to the court to decide the penalty, adding that it might order castration for either a limited period or a lifetime.
The federal government intends to establish special courts to conduct speedy trials of rape cases by disseminating the two ordinances.
Earlier this month, the Prime Minister Imran Khan constituted a three-member committee that comprised the Parliamentary Secretary for Law, Barrister Maleeka Bukhari, the Law Secretary, Raja Naeem Akbar, and consultant Barrister Ambreen Abbasi, to finalize the two ordinances.
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