Draft rape law sparks chemical castration debate in Turkey

[derLowe]

Draft rape law sparks chemical castration debate in Turkey

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News | 2/10/2011 12:00:00 AM | ÖZGÜR ÖĞRET
A new draft law increasing punishments for sexual crimes in Turkey has sparked debate over chemical castration for repeat rape offenders.
A new draft law increasing punishments for sexual crimes has sparked debate on whether chemical castration for repeat rape offenders is a violation of human rights or an appropriate treatment for the mentally ill.
The issue, which is much debated in Europe and the United States as well, has been the most controversial part of the draft law announced Wednesday by a group of deputies with the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP. Most of the discussion has centered on whether the measure should be offered as an option to offenders instead of prison time or carried out without their consent.
Under the draft law, a first rape offense would be punished with a prison term, as is the case under the current law. If the offense were repeated a second time, the chemical castration process would be started.
When the word “castration,” is mentioned, people think of physically removing all or part of the genitals, but the measure for sex offenders would be a medical one consisting of hormone treatments, Professor Ersi Abacı Kalfoğlu, Turkey’s first professor of forensic genetics and founder of the country’s first rape crisis center, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Thursday.
Lawyer Orhan Kemal Cengiz, the president of Human Rights Agenda Association, said the proposed punishment is “unacceptable” even if the offender agrees to it. “Modern law has agreed that people cannot be punished sexually,” he said, calling the practice a violation of “body integrity.”
Cengiz said he is against the death penalty because it is an irreversible punishment and that cannot be changed or revoked if it is found after the execution that a misjudgment had occurred during the trial. He put chemical castration in the same category, although other experts have said the process can be reversed.
Lawyer and women’s rights activist Hülya Gülbahar said she was “cautious” on the issue, saying the practice reminds her of “primitive” punishment methods such as the death penalty, though she said sex offenders should be treated medically and psychologically when required. “However, castration, either medically or surgically, would feed or provoke the culture of mob vengeance,” she said.
In order to “come to a healthy decision,” Gülbahar said, opinions on the matter should be taken from nongovernmental organizations focusing on women’s and children’s rights as well as psychology, psychiatry and law experts. “It is a very critical proposal. It should not be made hastily,” she said.
Saying she is in contact with the deputies who introduced the draft law, Professor Kalfoğlu said they did not come up with the idea on their own, but by examining the practices in different countries. England, Sweden, Denmark and Canada, as well as the U.S. states of Texas and California, ask offenders to choose between a prison term or chemical castration.
“I believe it is a practice that can be supported,” Kalfoğlu said, adding that repeated rape offenses are a crime that has certain characteristics of a “disease” that “cannot be prevented in any other way.” The other choice is lifetime imprisonment to isolate the offender, she said, adding that if the desire to commit sex crimes could be removed from an offender’s life, he could be a productive member of society.
Although she understands why the lawyers would want to be “cautious,” Kalfoğlu said she does not agree with the negative reactions to the idea of implementing the measure.

An interesting idea, I wonder if it ever got passed.

[Hayalet]

I wonder if it ever got passed.

It didn't.