The Supreme Court of Pakistan has ratified this Friday the death sentence handed down against a man for raping an eight-year-old girl, amid complaints about the lack of accountability for the numerous violations in the Central Asian country.
The court has rejected the appeal filed by the defendant, Ali Haider, and has confirmed the sentence issued by a court of first instance, as reported by the Pakistani television channel Geo TV.
According to official statistics for 2020, eleven rapes were reported in the country a day, with more than 22,000 cases in the year, although the stigma associated with these events leads many victims not to go to the authorities.
Complaints have also increased due to the numerous cases of violations against minors in the country. According to the NGO Sahil, more than 1,500 children were raped in 2020 in Pakistan. Pakistani Human Rights Minister Shirin Mazari pointed out in November the existence of “a beastly way of thinking” that “continues to sweep away society.”
Faced with this situation, the President of Pakistan, Arif Alvi, approved a new anti-rape law in December that authorizes the country’s courts to order the chemical castration of convicts and create courts to speed up the processes.
The law provides for the creation of a registry of sex offenders and prohibits the publication of the identities of the victims, while police officers and officials who show “negligence” when investigating the cases could be sentenced to up to three years’ imprisonment. jail.
Alvi’s approval means the government now has four months to get Parliament’s green light for enactment, after Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Jan promised in November “tough and holistic anti-rape measures to shut down all the holes “existing in the legislation.
On the other hand, the Supreme Court prohibited in January the so-called “two-finger tests” carried out by medical personnel to determine whether a woman has been raped, after declaring them as “illegal and unconstitutional” and emphasizing that they are not scientific and not they are medically based.
