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On February 2, Malagasy deputies adopted the bill establishing new rules for child rapists such as castration. 

The deputies meeting in extraordinary session adopted on February 2, without amendments, the bill tabled by the government and amending articles of the penal code relating to rape and other sexual assaults. Castration has thus been validated for child rapists. 

“The reform of this law stems from awareness of the increasing number of sexual crimes committed against minor children,” it is explained in a press release from the lower house. “Its objective is to establish deterrence by introducing new sanctions and more rigorous repressions,” we read. “The law redefines the notion of rape and organizes penalties according to the age of the victims, while seeking to neutralize sexual predators by the introduction of surgical or chemical castration,” it is further detailed. 

Depending on the age of the victim, surgical castration may be ordered. 

The old code provided for between five and twenty years of forced labor for perpetrators of rape. Now, the new code now establishes life imprisonment and surgical castration for people found guilty of raping a minor under the age of ten. 

If the victim is aged ten to thirteen years, the defendant will have to undergo chemical castration in addition to a sentence of 15 to 20 years of forced labor. This sentence will be between 10 and 20 years if the victim is between 13 and 18 years old. On the other hand, if the perpetrator is a minor, he will escape any castration. 

These measures, which some consider radical, are a campaign promise of the President of the Republic Andry Rajoelina, recalls the Le Quotidien website. 

In the process, the rights organization Amnesty International called on Madagascar to abolish the new law, which it describes as “cruel, inhumane and degrading”.