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UGANDA: Death penalty for HIV-positive child sex offenders |
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Monday, 23 April 2007 |
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KAMPALA,
19 April 2007 (PlusNews) - According to a new law passed by Uganda's
parliament on Wednesday, an HIV-positive person who wilfully infects a
minor through sexual intercourse will face the death penalty.
According
to the new Penal Code Amendment Bill, an individual who is aware of
their HIV-positive status and has sex with a child under the age of 14,
with or without their consent, is guilty of "aggravated defilement"
and, on conviction in the High Court, "liable to suffer death". The
crime of defilement is defined as sex with a person under the age of
14.
Parliament unanimously passed the bill, first tabled in
August 2006, but parliamentary spokeswoman Helen Kawesa said it needed
presidential assent to become law, which usually takes about 30 days.
The
proposed legislation seeks to amend the existing penal code, which has
been criticised for being too lenient with HIV-positive people who rape
children. Capital punishment has been the penalty for anyone found
guilty of rape or defilement since 1996, but has never been
implemented.
Some children's rights groups are hopeful that
the proposed new law will deter HIV-positive sexual predators from
victimising children.
According to Topher Mugumya, programme coordinator for research, information and advocacy at the Uganda chapter of the African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect
(ANPPCAN), the widespread myth that having sex with a young child can
"cleanse" one of the HI virus has led to a spike in child rape by
HIV-positive men.
"About 10,000 cases of defilement are
reported to the police every year; this [proposed law] is a welcome
development," Mugumya told IRIN/PlusNews.
But some human
rights groups were opposed to the new legislation. "We are of the view
that the death penalty for defilers is unacceptable, and amounts to
cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment," said Livinstone Sewanyana,
executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative
(FHRI), a human rights advocacy group. "It is also discriminatory
against people infected with HIV."
Sewanyana told
IRIN/PlusNews that his organisation had submitted a position paper to
parliament proposing life sentences as an alternative punishment for
people found guilty of the crime.
The bill also provides for
offenders to pay victims reparations, determined by the court, for
physical, sexual and psychological harm. Currently, defilement cases
are often settled out of court, with the offender paying the victim's
family a small fee or giving gifts of livestock and other commodities.
"This
is also good progress; before, the parents of a defiled child would
experience a double loss," Mugumya said. "Their child would be defiled,
and they would spend time and money on a court case that might not even
return a judgement in their favour."
He added that more
fundamental changes to Uganda's legal system were needed before the
victims of defilement could take full advantage of the proposed new
law.
"The reported cases represent only those families who
have access to the legal system," he said. "For instance, most courts
are in towns, out of reach of the majority of defiled children, and the
cases take so long that families sometimes lose interest before a
verdict is delivered."
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