Bangladesh
Rape Cabinet mulling capital punishment for rapists
Dhaka, 9 October 2020: A draft of the amended ‘Women and Child Repression Act, 2000’, which raises the death penalty for rape, is being sent to the cabinet for approval. Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq made the announcement on Thursday (October 8).
Under the Women and Child Repression Act, the maximum punishment for rape is now life imprisonment.
The government took the step amid a nationwide movement against rape and violence against women and a demand for the death penalty for rapists.
The law minister said a proposal to amend the Women and Child Repression Act, 2000 was going to the next cabinet meeting.
Basically section 9 (1) of the law will be changed.
Under this section, the punishment for rape will be increased from life imprisonment to death.
Small changes are also being made in a few other places in this law. '
The law minister also said that the initiative to amend the law has been taken under the direction of the Prime Minister.
Section 9 (1) of the act states, "If a man rapes a woman or a child, he shall be punishable with life imprisonment and with an additional fine."
Recently, the number of rapes has increased in different parts of the country.
Among them, a video of a housewife (37) being stripped naked and tortured in Noakhali on October 4 went viral on social media.
However, the incident took place in Eklashpur union of Begumganj upazila in early September.
After this incident became known, protests erupted against rape and violence against women all over the country, including the capital.
Law enforcers arrested those involved.
Protesters are demanding the death penalty for rapists.
