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| Ayesha Pervez |
In
Economic & Political Weekly's March 8, 2014 issue,
Ayesha Pervez writes on
Sexual Violence and Culture of Impunity in Kashmir. Among the problems is the fact that the
Army Act 1950 gives the military power to decide whether a case shall be tried in a court-martial or a civilian criminal court. She notes that the 2013
report of the Committee on Amendments to Criminal Law headed by Justice (ret)
J.S. Verma, "suggested that members of the armed forces or uniformed personnel must be brought under the purview of ordinary criminal law if accused of sexual violence."
In the inter-American human rights system, rape of a civilian by a member of the armed forces is not considered a military offense but a human rights crime which must be investigated, prosecuted and punished by the civilian courts. See two 2010 judgments of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: Fernandez Ortega et al. v Mexico and Rosendu Cantu et al. v Mexico (www.corteidh.or.cr).
ReplyDeleteChristina M. Cerna