{"id":47795,"date":"2022-03-15T10:23:06","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T10:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47795"},"modified":"2022-03-15T10:23:06","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T10:23:06","slug":"bangladesh-to-ban-immoral-character-evidence-in-rape-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47795","title":{"rendered":"Bangladesh to ban \u2018immoral character\u2019 evidence in rape cases"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Experts say the Evidence Act, a 19th-century relic of British era, has been routinely used to discredit the survivors\u2019 testimony.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Published On 15 Mar 2022<\/span>15 Mar 2022<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Bangladesh will ban questions probing the \u201cimmoral character\u201d of rape victims<\/a> in criminal cases, authorities say, after a long campaign by rights groups against humiliating interrogations of traumatised survivors.<\/p>\n

Experts say the country\u2019s Evidence Act, a 19th-century relic of the British colonial era, has been routinely used to discredit the testimony<\/a> of survivors during court cross-examinations and police investigations.<\/p>\n

Female activists have spent more than a decade demanding the law be amended and last year a coalition of rights groups petitioned Bangladesh\u2019s top court for its repeal.<\/p>\n

\"Demonstrators<\/img>
Demonstrators hold candlelight vigil demanding justice for in a rape case, in Dhaka [File: Munir Uz Zaman\/AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Justice minister Anisul Huq said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina\u2019s cabinet has resolved to remove the character evidence provisions from the law.<\/p>\n

He said the law currently allows those accused of rape to \u201cask questions as to the immoral character of the victim\u201d but this would be banned, with parliament expected to formalise the decision by June.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is another step towards empowerment of women,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Prominent activist Nina Goswami of the local Ain o Salish Kendra rights group hailed the move as a \u201cremarkable achievement\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said character evidence had hindered justice for decades, with many survivors deciding not to seek charges against their attackers out of fear of social humiliation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will now stop,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) said character evidence had been used to cast doubt on victim testimony, making it difficult to secure guilty verdicts.<\/p>\n

Rights groups have said the number of rapes has increased alarmingly in recent years, blaming legal loopholes and a culture of impunity<\/a> for violence against women.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Experts say the Evidence Act, a 19th-century relic of British era, has been routinely used to discredit the survivors\u2019 testimony.Published On 15 Mar 202215 Mar 2022Bangladesh will ban questions probing the \u201cimmoral character\u201d of rape victims in criminal cases, authorities say, after a long campaign by rights groups against humiliating interrogations of traumatised survivors. Experts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}