President signs ordinance on capital punishment for rape
President Mohammad Abdul Hamid today promulgated an ordinance increasing the maximum punishment for rape to death from life imprisonment, reports Somoy TV.
Earlier on Monday, the cabinet approved the draft of the "Women and Children Repression Prevention (Amendment) Ordinance 2020", incorporating the provision of capital punishment for the heinous crime in the face of countrywide protests against violence towards women.
The decision came amid the growing protests against recent incidents of rape, sexual harassment and violence against women in the country. According to the local human rights organization Ain-o-Salish Kendra (ASK), between January and September 2020, at least 975 rape cases were reported in Bangladesh, including 208 gang-rapes.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
According to the list published by The World Population Review based on the number of rape incidents per 100,000 citizens in 2020, rape incidents have been reported at 9.82 per 1 lakh in Bangladesh.
It is 1.8 In India and 0.8 in Nepal, which is the lowest in the region. According to it, Liechtenstein, the European principality, stands at the top of the list of countries with the least reported rape cases.
Egypt stands second on the list with the rate of rape incidents at 0.10 per one lakh. South Africa ranks top with the highest rape rate at 132.40 per one lakh.
Citing Bangladesh and India's experiences, experts say there is no such evidence that proves that rape will stop if there is a provision in the law to give rapists the death sentence.
In 1995, three policemen were hanged to death in the Yesmin rape and murder case due to the countrywide movement, protesting the incident in Bangladesh. But rape has not stopped.
In India, after the Nirbhaya case in 2012, Nirbhaya, the female medical student, was brutally gang-raped on a bus in Delhi, people all over India demanded the death penalty for the rapists. Following this much-talked-about rape incident in India, death sentences on rapists were declared in 2013.
