Violation of Human Rights: Rape as a Crime


Yesterday afternoon, on my way back home from work, I heard about an incident on the radio. It was casually announced that a 17-year old teenager named Anene Booysen was "viciously" raped and mutilated in her home town of Bredasdorp, Western Cape, South Africa. Before she passed away, she managed to name her ex-boyfriend as one of the rapists. It would appear, as there were many suspects, that she was gang-raped. At this point, two men had been arrested and will be brought before court next week.

 After hearing this  announcement, the country was up in arms and the African National Congress (ANC) Women's League commenced intense political action against rape, demanding that more awareness and "harsher punishments" to be handed down by the courts for such crimes. LEAD SA, a 94.7 initiative, also commenced public action.

 The two statistics that frightened me the most were announced as well and these were:
  1. One in every three women in South Africa will be raped during their lifetime; and
  2. Every four minutes, a rape incident is reported to the police.
As a woman who has some experience in this field, I was brought to my knees when I heard the statistics. The chilling silence that followed when someone asked, "that means that between that four-minute interval, there are unreported rapes" was unbearable. One of the radio DJs mentioned that listeners had reportedly complained about all the people who called in, sharing their stories of their rape incidents, and that the listeners could not bear to hear anymore so they turned off the radio.

Two very important realisations hit me then:
  1. What would the implications be of the new legislation aimed at limiting the powers and privileges of our media have on the ability of our courts and police to stop the incidence of rape?
  2. The fact that people struggle to hear about rape being committed is a small consequence compared to what the victim of a rape has to experience for the rest of her life.
A lot of women have been raped by their fathers and their family members. Just by hearing this, it should give you, the reader, an indication of the seriousness that this crime requires. If you consider any accompanying threats that follow after a victim has been raped, then you, the reader, should also realise that there are probably more unreported incidents of rape than reported because of a fear of facing the rapist.

My point is this: yes, a harsher punishment should be handed down for convicted rapists. What would that punishment be which is humane enough to pass the test of our Constitutional Bill of Human Rights? What, in my opinion, needs to take place is that the government (its legislative and executive branches), who have a fiduciary duty to protect the public, need to facilitate a public consultation which would be aimed at trying to formulate a punishment harsh enough to deter further incidents of rape and pass the test contained in Section 36 of our Constitution (that of justified limitation of human rights).

Why is rape so special that it needs it own special form of punishment to be formulated which surpasses the test for humanness as per our Constitutional Bill of Human Rights? Think about the consequences that flow from rape:
  1. Pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases: many women fall pregnant from incidents of rape and are  either against or ignorant of abortion. Even worse, the rapist himself may be carrying traces of sexually transmitted diseases which he then selfishly transfers to his victim. The nation itself then becomes prey to these problems. With South Africa having a high pregnancy rate, low literacy rate, and especially low employment rate, with questionable public medical care, this is a risk which ought not to be taken lightly.
  2. Women Abuse Increases and their Empowerment Fails: without proper recognition of the effects of rape on women, especially at a time when women themselves are starting to realise their worth in society and come into their own, a regressive period would ensue where women would once again become victims of male dominance and their abuse of power. This is not to say that every man will be like this (I am not so arrogant as to believe this). This is to say that women will become too vulnerable to perpetuate a mentality of self confidence and determination to stand up to their potential male dominance which then leads to rape.
There are many more reasons why rape as a crime ought to be given special and diligent consideration. This is just meant to spark a debate amongst the readers - and I do pray that more awareness and comment is given to what I have said. I am not alone in this, I am sure of it.

Eventually, I hope that this process will be followed in all countries, especially in India where the incidence of rape is slightly less, if not equal, to that of South Africa. In fact, women in India are treated in such a derogatory manner that there are far more issues which need to be highlighted than what meets the public eye.

I trust that this article will be given its proper consideration in determining the way forward.

Aleisha Singh

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Does She Do It?

Many people ask me how I handle family cases on a daily basis and am still sane enough to label it as one of my specialisations. Here is the secret to my sanity. Naturally, what I do is fraught with emotions, from start to finish. There is not a single case that I have dealt with that does not have an element of emotions involved. Learning how to deal with these " third-party emotions " is part of the tricks of our trade. Some attorneys do it well, others do not. Even Judges have been known to "descend into the arena" from time to time! It is not only third-party emotions that we need to manage; we also have emotional triggers within ourselves that find themselves erupting at inopportune or unnecessary times. But is it not true that every occupation has a certain element of emotion? How people react to stress, for example, exhibits emotions that other people are often tasked with managing. So how do they do it? I believe that the key to handling emot
Read more

How do I evict a Tennent from my Commercial Premises?

Firstly, PIE is exclusively for housing usage and finds no application to the removal of juristic persons from commercial premises. Secondly, ESTA also very rarely finds application to commercial property usage. Even if the property being rented is a residential property but for the business use, or a commercial property not for commercial use, the question to ask is “ how is the property being used? For residential or commercial uses?” [1] This question gives rise to two important aspects to consider: (1)     The first is the use of the term “ dwelling or shelter ,” neither of which is used to describe a commercial property. (2)     The second is the use of the term “ residing ” which applies to all persons who, through consequentially means, occupy the property. There is no piece of legislation that governs commercial evictions and property usage. Therefore, commercial evictions and property usage are (to a large extent) exclusively based on the terms of the leas
Read more

Can the Hague Convention help me see my child?

The ever-present problem of child abduction persists in many countries. “Abductions” has a wide meaning in terms of Child Law to include keeping a child away in another country from a parent who has rights to see his/her child. South Africa became a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction on 1 October 1997 (“the Convention”). Prior to the Convention, even if a parent had a court-ordered right to a child, it was exceptionally difficult to enforce that right outside of the Country which granted the order, being it of ‘access’ or ‘custody.’ The major limitation with respect to the Convention is that it is only applicable to countries who are signatories to it and whom therefore have an obligation to ratify the Convention into its own law. These countries are called “Contracting States.” This means that each country that agreed to abide by the Convention must create its own ‘local’ laws to give effect to the Convention, so that their o
Read more