SL among South Asian countries where sexual violence on rise

The study reveals from the data gathered  Researchers, who analyzed six nations spanning from Bangladesh to Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, India, and Sri Lanka, warned rape survivors and their families are pushed into informal community mediation, as well as facing victim-blaming, threats, bribery, being sacked or evicted, or enduring yet more violence.

 

Over 60 percent of victims in Bangladesh, India and Nepal polled said they had to deal with attempts to make them settle or compromise their case.

 

While researchers found rape victims are subjected to the “two-finger test” which campaigners describe as an “unscientific, intrusive and re-traumatising vaginal examination” conducted on the erroneous idea the procedure can decipher if a women or girl’s rape claims are true.

 

The report states the examinations, which are carried out in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka and involves a health professional medical putting two fingers into the vagina, are often utilised to claim the woman is lying.

 

The report states: “The test is often used to declare rape survivors as ‘habituated to sex’. The medical evidence of past intercourse is used to cast doubt on the rape allegation, either to suggest a survivor lied about the rape, to imply that the rape wasn’t harmful or to suggest the moral impropriety of the survivor and therefore her lack of entitlement to justice.

 

“If the hymen is still intact, the test is used to declare that rape could not have taken place, though it is scientifically proven that rape can take place without breaking the hymen.

 

“From a human rights perspective, conducting a test on rape victims that has no probative value is a violation of the personal integrity of the women and girls and could cause further trauma to these rape survivors.”

 

Lengthy delays in police investigations, medical examinations, prosecutions and trials were found to be a prevalent issue, while reports of police officers simply refusing to either record a complaint or investigate allegations are also commonplace.

 

In Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, people interviewed for the research warned individuals in the criminal justice system are open to bribery.