Lebanese legislations promote sexual assault, torture and domestic violence

Following the monstrous recent assault against an underage girl from Akkar (http://bit.ly/29I4W9t), As Safir daily analyzed, in its edition of today, Lebanon’s official approach to sex crimes, mainly rape, criticizing the relaxed and soft attitude of the law, the justice system and spiritual leaders towards the issue. While recalling the law related to domestic violence, the newspaper stated that while the law did not observe marital rape as a criminal offense, it only incriminated the physical injury resulting from the act after it has been medically confirmed. In this respect, As Safir focused on Article 522 of the Penal Code of the year 1943, which provides for exemption of the rapist from punishment if he married his victim, and described it as the mother of all evils. The said article, it should be noted, tackles the subjects of rape, deflowering a virgin, kidnapping, sexual harassment, forced sexual intercourse and exploiting the vulnerability of the victim. The newspaper also brought up the domestic violence related law, namely Article 503 of the Penal Code, which supports the punishment to a minimum five-year in hard labor, any person who forces a woman, who is not his wife, to sexual intercourse by use of violence or intimidation. For coercing the wife is perceived as normal from the religious perspective, the newspaper went on to say, and is exhausted by the Lebanese legislator to expedite penalizing the acts of rape. In a related vein, Human Rights Watch issued a statement on Tuesday which read: ‘Dignity Debased: Forced Anal Examinations in Homosexuality Prosecutions”. The report recorded incidences, over the past five years, of men and women who were forced to undergo anal and vaginal tests, in addition to cases of sexual assaults  of women accused of homosexuality, in at least 8 countries, including Lebanon. The organization considered such tests, “which lack evidentiary value, as a form of cruel, demeaning and inhuman treatment or an act of punishment that could reach, in some incidents, plain torture.” According to the report, the victims who were forced to undergo anal examinations stated that the tests were painful and humiliating, and some described them as one form of sexual violence. The report was based on interviews with 32 men and woman transsexuals in each of Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda and Zambia. (As Safir, L’Orient Le Jour, July 13, 2016)

For full report, please check: (https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/07/12/dignity-debased/forced-anal-examinations-homosexuality-prosecutions)