Indonesia punishes abusers with chemical castration

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has regulated the implementation of chemical castration for child molesters in his country, after Parliament first approved the initiative in 2016.

The project was approved five years ago after protests over a child rape case, while in 2019 it was used for the first time on a man convicted of raping multiple children.

Chemical castration, which is legal in the United States and parts of Europe, uses injections to reduce testosterone levels and sexual arousal. The effects may wear off unless the injection is given every three months. Offenders will submit to this practice once they have served their prison sentence for the offense in question.

According to the new guidelines approved by Widodo, sex offenders will be eligible for castration if their victims have died, assaulted multiple children, spread sexually transmitted diseases, or caused mental disorders, serious injury or reproductive harm to the victims. Sentenced sex offenders will only receive treatment for a maximum of two years.

The regulations, signed by the Indonesian head of state on December 7, also set out other forms of punishment for convicted child sex offenders, such as public disclosure of the identities of offenders and electronic surveillance to the using implanted chips after their release. the prison.

Prior to the implementation of castration, teams of medical experts will perform a clinical examination to assess whether the punishment can be applied. If the answer is no, it will lead to a new study.

From the health sector, they indicated that this procedure it could lead to a number of side effects, including osteoporosis, anemia, cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline, which worries some human rights activists.

“Child sexual abuse is horrible, but subjecting offenders to chemical castration or execution is not justice; is to add one cruelty to another ”, he said Nurina Savitri, Campaign and Media Director of Amnesty International in Indonesia, through a statement.

In this sense, he added that this measure “violates the International Convention on Human Rights against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” and pointed out that since the castration was approved in 2016 in Indonesia, sexual violence against children has increased.

The procedure was recently approved in Pakistan and is also used in Ukraine, United Kingdom, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Russia, Poland, and some states in the United States.