The US president signed a decree on Wednesday, making this type of violence in the army a crime and only a crime.
Le Monde with AFP
US President Joe Biden signed a decree reforming military justice to make sexual violence in the army a crime and only a crime after years of unsuccessful attempts from the Pentagon to fight against this Scourge.
The objective of this decree is to “make sexual harassment a crime according to the Code of Military Justice and to strengthen the response of the military to the domestic violence and the dissemination or distribution of unjustable intimate images”, Tweeted US President .
This decree provided for in the 2022 budget of the Pentagon makes the law “I am Vanessa Guillen” of the name of a 20-year-old soldier murdered in 2020 on a large American military base after being a victim of sexual harassment.
The young soldier had told his family that she did not trust her hierarchy to follow up a complaint for sexual harassment, and her relatives had publicly doubted the determination of the army to investigate her Disappearance, until his dismembered body is finally discovered. A dozen officers had been limited a few months later.
Specialized Attorneys
The law provides that sexual assault, domestic violence and aggression on minors will be judged before a court martial and the decision to prosecute the authors will be entrusted to specialized prosecutors – who remain to be appointed – and no longer to the chain of command .
The US military had so far resisted, invoking the need to maintain control over discipline in the ranks. But the number of sexual assaults does not weaken, the American Minister of Defense, Lloyd Austin, instructed an independent commission to submit suggestions for the perpetrators of sexual violence in the army to be more effectively pursued.
The Commission concluded that withdrawing the decision to pursue or not the authors of sexual violence was the only solution. In addition, instead of incorporating simple administrative sanctions as was the case so far, the authors will be subject to prison sentences.