Sexual Assaults and Military Justice خواتین فوجیوں پر جنسی حملے اور فوجی انصاف

خواتین فوجیوں پر جنسی حملے اور فوجی انصاف

پینٹاگون کے ایک اندازے کے مطابق سالانہ 19000 سروس ارکان  جنسی حملے ہوتے ہیں ، لیکن سال 2011  میں واقعات کا صرف ایک چھوٹا سا حصہ 3191  کیسز رپورٹ ہوئے اور ان کیسز کےصرف10 فیصد مقدمات کی سماعت آگے بڑھی ۔ مجموعی طور پر تقریبا 3 فوجی عورتوں میں سے 1 کے ساتھ جنسی زیادتی کی گئی۔ جو ایک شہرمیں پیش آنے والے واقعات سے دو گنا زیادہ ہے ۔اور سابق خواتین فوجی جو عصمت دری یا دوسرے جنسی صدموں کے نتیجے میں پوسٹ ٹرامیٹک ڈس آرڈرکی خرابی کی شکایت اور ذہنی دبائو کا شکار ہوئیں ،سابق فوجیوں کی معذوری وظائف حاصل کرنے میں بڑی  مشکل کا سامنا کرنا پڑا۔ 2011.12 تعلیمی سال کے دوران، محکمہ دفاع کے مطابق ملک کی تین ایلیٹ فوجی اکادمیوں نے جنسی حملوں کے مقدمات کی ایک ریکارڈ تعداد رپورٹ کئے ہیں۔

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A Senate Armed Services subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing on sexual assaults in the military on Wednesday, the first Senate hearing on the issue in nearly a decade. There will certainly be a lot to talk about.


The Pentagon estimates as many as 19,000 service members are assaulted annually, but only a small fraction of the incidents — 3,191 in 2011 — get reported and about 10 percent of those cases proceed to trial. In all, around 1 in 3 military women has been sexually assaulted, a rate twice as high as the civilian rate. And veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of rape or other sexual trauma have a hard time collecting veterans’ disability benefits. During the 2011-12 academic year, the nation’s three elite military academies reported a record number of sexual assault cases, according to the Defense Department.

The hearing, convened by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat of New York, is scheduled to include testimony from sexual assault victims and military leaders and comes at a moment of both historic progress and fresh outrages. In a move for equality, the Pentagon finally ended its ban on women in combat in January. Meantime, the Air Force is dealing with the still-unfolding scandal at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, where basic-training instructors sexually harassed, improperly touched or raped more than 60 recruits between 2009 and 2012.

In another disturbing case, Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin, an Air Force commander, dismissed without explanation the aggravated sexual assault conviction of an Air Force fighter pilot, Lt. Col. James Wilkerson. General Franklin used his discretion under the Uniform Code of Military Justice to unilaterally overturn the jury verdict, permitting Colonel Wilkerson’s reinstatement in the Air Force.

This inexplicable decision has rightly prompted two Democratic senators, Barbara Boxer of California and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, to call on Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to begin an internal inquiry into the “travesty of justice.” In a letter released on Monday, Mr. Hagel said he was reviewing the case, though under military rules, General Franklin’s decision cannot be reversed. Mr. Hagel also said he wanted to review whether the military should change the way it handles sexual assault cases. That review is clearly overdue.

The Wilkerson case highlights the broader military justice problem of allowing senior commanders power to decide whether criminal charges are brought against their subordinates and whether to throw out a verdict once it is rendered. Charging decisions should be left to an independent prosecutorial authority. Victims of assault, long discouraged from reporting attacks, should not have to complain to their bosses, and rely on them for justice. The Senate hearing should begin the process of reform.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/opinion/sexual-assaults-and-military-justice.html?ref=opinion

A version of this editorial appeared in print on March 13, 2013, on page A24 of the New York edition with the headline: Sexual Assaults and Military Justice.

Also read a related article - http://womensstudiesjmu.wikispaces.com/Sexual+Assault+of+Women+in+the+Military,+by+Joe+Endress+and+Lexy+Mayer