fight against sexual violence
US President Biden tightens military criminal law
01/27/2022, 11:28 am
So far, sexual harassment in the military has only been considered a crime – but that is set to change in the future. After a US soldier was molested and murdered in 2020, the “I am Vanessa Guillen” law now comes into force. Offenders face imprisonment.
In the fight against sexual violence in the US military, US President Joe Biden has tightened criminal law. He signed an executive order to Biden that would make sexual harassment a criminal offense in military law instead of just a misdemeanor. The perpetrators now face imprisonment. The goal is to “strengthen the military’s response to domestic violence and the unwarranted dissemination or distribution of intimate images,” the president tweeted.
With this decree, the “I am Vanessa Guillen” law comes into effect. It is named after a 20-year-old female soldier who was murdered at a major US military base in 2020 after being sexually harassed. Before her murder, she had told her family that she did not trust her superiors to investigate a complaint. The family had criticized the army for not investigating Guillen’s disappearance vigorously enough until her dismembered body was found. A dozen officers were later fired in connection with this.
Use of specialized prosecutors
The decree stipulates that sexual assault, domestic violence and assaults on minors by military personnel will be tried by a court-martial and that the decision to prosecute the perpetrators will be left to specialized prosecutors and no longer to the chain of command.
Biden pushed through the law against opposition from the army, which refused to be deprived of control over disciplinary measures. However, an independent commission of the Ministry of Defense had concluded that the only effective way to combat the rampant sexual violence was to remove the decision-making power for the prosecution of suspected perpetrators from the military hierarchy.