Women want better definition of rape

Rape is a violent attack on the physical and mental integrity of a woman and its legal definition should be amended to reflect this, according to the Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations.

The law defines rape and violent indecent assault as crimes against the honour of the family and not as crimes against the victim and the organisation is insisting on a redefinition.

Both crimes should be declared crimes against the physical and mental integrity of women and as a form of discrimination that seriously inhibited women’s ability to enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedom on a basis of gender parity.

“There needs to be clear-cut criteria defining the law rather than leaving it open to the perception that society degrades women to the status of a family chattel rather than promote women as human beings with their own rights,” the confederation said.

It criticised a recent court judgement in which a man was jailed four years for rape. A 46-year-old deputy nursing officer at Mount Carmel Hospital was found guilty of raping a 17-year-old cleaner inside a fertiliser tank at his field in Attard four years ago.

The women’s organisation noted that a perpetrator of rape was liable to conviction to a jail term ranging from three to nine years.

“A four-year sentence does not justly equate to the terrible physical and psychological effects of rape on a victim who suffers both physical and psychological trauma that invariably manifests itself in a variety of ongoing mental disorders such as substance abuse, eating disorders, anxiety and depression,” the confederation said.