The support and protection for victims of sexual assault and harassment...
To address the increasing problem of sexual harrasment and assault a new law has come into effect in US military on 28 December.
Under this law lawyers will get independent authority to decide whether to prosecute cases of murder, rape and domestic violence among service members instead of commanders who have been accused of ignoring or covering up such crimes.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, praised the law as a historic reform.
“It’s the most important reform to our military justice system since the creation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice in 1950,” he said in a statement.
The law will create special counsels within each branch of the military, who will be responsible for handling serious offences. These counsels will be legal professionals who are not part of the military chain of command. They will be located across the country, with more of them near bases or areas with high rates of reported crimes.
As per the Associated Press, the Army will have 65 trial counsels, the Air Force 40, the Marines 33 and the Navy 24. Each council will deal with about 50 investigations and eight to 12 trials per year.
The law was passed by Congress in 2022, with bipartisan support from lawmakers who wanted to improve the support and protection for victims of sexual assault and harassment in the military.
The law was passed in response to the alarming increase in sexual assault and harassment cases in the military, as shown by the Pentagon’s annual report on sexual assault in the military.
The report showed that in 2022, the Navy saw a 13% rise in reports, the Air Force a 9% rise and the Marines a 3.6% rise. The army saw a 9% decrease, but still had the highest number of reports, with 8,942. The total number of reports across the military was 8,942, which was almost seven times higher than in 2006.
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