Madagascar legalizes surgical castration of convicted paedophiles

The law which legalizes the castration of child rapists was approved by the country’s parliament, The National Assembly on February 2, 2024.

The new law states that persons found guilty of raping a child under ten years old will be castrated surgically before facing life imprisonment. Convicts found guilty of raping victims between ten and thirteen years old will be chemically castrated and face 15 to 20 years of forced labour, Le Quotidien reports.

The law however exempts culprits who are minors from castration.

 “The reform of this law stems from awareness of the increasing number of sexual crimes committed against minor children. Its objective is to establish deterrence by introducing new sanctions and more rigorous repression. The law redefines the notion of rape and organizes penalties according to the age of the victims while seeking to neutralize sexual predators by the introduction of surgical or chemical castration,” a press release from the lower house indicated.

Minister of Justice Landy Randriamanantenasoa said that the new law will help expose such perpetrators and serve as a deterrent to others.

“Society needs to know what they did,” she was quoted by Le Quotidien.

Madagascar’s old law on the rape of minors stated that convicts would face between five and 20 years of forced labour.

The new law comes just days after Kazakhstan announced a similar law where the country's worst offending child sex offenders will have their genitals surgically removed.