Pavol Stracansky
BRATISLAVA, Oct 2 2009 (IPS) – New legislation in Poland introducing compulsory castration of paedophiles has angered human rights groups, who claim its introduction is little more than populist posturing.
They say the new law is open to abuse and is likely to be ineffective in tackling sex crimes. The law was passed by Poland s lower house of parliament last week, and is expected to be rubber-stamped within weeks by the upper house and right-wing President Lech Kaczynski.
Human rights campaigners warn that the law, which has also angered EU politicians who have said it could be challenged in human rights courts, has been brought in as a measure to improve the government s image rather than to help stop sexual abuse.
Andrzej Jaroszkiewicz, spokesman for Amnesty International in Poland, told IPS: We oppose the introduction of chemical castration by a government seeking to give the impression of toughness in response to particularly notorious cases of sexual violence.
He added that while governments should do all they can to tackle sexual violence against women and children, making medical treatment compulsory for criminals was wrong.
This legislation is turning medical treatment into a form of punishment. We are not against the use of hormonal treatments to control the sexual impulses of those with a history of sexual violence, but we support its use as a treatment instead of a punishment, and it should be evidence-based and require the consent of the person undergoing the treatment.
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The new legal provision, which would see paedophiles convicted of raping under-15s or a close relative having to undergo chemical therapy on their release from prison, would make Poland the only European Union (EU) country to impose chemical castration on convicted paedophiles.
It is also part of a package of laws designed to make punishments stricter for sexual criminals, including longer prison sentences for rape and incest.
The law was drafted after a high-profile incest case more than a year ago in which a 45-year-old man allegedly sexually abused his underage daughter for six years and forced her to bear him two children.
The legislation has overwhelming backing from Poles, and when Prime Minister Donald Tusk first unveiled the plans one poll showed that 84 percent of people supported his plans.
Tusk said that he had no concerns for the human rights implications of the law. He was quoted by media as saying that paedophiles were degenerates and that they could not be labelled human .
I don t think protection of human rights should refer to these kind of events, he said.
Many activists say that the overwhelming support for the legislation reflects the conservative mindset prevalent among the general population of the strongly Catholic country.
Sociologists say that the Church is one of the biggest influences on public opinion in Poland.
Human rights groups are not surprised by the popular support for the bill. Barbara Grabowksa from the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Warsaw told IPS: Public opinion is that these kind of people should be severely punished.
Many have questioned the effect chemical castration will have on sex crimes. The procedure involves large doses of drugs being administered to suppress libido. It is also usually accompanied by psychological therapy.
The Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborca, which has opposed the law, has repeatedly published U.S. studies which have shown that two-thirds of criminals convicted for assaulting children were not paedophiles, and had done so for other reasons, including illnesses. Other sexual therapists and doctors have warned that the process is not 100 percent successful in preventing sex offenders relapsing and attacking again.
Chemical castration will not solve the problem. The cause of sexual offenders behaviour is their physical state and not their sex drive. Their brains cannot be controlled by this (treatment), Piotr Kladoczny, a lawyer with the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Warsaw, told IPS.
The legislation has also been criticised in Brussels, but European Parliament members have pointed out that they cannot stop it being passed into law in Poland. They say that only the death penalty is completely banned among EU member states and that criminal law is a matter for individual countries.
In some other EU member states, such as Sweden and Denmark, chemical castration programmes are available for convicted sex offenders on a voluntary basis. A similar programme has also been recently announced in Britain.
A controversial voluntary surgical castration programme is also available for sex offenders in the Czech Republic. The practice has been condemned by rights groups such as the Council of Europe, which claimed in a report last year that mentally retarded people had been given the treatment and that some convicts claimed they had been told they would face long-term detention if they did not agree to the procedure.
Czech authorities say they have no plans to stop the practice.
Rights groups in Poland say the compulsory nature of the country s new legislation also raises serious questions about how it could be implemented. There are also doubts as to whether or not we should be making rulings on compulsory ambulatory treatments. And it is unwelcome because every mandatory decision can be a source of abuse, said Kladoczny.
