Overview

• On July 11, a court in Antananarivo sentenced a man to life imprisonment with hard labour and surgical castration after he was convicted of raping and attempting to murder a six-year-old girl in Imerintsiatosika.
• The punishment represents the first enforcement of a 2024 Malagasy law mandating castration for offenders who rape children aged 10 or younger.
• Authorities enacted the law in response to a documented rise in child rape cases and designed it to deter would-be perpetrators through severe penalties.
• Surgical castration has also been performed with offender consent in the Czech Republic and Germany, while chemical castration is used in several U.S. states and countries including Poland and South Korea.
• Human rights groups have criticized irreversible punishments as unethical and urged investment in survivor support, prevention efforts and broader justice-system reforms.