South Africa Task Force Formed To Fight Hate Crimes, "Corrective Rape"

 
Via Rod. 2.0.

South Africa has announced it will assemble a task force to combat the recent increase in anti-LGBT attacks in the country, particularly in the impoverished townships. The most recent attack involved the horrible gang "corrective rape" and murder of a lesbian near Johannesburg last month.

According to ABC News: "More than 170,000 people from all around the world signed a petition calling for the South African government to act after Noxolo Nogwaza, a 24-year-old lesbian, was gang raped, stoned and stabbed to death using shards of broken glass nearly two weeks ago. The petition was sponsored by Change.org, a global human rights campaigning website.

The new task force will tackle issues such as whether crimes against the homosexual and transgender community should be considered hate crimes, whether a rape motivated by sexual orientation should receive a harsher sentence and increased sensitivity training for police, social workers and judiciary officials. The team is scheduled to begin work in July.

Although same-sex marriage is legal in South Africa, the country has highest rates of rape and HIV positive persons in the world. Hopefully this new task force can decrease the violence.

Comments