Member, Rape Law Reform Coalition, Dhaka, NC, Bangladesh.
Sex Reprod Health Matters. 2022;29(2):2096186. doi: 10.1080/26410397.2022.2096186.
A major impediment to justice for rape in Bangladesh is the colonial rule of corroboration, which requires judges to verify the truthfulness of a rape complainant's testimony with other evidence. Medical evidence is the most commonly sought mode of corroboration and can be used to contradict the complainant's own testimony. The corresponding rule of resistance in turn guides how the rule of corroboration takes on a scientific character, whereby injuries in specific parts of the complainant's body are sought by doctors and judges as corroborative "signs of rape". If no "signs of rape" are found, this observation is then noted in the medical report and used to discredit the testimony of a rape complainant, by indicating that either the sexual intercourse was consensual or the rape accusation is false. This paper shows how the unfettered operation of these two rules gives birth to the "science of disbelief" in rape cases, whereby the institutional disbelief in a rape complainant's testimony is justified on ostensibly scientific grounds and largely restricts their right to seek justice. It illustrates how the science of disbelief was created and preserved through successive legal and institutional reforms in Bangladesh. This paper challenges the long-held yet seemingly unquestioned notion in Bangladesh that medical evidence should be the primary basis through which rape can be proved in court by analysing the pernicious jurisprudence and legal standards this assumption has created.
在孟加拉国，强奸罪司法公正的一个主要障碍是殖民时期的证据补强规则，该规则要求法官用其他证据来核实强奸申诉人证词的真实性。医学证据是最常寻求的补强方式，可用于反驳申诉人的证言。相应的反证规则反过来指导着补强规则如何具有科学性质，即医生和法官会寻找申诉人身体特定部位的损伤，作为补强的“强奸迹象”。如果没有发现“强奸迹象”，则会在医疗报告中记录这一观察结果，并通过表明性行为是双方自愿的或强奸指控是虚假的，从而损害强奸申诉人的证言可信度。本文展示了这两个规则的不受限制的运作如何导致强奸案件中的“不信科学”，即机构对强奸申诉人证词的怀疑在表面上得到了科学依据的证明，并在很大程度上限制了他们寻求正义的权利。本文通过分析这种假设所产生的有害判例法和法律标准，挑战了孟加拉国长期以来存在但似乎无人质疑的观点，即医学证据应该是在法庭上证明强奸的主要依据。
