Multimedia Newsroom
Monday, 18 May 2015
Available in
  • ENG

  • US: MILITARY SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS SUFFER RETALIATION

    Feature
    Duration : 4m 46s
    (Washington, D.C., May 18, 2015) – US military service members who report sexual assault frequently experience retaliation that goes unpunished, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Despite extensive reforms by the Defense Department to address sexual assault, the military has done little to hold retaliators to account or provide effective remedies for retaliation to survivors.
    The 117-page report, “Embattled: Retaliation against Sexual Assault Survivors in the US Military,” finds that both male and female military personnel who report sexual assault are 12 times more likely to experience some form of retaliation than see their perpetrator convicted of a sex offense. Retaliation against survivors ranges from threats, vandalism, and harassment to poor work assignments, loss of promotion opportunities, disciplinary action including discharge, and criminal charges. The exclusive mechanism intended to protect service members from employment-related retaliation, the Military Whistleblower Protection Act, has yet to help a single service member whose career was harmed, despite the prevalence of the problem. Defense Department surveys indicate that 62 percent of those who report sexual assault say they experienced retaliation for doing so.
    For more information: 
     http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/05/18/us-military-whistleblowers-risk
    Videos (1)
    201505US MilitaryRetaliation ClipReel NoSubs.mov