WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden supports the recommendation that the military prosecution of sexual attacks was brought from the command chain and was given to the independent prosecutor to serve the victims, administrative officials said.
The changes recommended by the Independent Overview Commission will represent major changes in how the military has handled sexual attacks and related crimes for decades.
Appeared several years after the emergence of #Metoo response to sexual violence, harassment and discrimination against women by men in various layers of society.
But the implementation of Biden’s decision can take up to 2023 to implement, and the democratic government stopped the approach of law by the leading advocate from the Senate change, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, whose bills will also make wider military justice reform.
Advocates and parliamentarians such as Gillibrand have called for years for military commanders to be excluded from the decision-making process when it comes to demanding cases of sexual violence, the reason they tend to ignore it.
The attack and sexual harassment in the US military was largely reported, according to the military itself, and the handling of the Pentagon from it had been under new supervision.
The independent commission report strongly criticized the military handling of cases of sexual violence, from the lack of confidence in the military commander to issue with a military justice system.
Last month’s commission recommended taking their prosecution and related cases from the victim’s unit commander and gave them to the independent prosecutor.
“We have heard for years that there is no tolerance for sexual harassment and sexual violence, but we learn that in practice there is enough tolerance,” said an administrative official, talking about the condition of anonymity.
“We found that the military justice system was not well equipped to handle sensitive cases such as sexual violence, sexual harassment and domestic violence.” Biden’s decision was widely expected after his defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, on June 22 indicated the findings of the Independent Review Commission who recommended the step.
The 13 member commission was formed in February and included several retirees and experts on this issue.
The Gillibrand Bill will eliminate the military commander of the decision to pursue cases of sexual violence, but also do the same for other major crimes, changing such decisions to trained prosecutors.
It has majority support in the Senate.
The second Biden Administrative Officer praised Gillibrand’s efforts on this issue but refused to overcome his law, said the commission of an independent review – only focused on sexual attacks and related crimes, officials said.
“Biden is happy to see that there is a growing consensus that this crime must be removed from the command chain.
And we will now see the Congress to do details for changing,” second official said.
The Gillibrand bill, which has 64 co-sponsors, has been blocked from consideration on the Senate floor by the Democrats and the top Republic in the Senate Armed Service Committee.
Jack Reed’s Democrats, who lead the committee, deliciously eliminating the military command chain from demanding cases of sexual violence but sees too broad laws.