Retaliation hurts military bid to curb sexual assault: report

U.S. military personnel who are sexually assaulted and report the crime often face retaliation, but little is done to hold wrongdoers accountable even though various disciplinary responses are available, Human Rights Watch said Monday. The rights group, in a 113-page report based on interviews with sexual assault victims, said the military’s response to retaliation was often seen as ineffective, hamstrung by jurisdictional limitations or too tied to the command structure. One of the most powerful tools, the Military Whistleblower Protection Act, would enable victims to complain directly to the Pentagon inspector general, but “we have been unable to find cases in which a survivor who experienced retaliation was helped by that law,” the report said. “The U.S. military’s progress in getting people to report sexual assaults isn’t going to continue as long as retaliation for making a report goes unpunished,” said Sara Darehshori, a counsel at Human Rights Watch who helped write the report.
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