United States: Sexual assault of women in the military must be stopped

FEBRUARY 13, 2013 UPDATE: Senator Jon Tester and Representative Chellie Pingree introduced the “Ruth Moore Act of 2013.” Named in recognition of Navy veteran, military sexual assault survivor and activist Ruth Moore (subject of our Action), the bill would lower the evidentiary burden needed to prove service-related PTSD for survivors so that they can receive benefits and necessary services from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The passage of this bill would fulfill one of the three objectives of Equality Now's campaign, and we will be following this process closely as it progresses.

Equality Now has just issued an Action calling on the United States Government to better prevent the sexual assault of women in the U.S. military and enable survivors to access justice and services. Approximately 19,000 sexual assaults take place in the U.S. military each year; Ruth Moore, at the age of 18, survived two of them. Ruth was raped by her commander while stationed abroad with the Navy. She reported this rape, but instead of receiving help she was raped again by her commander in retaliation for reporting. Her rapist was never charged or disciplined. Ruth suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from these assaults and applied for disability benefits from the Veterans Administration (VA). Her benefits were denied multiple times because she could not prove she was raped, but after 20 years the VA finally acknowledged that she had been raped and was entitled to disability benefits. Ruth is now actively advocating for the rights of the many military sexual assault survivors.

Service women raped by fellow service members rarely obtain justice or the services they need to recover. This is due to the multitude of obstacles rape survivors face in pursuing justice, including in reporting the crime, getting a thorough and impartial investigation, and seeing their rapist/assailant face appropriate charges and punishment. In addition, the many survivors who suffer from PTSD face an unnecessarily high burden in proving their assault and qualifying for benefits from the government, which deprives them of the services they need to recover.

Please join Equality Now and our partner the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN) in calling on U.S. government officials to live up to their domestic and international obligations by:

Reforming the military justice system so that professional military prosecutors – not the perpetrator’s command – are responsible for investigating and prosecuting cases of sexual assault. Several countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada, have recently reformed their military justice systems in this manner so that commanders do not wield undue (and unmonitored) influence over sexual assault cases.
Providing survivors suffering from PTSD stemming from their sexual assault with the services they need to recover from their trauma by lowering the unnecessarily high evidentiary burden they face in order to prove their assault and access disability benefits.
Allowing survivors of sexual assault in the military to access civil remedies so that they, like civilians, can hold their employer – the U.S. military – accountable for sexual harassment and assault.

Letter Regarding Civil Remedies

Subject:

Your Letter:

Dear Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel:

I am writing to express my deep concern about the alarmingly high rate of sexual assault within the U.S. military and the continued impunity for service members who sexually harass and assault their fellow service women. Approximately 19,000 sexual assaults occur in the military each year and as few as 1 out of every 100 sexual assaults results in the conviction of the perpetrator.

The failure to protect service women from sexual assault while in the military and to ensure survivors are able to obtain justice violates the United States’ international legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which requires States to protect fundamental human rights that are commonly violated in these cases – including equal protection of the law, the right to be free from discrimination (which includes gender-based violence), and the right to an effective remedy.

I urge you to ensure that military women can pursue and obtain justice for harassment and sexual violence they endure.  I call on you to allow survivors of sexual assault in the military to access civil remedies so that they, like civilians, can hold their employer accountable for sexual harassment and assault and can obtain the justice they deserve.

Yours sincerely,

cc:
Congressman Buck McKeon, House Armed Services Committee, Chair
Senator Carl Levin, Senate Armed Services Committee, Chair
Senator Patrick Leahy, Senate Judiciary Committee, Chair
Congressman Lamar Smith, House Judiciary Committee, Chair

The Honorable Chuck Hagel

Secretary of Defense

Congressman Buck McKeon

House Armed Services Committee, Chair

Senator Carl Levin

Senate Armed Services Committee, Chair

Senator Patrick Leahy

Senate Judiciary Committee, Chair

Congressman Lamar Smith

House Judiciary Committee, Chair

Letter Regarding Reform of the Justice System

Subject:

Your Letter:

Dear Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel:

This low conviction rate is due to the multitude of obstacles rape survivors face in pursuing justice, including in reporting the crime, getting a thorough and impartial investigation, and seeing their rapist/assailant face appropriate charges and punishment. I am concerned that instead of an independent party, an officer within the perpetrator’s chain-of-command is charged with investigating sexual assault complaints and is given an enormous amount of discretion, which can lead to conflicts of interest and abuse of power, especially as both the survivor and perpetrator may be under the same officer’s command. In addition, commanders have an incentive to downplay or cover-up sexual assaults happening within their chain-of-command, as these crimes reflect poorly on the unit.

The failure to protect service women from sexual assault while in the military, to ensure justice for survivors, and to enable survivors to obtain justice and services violates the United States’ international legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This Convention requires States to protect fundamental human rights that are commonly violated in these cases – including equal protection of the law, the right to be free from discrimination (which includes gender-based violence), and the right to an effective remedy.

I urge you to reform the military justice system so that professional military prosecutors – not the perpetrator’s command – are responsible for investigating and prosecuting cases of sexual assault. Several countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada, have recently reformed their military justice systems in this manner so that commanders do not wield undue (and unmonitored) influence over sexual assault cases, and I urge you to consider this approach.

Yours sincerely,

cc:
Congressman Buck McKeon, House Armed Services Committee, Chair
Senator Carl Levin, Senate Armed Services Committee, Chair

The Honorable Chuck Hagel

Secretary of Defense

Congressman Buck McKeon

House Armed Services Committee, Chair

Senator Carl Levin

Senate Armed Services Committee, Chair

Letter to Veterans' Affairs

Subject:

Your Letter:

Eric Shinseki
Secretary of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs

Dear Secretary Shinseki:

I am writing to express my deep concern about the alarmingly high rate of sexual assault within the U.S. military and the many obstacles sexual assault survivors face in accessing the services they need to recover. There are approximately 19,000 sexual assaults in the U.S. military each year. Sexual assault and harassment cause the same rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in women veterans as combat does in men.

However, sexual assault survivors face particular challenges in accessing disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as VA employees often disbelieve survivors’ accounts of assault – even when backed up by physician’s reports – and require evidence from other sources that corroborate the survivor’s account. This disbelief and failure to provide needed services serves to re-victimize those who seek assistance. Tellingly, only 32% of PTSD claims related to sexual assault are approved by the VA, while 54% of overall PTSD claims are approved. The VA must lower the evidentiary burden needed to prove service-related PTSD and accept the survivor’s testimony alone as proof that the sexual assault occurred.

The failure to protect service women from sexual assault while in the military and to enable survivors to obtain justice and services violates the United States’ international legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which requires States to protect fundamental human rights that are commonly violated in these cases – including equal protection of the law, the right to be free from discrimination (which includes gender-based violence), and the right to an effective remedy.

I would like to urge you to revise your policy to ensure that survivors suffering from PTSD stemming from their sexual assault are provided with the services they need without undue delays. I call on you to lower the unnecessarily high evidentiary burden they face in order to prove their assault and access disability benefits.

Yours sincerely,

cc: 
The Honorable Allison Hickey, Under Secretary for Benefits, Department of Veterans Affairs
Senator Patty Murray, Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Chair
Congressman Jeff Miller, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Chair

The Honorable Erik Shinseki

Secretary of Veterans' Affairs

The Honorable Allison Hickey

Under Secretary for Benefits, Department of Veterans' Affairs

Congressman Jeff Miller

House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Chair

Senator Patty Murray

Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Chair

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To learn more about the campaign & for a list of full contact information for the government officials above, see:
http://www.equalitynow.org/take_action/sexual_assault_in_the_military_action441

Equality Now

United States: Sexual assault of women in the military must be stopped

Letter Regarding Civil Remedies

The Honorable Chuck Hagel

Congressman Buck McKeon

Senator Carl Levin

Senator Patrick Leahy

Congressman Lamar Smith

Letter Regarding Reform of the Justice System

The Honorable Chuck Hagel

Congressman Buck McKeon

Senator Carl Levin

Letter to Veterans' Affairs

The Honorable Erik Shinseki

The Honorable Allison Hickey

Congressman Jeff Miller

Senator Patty Murray

Equality Now:

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