Women’s rights group AWARE weighed in last night to say it would be unethical for Sengkang Member of Parliament Raeesah Khan to share information about a sexual assault victim.
AWARE, which has trained more than 1,000 people on assisting sexual assault victims, said in a statement that respecting a victim’s right to confidentiality was important for their recovery, and for Raeesah to divulge their information to the police without the victim’s consent, as she has been pressured to do, runs contrary to this.
“However, as Raeesah has previously stated that she is no longer in contact with the survivor in question, and has no way of seeking their permission to share details about their experience, it would not be ethical in our view for her to share further details that may lead to the survivor being identified (which is a reasonable assumption based on the police’s stated aims),” the statement said.
During yesterday’s parliament sitting, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam warned that Raeesah of the opposition’s Workers’ Party would be summoned by the police for not sharing more details about a rape victim she reportedly accompanied to a police station three years ago where she was subjected to victim-blaming.
The minister insisted that the police were taking her allegation seriously and planned to investigate the officers involved for possible misconduct, declining to let the matter rest after Raeesah refused multiple times to share information, including the location of the police station, citing confidentiality and the risk of retraumatizing the victim.
AWARE said privacy is critical to victims regaining the sense of control lost when they were assaulted.
The exchange came two months after Raeesah recounted to lawmakers in an early August speech in which she urged law enforcement to be more sensitive toward sexual assault victims. Shanmugam cast doubt on her story, saying the police could not find any record of the incident she had described.
Insensitive and victim-blaming questioning by the police has occurred multiple times, according to AWARE, which runs a sexual assault care center. With permission from some victims, AWARE said that it has shared details of their complaints about alleged misbehavior with the police, “who investigated and took action as appropriate.”
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