BILIA to draft bill to amend anti-rape law by March

The Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA) will draft a bill to amend the Women and Children Repression Prevention (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025, by March next year, its chairman said.

"BILIA will take the initiative to draft an amendment bill on the latest amendment to the rape law by March next year," said Prof Borhan Uddin Khan, chairman of BILIA and a professor at the Department of Law, University of Dhaka.

He made the remarks as the concluding session of a seminar titled "Redefining Rape: The Promises and Perils of Legal Reform", held on Sunday in the capital.

"We will not make hasty decisions. We will take our time and plan every necessary step properly," he said.

Legal experts, academics and students attended the seminar organised by BILIA.

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Prof Md Ekramul Haque, acting dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Dhaka and honorary director of BILIA, delivered the welcome address.

Prof Mahbubur Rahman of the Department of Law, University of Dhaka, presented the keynote address.

He began with the low conviction rate in rape cases, then discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the 2025 Ordinance, which amends the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000.

He said the amendment makes the offence gender-neutral, so both the perpetrator and the victim can now be male or female. It also broadens the types of penetration that count as rape compared with earlier law.

On marital rape, he said the law still leaves significant grey areas and the 2025 amendment does not address the issue.

Citing other countries, he said non-consensual intercourse between spouses is punishable there as sexual assault or sexual violence rather than rape.

"Bangladesh's law remains silent on this, even after the latest amendment," he said.

He also said Bangladesh law recognises four categories of rape-related offences, three of them aggravated and one non-aggravated. Yet the punishments for all four are nearly identical with only minor differences.

Prof Shahnaz Huda of the Department of Law, University of Dhaka, said police officers lack adequate investigative skills and doctors at upazila level lack adequate forensic capacity. "Delays and errors at this stage often cause further harm to the survivor," she said.

She said neighbouring countries have stricter laws on sexual violence and define consent more clearly, whereas Bangladesh's law does not properly define it.

Senior Supreme Court lawyer Rashma Imam said the law is drafted in a way that leaves much open to interpretation, which affects how prosecutors prove their cases.

She also said the law offers no protection to witnesses.

"Perpetrators often come from positions of power and they silence witnesses with money or threats of violence," she said, adding that this discourages survivors from seeking justice.