Thursday, April 10, 2014

Why DNA Evidence Is Important In Sexual Assault & Incest In Pakistan.

An Interactive article by Dr Meher Zaidi @twitter.com/Meherzaidi



In Pakistan the collection of evidence for prosecuting rape and incest cases is very incomplete. Apart from social apathy and the inability of police in this making a strong prosecution for bringing justice to the survivor, the scientific methods are lacking. Entry of DNA evidence should be made a mandatory legal procedure. It is done all over the world now. The following interactive sites will show why and how is this important.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/genetic/dna-evidence1.htm

https://www.ncjrs.gov/nij/DNAbro/evi.html

http://www.rainn.org/get-information/aftermath-of-sexual-assault/importance-of-dna


http://www.americanbar.org/publications/criminal_justice_section_archive/crimjust_standards_dnaevidence.html

https://www.umassd.edu/media/umassdartmouth/schooloflaw/students/studentorganizations/umasslawreview/umasslawreview2006/strengths_limitations_and_controversies_of_dna_evidence.pdf

The latter article describes all aspects of the importance of DNA evidence in great detail with references. It shows how and why it is important for both the survivor and the accused to be given the fairest chance for the justice to be done.If an accused is innocent , then also scientific evidence will help him get exonerated.

Recently the Council of Islamic Ideology chief raised many retrogressive amendments to Pakistan laws concerning child marriages and the admissibility of DNA evidence in sexual assault cases.Zohra Yusuf has written a detailed article on this. Link here
http://www.dawn.com/news/1098149/whos-afraid-of-cii