US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin admits flaws in approach to sexual assault in armed forces

By Asianet Newsable English | First Published Jun 11, 2021, 5:31 PM IST

United States Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said he supported stripping senior commanding officers of authority to decide whether troops accused of an assault should face prosecution.

United States Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has told a Senate committee that the military's approach to sexual harassment and assault was not working.

Austin said he supported stripping senior commanding officers of authority to decide whether troops accused of an assault should face prosecution.

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Any decision to place this decision in the hands of independent legal authorities would amount to great change in the way sexual assault is currently handled in the US armed forces.

The recommendation will be made to US President Joe Biden in the coming weeks.

Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Lloyd Austin conceded that what they were doing was not working, and it needed to be fixed.

"I want to be sure that whatever changes to the Uniform Code of Military Justice that I recommend to the President and to this committee are scoped to the problem we are trying to solve. We need to have a clear way forward on implementation and ultimately restore the confidence of the force in the system." Austin told the committee.

According to the Pentagon, reports of sexual assault in the military have been on the rise since 2006, and even though a number of changes have been introduced to the Military Code of Justice over the last ten years, they have not been effective.

The military has also previously repudiated proposals the would make legal decisions external to the chain of command.

President Biden had, during his candidature and campaign, advocated the issue of sexual assault and how it must be made an external issue and be taken out of the chain of command in the military.

Austin had in April 2020 said that he would order the Defence Department to take aggressive action to ensure survivors are in fact supported and abusers are held accountable for their crimes.

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