On Friday, President Barack Obama signed the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act. This law gives sexual assault victims very explicit rights.
It focuses on collecting and preserving rape kits and mandating that they be tested. Police forces need to enter the DNA from each kit into a database. There are over 100,000 untested rape kits across the U.S. that have never been tested.
The testing and analysis can solve more crimes than investigations initial the initial rapes.
Survivors no longer have to pay fees to get the rape kit from their assault tested, even if they haven’t filed a police report on the attack. The kits must be preserved until the applicable statute of limitations runs out. The authorities have to notify the victim before destroying any rape kit. The victim has the right to be notified of the test results such as DNA and the toxicology report.
This legislation was backed by a non-profit called Rise. The foundation is led by sexual assault survivor, Amanda Nguyen. She was only 22-years-old when she was attacked. Some victims have to pay up to $1,000 for their rape kits; she’s looking to keep other survivors from being treated like this. Nguyen actually had to keep filing “extension requests” to keep her rape kit from being destroyed. Her life revolved around the date of her attack.
.@POTUS just signed the Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights. Congrats to @nguyen_amanda, @risenowus, and their 140k @change supporters! pic.twitter.com/FxdXqxkOjo
— Change.org (@Change) October 7, 2016
She teamed up with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) to write the bill. Shaheen said:
“Beginning today, our nation’s laws stand firmly on the side of survivors of sexual assault. I hope that these basic rights will encourage more survivors to come forward and pursue justice.”
Nguyen said:
“At the heart of this is a deep belief of equality under the law and making sure that when survivors do choose to engage with the justice system that they are met with something that is fair.”
This is a great step in helping survivors get justice for their horrific attacks.
Here is Senator Sheehan talking about the bill in Congress:
Featured image via Twitter.
