Germany
offers sex offenders aged over 25 the option of surgical castration or
orchiectomy, if the operation is cleared by an expert, the European Committee
for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) said in
a report.
The practice is rare, noted the committee after a visit to Germany
in 2010, with less than five cases a year in the last decade.
"Notwithstanding this, the CPT
must express its fundamental objections to the use of surgical castration as a
means of treatment of sexual offenders," it said.
"Surgical castration is a mutilating, irreversible
intervention and cannot be considered as a medical necessity in the context of
the treatment of sexual offenders.
"In the CPT's view,
surgical castration of detained sexual offenders could easily be considered as
amounting to degrading treatment," it said.
According to the report, authorities in Germany
cited the low reoffending rate for those who have opted for physical castration
in their defence of the practice.
Of 104 people who were operated on between 1970 and 80, only 3%
have reoffended, compared to 46% of the 53 others who refused castration or who
did not secure expert approval for the operation.
Nevertheless, Berlin
agreed to "examine if the issue should be discussed."
Besides Germany,
the Czech Republic
is the only other of the 47 Council of Europe member states which gives sex
offenders the option of physical castration.