President Obama just signed a "bill of rights" for survivors of sexual assault [View all]

[NYC Liberal]

Source: Vox

But for the first time, thanks to a bill President Barack Obama signed on Friday, victims of sexual assault now have a specific set of rights under federal law when it comes to the evidence collected from their own bodies.

“Beginning today, our nation’s laws stand firmly on the side of survivors of sexual assault,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), who sponsored the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act. The bill passed unanimously in both the House and the Senate last month before heading to Obama’s desk.

The new law says that victims have the right:

[*]• Not to be charged for a sexual assault evidence collection kit.
[*]• To be informed of testing results.
[*]• To be notified in writing 60 days beforehand if the kit is going to be destroyed, and to request that the kit be preserved.
[*]• To have the kit preserved for the entire applicable statute of limitations. (So if the statute of limitations for reporting rape is five years, the state can’t just destroy a rape kit after six months if the victim hasn’t decided to press charges yet.)

Shaheen says the bill was inspired by meeting with Amanda Nguyen, who had a terrible experience with the criminal justice system after being sexually assaulted in Massachusetts in 2013. Nguyen says that although she reported her assault and had a rape kit performed, she was given no information about her legal options.

Read more: http://www.vox.com/identities/2016/10/7/13200350/sexual-assault-survivors-bill-of-rights-obama-shaheen