Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
Indicator
This page was last updated on 21st December 2024
Meets Criteria:
Yes
Partly
No
No evidence
N/A
Multiple jurisdictions
In Western Australia, sexual offences laws are found in the Criminal Code Act 1913 (CCA), as amended. The Evidence Act 1906 (EA) contains the rules of evidence in relation to corroboration and prior sexual conduct.
Many of the provisions covered by this review meet good practice standards. For example, sexual assault covers all forms of non-consensual sexual penetration – by penis, objects and other body parts – of all orifices. There are comprehensive child sexual assault offences.
The age of consent is 16 years for everyone. Consensual same-sex sexual activity is not a crime.
Other aspects of the legislation evaluated in this report do not meet good practice standards. For example, non-penetrative sexual offences are partly contained within the moralistically termed offence of ‘acts of indecent assault’ which are differentiated on whether force was used and do not expressly include all forms of sexual touching. Child sexual assault offences are weakened by a lack of close-in-age exceptions that are necessary to avoid criminalising young people and children who engage in consensual sexual activity with their peers.
The full assessment of Australia is available here.
This report examines the status of sexual offences legislation in the Commonwealth Pacific, assessing good practice and identifying where there are gaps in protection, with a particular focus on women, children, LGBT+ people and people with disability.
This report lays out criteria for good practice human rights compliant laws across four areas of sexual offences legislation, namely rape/sexual assault, age of consent for sexual conduct, treatment of consensual same-sex sexual activity between adults, and sexual offences in relation to people with disability.
Since 2015, the Trust's legislative reform programme has been analysing the need for the reform of sexual offence laws and delivering technical assistance to support such reform. Find out more about our Changing Laws, Changing Lives programme.
