There is no defence of consent to child sexual assault offences (other than close-in-age defences). The defence of consent should be expressly excluded from child sexual assault laws (e.g. ‘statutory rape’).
Children under the age of consent should be presumed in law not to be able to consent to sexual activity except when close-in-age.
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.
This report examines the status of sexual offences legislation in Commonwealth Asia, assessing good practice and identifying where there are gaps in protection, with a particular focus on women, children, LGBT+ people and people with disability.
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