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Indicator
This page was last updated on 3rd December 2024
Meets Criteria:
Yes
Partly
No
No evidence
N/A
Multiple jurisdictions
Australia is a federal country with six states and two territories. Each state and territory has its own criminal law jurisdiction, which includes legislation on sexual offences. While there are many similarities in the law across the jurisdictions, they are not identical. For this reason, each jurisdiction is reported on separately here. In addition, there are some federal criminal laws that include sexual offences. These apply in each state and territory as well, but are not assessed in this research.
In many respects, the sexual offences laws assessed in this review meet the good practice standards: consensual same-sex sexual activity is not a crime in any jurisdiction; marital rape is a crime and no defence of marriage applies; and all non-consensual acts of sexual penetration are criminalised.
Most jurisdictions criminalise a wide range of specific child sexual offences, including grooming, and do not allow a defence of consent to these crimes. However, in some jurisdictions, the law requires further reform, including for example: providing that evidence of resistance to a sexual assault is not necessary to prove that sexual activity took place without consent; that consent cannot be inferred from a complainant’s silence or submission during the assault; and ensuring that the consent regime applies without discrimination to people with disability.
Australia is a state party to relevant international and regional human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
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.
