UN Commission Proposes Decriminalizing Sex with Minors
by David Virtue, VOL:
A report of the so-called UN International Commission of Jurists referred to as the March 8 Principles, includes a section decriminalizing sex with minors.
The most odious of the March 8 Principles is Principle 16, which states that minor children should be deemed capable of consent to sexual relations as a defense to any criminal prosecution of the adult [P. 22; emphasis supplied]. Here is how it reads:
Moreover, sexual conduct involving persons below the domestically prescribed minimum age of consent to sex may be consensual in fact, if not in law. In this context, the enforcement of criminal law should reflect the rights and capacity of persons under 18 years of age to make decisions about engaging in consensual sexual conduct and their right to be heard in matters concerning them. Pursuant to their evolving capacities and progressive autonomy, persons under 18 years of age should participate in decisions affecting them, with due regard to their age, maturity and best interests, and with specific attention to non-discrimination guarantees.
What this means is that consensual sexual conduct, irrespective of the type of sexual activity, the sex/ gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression of the people involved or their marital status, may not be criminalized in any circumstances. Consensual same sex, as well as consensual different sexual relations, or consensual sexual relations with or between trans, non-binary and other gender- diverse people, or outside marriage — whether pre-marital or extramarital — may, therefore, never be criminalized.
With respect to the enforcement of criminal law, any prescribed minimum age of consent to sex must be applied in a non-discriminatory manner. Enforcement may not be linked to the sex/gender of participants or age of consent to marriage.
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