By Matt Lamb
Article Source
A recent United Nations document calls for the decriminalization of sex with minors along with prostitution, drug use, and abortion.
“The International Committee of Jurists (ICJ) along with UNAIDS and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) officially launched a new set of expert jurist legal principles to guide the application of international human rights law to criminal law,” an introduction on UNAIDS.org reads.
The new “legal principles” document starts with another introduction from Edwin Cameron, a retired South African judge who notes how his experience as a “gay man” helped inform his work on this project.
“From long years in the law, and as a proudly gay man, I know profoundly how criminal law signals which groups are deemed worthy of protection – and which of condemnation and ostracism,” he wrote. “In this way, the criminal law performs an expressive function – and it has dramatic consequences on people’s lives. It sometimes entails a harshly discriminatory impact on groups identified with the disapproved or stigmatised conduct.”
Though the document came out on March 8, International Women’s Day, it only recently started to attract attention for its advocacy against criminalizing sex with minors.
Principle 16 states:
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-sex 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.
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.
“The principles, developed over five years, are based on feedback and reviews from a range of experts and stakeholders,” the UNAIDS.org explains. “They were finalized in 2022. Initially, the principles focused on the impact of criminal laws proscribing sexual and reproductive health and rights, consensual sexual activity, gender identity, gender expression, HIV non-disclosure, exposure and transmission, drug use and the possession of drugs for personal use. Later, based on the inputs of civil society and other stakeholders, criminalization linked to homelessness and poverty were also included.”
The report also called for decriminalizing prostitution and drug use.
Principle 17 states:
The exchange of sexual services between consenting adults for money, goods or services and communication with another about, advertising an offer for, or sharing premises with another for the purpose of exchanging sexual services between consenting adults for money, goods or services, whether in a public or private place, may not be criminalized, absent coercion, force, abuse of authority or fraud.
Principle 20 would forbid criminal law from punishing “drug use or the possession, purchase or cultivation of drugs for personal use, including by anyone under the age of 18 or while pregnant.”
Individuals should also be able to take dangerous transgender drugs and surgeries and abort their babies, according to the document’s preferred legal system.
Criminal law must not make it illegal for an individual to “make and act on decisions about one’s own body, sexuality and reproduction – such as about pregnancy; contraception, including emergency contraception; comprehensive abortion care; prophylaxis for sexually transmitted infections; gender-affirming care/therapy; and/or,” according to Principle 14.
Principle 15 reaffirms that abortion through all nine months of pregnancy must never be criminalized. “Abortion must be taken entirely out of the purview of the criminal law, including for having, aiding, assisting with, or providing an abortion, or abortion-related medication or services, or providing evidence-based abortion-related information,” the document states.