Originally published April 17, 2023 9:30 am PDT
A new report, issued by an international group of legal experts and backed by the United Nations, says that children under the age of 18 have the right to make sexual decisions.
QUICK FACTS:
- An international group of legal experts, backed by the United Nations (U.N.), have issued a new report stating that minors should have the ability to consent to sex before 18.
- “Sexual conduct involving persons below the domestically prescribed minimum age of consent to sex may be consensual in fact, if not in law,” the International Commission of Jurists wrote, together with UNAIDS and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
- The report, titled “The 8 March Principles for a Human Rights-Based Approach to Criminal Law Proscribing Conduct Associated with Sex, Reproduction, Drug Use, HIV, Homelessness and Poverty,” does not directly address decriminalizing sex between adults and minors, but says children should have the choice to do what they want.
- The document was released on March 8 in recognition of “International Women’s Day,” the commission states online, but does not offer a specific suggested age of sexual consent.
- According to the group, the report was “developed over a five-year consultative process,” and written “following an initial expert meeting of jurists convened in 2018 by the ICJ — together with the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) — to discuss the role of jurists in addressing the detrimental human rights impact of certain criminal laws.”
SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER IAN MILES CHEONG ON CHILDREN CONSENTING TO SEX WITH ADULTS:
“According to the United Nations, children may consent to sex with adults. This has been the plan all along,” Cheong tweeted.
BACKGROUND:
- In May 2021, the U.N. urged faith-based institutions and religious leaders to “embrace” the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender-diverse community.
- “Freedom in general, and freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief in particular, are cornerstones of the international human rights framework, and the right to freedom of religion or belief of all human beings during their life course, including that of LGBT persons, must be recognised,” the U.N. Independent Expert on Protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity Victor Madrigal-Borloz said at the time.
- According to Madrigal-Borloz, religious authorities have a “responsibility” to ensure that “religion and tradition” are not used to promote discrimination of an individual based on their sexual orientation.
- “Certain narratives create the false notion that there is an inherent conflict between the right to religious freedom and the basic human rights of LGBT individuals,” Madrigal-Borloz continued. “This is a manufactured idea that contributes to their exclusion from all sectors of social life, as well as the violence that is perpetrated against them.”
