Submission to UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls

Input to the addendum to the report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls to the HRC on the concept of consent in relation to violence against women and girls

Recommendations support the establishment of a minimum ‘age of consent’ to sexual activity

We support age of consent laws at the higher end given the special vulnerabilities of young girls.

The ability to exercise authentic ‘consent’ is seriously undermined by pornography, the sex industry, women’s financial insecurity, power differentials, violence, and related factors.

Our recommendations included:

• Move away from narrowly focusing on affirmative consent and instead ground sex and relationships education in a broader ethical framework that explicitly addresses the harms of pornography, issues of exploitation, and respect for bodily autonomy.
• Recognise and address the global pornography industry as a driver of sexual violence and gender inequality, particularly in how it normalises coercion, aggression, and the degradation of women.
• Recognise image-based sexual abuse (IBSA), including Deepfake Sexual Abuse (often called ‘deepfake pornography’) as a serious form of sexual violence.

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See our other Submissions here.