U.N report legalizes sex with children, critics say

Sex with children would not be illegal under new recommendations spelled out in a United Nations report.  The white paper seeks to decriminalize a host of behaviors related to sex, gender expression, prostitution and more around the world.

The report, written by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), says these and other behaviors are a matter of human rights, and criminalizing them is harmful to those who engage in such activities, by placing a social stigma on them.

It states that children have both the mental, emotional capacity and the legal right to make sexual decisions, thus taking away the prosecutorial of authorities seeking to charge predators.  Predators would just have to say the victim gave them consent.

“The UN is full of pedophiles!!!!” former NHL star and Canadian Olympic gold medalist Theo Fleury responded on social media, mirroring much of the response.

“This hideous UN report … seeks to decriminalize sex — even between children and minors. Evil,” tweeted women’s rights activist Michelle Uriarau of Melbourne, Australia.

“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,” Edwin Cameron, retired justice for the Constitutional Court of South Africa wrote in the report’s forward.

The UN is now advocating for the decriminalization of sex with minors.

"Sexual conduct involving persons below the domestically prescribed minimum age of consent to sex may be consensual in fact, if not in law"

They're coming for your children, folks.

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 18, 2023

“In recent years, in some quarters, there has been a backlash against human rights, especially against sexual and reproductive health and rights, and the human rights of women, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, gender diverse, and intersex persons, as well as against sex workers, people who use drugs, and people experiencing homelessness and/or living in poverty,” said the report, which alludes to victims as “third parties” among law enforcement and people freely living their human rights.

Criminalization does not protect third parties physically, psychologically, or financially from direct harm, the report said. Instead, it typically seeks to clamp down on consensual conduct, stigmatized identities, and personal status.

Criminalization is “the legacy of colonial, xenophobic, racist, sexist, classist, ableist, cultural, religious, social, political, economic, and other power dynamics,” the report said.

Decriminalizing Sex With Children

In the United States, the age at which an individual can legally consent to sex varies by state. Most states (34) consider it to be age 16. The rest say consent is either 17 or 18 years. Some other rules apply, relating to age difference between the parties, when determining if law enforcement will charge the older person with criminal rape.

But the report says such charges could be stigmatizing, and it calls for the decriminalization of sex between adults and children.

“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,” the report said. “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.”

Prostitution and pimping should not be considered criminal either, the report indicates.

Criminal law may not forbid third parties who facilitate, manage, organize, advertise, or rent a hotel room for sex in exchange for money, between consenting adults, the report said.

The report was signed by 31 supporters from around the world, and seven organizations. Some individual supporters from the United States include Fanny Gómez-Lugo, adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law; and Alice M. Miller, co-director, Global Health Justice Partnership of the Yale Law and Public Health Schools at Yale University.

These organizations are mentioned as the first to support the principles in the report: Amnesty International, Global Health Justice; Partnership of the Yale Law and Public Health Schools; Global Network of Sex Work Projects; HIV Justice Network; International Network of People who Use Drugs; Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters; and CREA, an India-based feminist international human rights organization.

In an opinion piece, the Washington Examiner newspaper wrote: “In summary, the U.N. thinks adults should be able to have sex with minors and that, at the very minimum, countries that set the age of consent at 18 years old should repeal it. It should also be noted that the U.N. has been at the center of various child sex abuse scandals, including 700 abuse complaints made against U.N. peacekeepers in Congo and a child sex ring in Haiti”.

–Wire services