Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women's Response on the Law Reform Commission's release of Review of Substantive Sexual Offences
The Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women (the Association) welcomes the Law Reform Commission's (LRC) release of Review of Substantive Sexual Offences report this morning (5th December 2019). The report has offered final recommendations following years of consultation conducted by the Review of Sexual Offences Sub-committee. The Association expects these recommendations to be implemented shortly.
The Association appreciates LRC's acceptance towards numerous responses submitted by us and other concern groups, which include expanding the definition of 'rape', and naming the offence 'sexual penetration without consent'. The Association agrees that this approach will include male and trans victims into its protection. As seen from RainLily's service users' experience, the approach will also be able to include non-consensual penile penetration of the mouth, and non-penile sexual penetration of the vagina or anus as an equally severe form of assault in terms of causing physical and psychological trauma as the current legal definition of 'rape', which covers only non-consensual vaginal penetration by a penis. Hong Kong should follow other jurisdictions like Canada and certain regions of Australia to amend related laws.
The Association would also like to point out the lack of response towards 'image-based sexual abuse' in Review of Substantive Sexual Offences and the earlier released Voyeurism and Non-consensual upskirt-photography reports. The Association has a particular concern on the phenomenon of 'threat to distribute intimate images' and 'non-consensual distribution of intimate images'. These sexual violence behaviours cause long-lasting and irreversible harms to its victims. Laws tackling the issue have been implemented in England, Scotland, Australia, and various other jurisdictions. The Association urges the LRC and the administration to look into related legislation as soon as possible.
The current sexual offences in Hong Kong have been in use for over 50 years, many of the legislation have been considered dated, failing in providing sufficient protection for victim-survivors of sexual violence, and limiting sexual autonomy. It has been seen in recent years that multiply overseas jurisdictions have reformed sexual offences related legislation. The LRC's Review of Sexual Offences Sub-committee has published its first consultation paper over seven years ago, reforming sexual offences is a matter of great urgency. The Association urges the administration to speed up the process in preparing the draft bill to implement LRC's recommendations proposed in the reports of Review of Substantive Sexual Offences and Voyeurism and Non-consensual upskirt-photography.
Review of Substantive Sexual Offences report by the Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong:
https://www.hkreform.gov.hk/en/publications/rsubstantive_sexual_offences.htm