Harare lawyer Tendai Biti has said the recent Constitutional Court judgement on the age of consent for sex is not enough, calling on the Government and the country at large to come up with comprehensive laws that protect children.
In a ruling handed down by the country’s highest court last week, the unconstitutional provisions in the Criminal Law that set the age of consent for sex at 16 was struck off, giving the minister of justice and parliament 12 months to enact a law that protects all children from sexual exploitation in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
Addressing journalists in Harare whilst unpacking the Constitutional Court judgement, Biti said despite the scrapping of child marriages in 2016 there is need for laws that protect children.
“The judgement alone is not enough so we appeal to authorities particularly the Government to come up with a decent law as a matter of urgency, we appeal to community leaders, traditional leaders, various religious sects to protect children, parents and relatives. Twenty percent of rapes and abuse that actually take place in this country take place between relatives, an uncle abusing a niece so we appeal to families to protect children.
“When we argued in this matter we argued that we needed a comprehensive Act to protect children, protecting children against sex not just sexual exploitation but against sex. To protect children against child marriage. Even though child marriage were outlawed in 2016, we actually do not have a law protecting children against children,” said Biti.
He said there was need for comprehensive laws that will exclusively deal with issues that relates to young people.
“This judgement is far reaching, the net effective of this judgement is to outlaw Section 70 of the Criminal Code so it alters the definition of a young person. It says a young person can’t be a person who is sixteen it says a young person has to be defined consistent with the Constitution which means a young person is eighteen and below.
“This law must also deal with the difficult question of what are called Romeo and Juliet situations. What happens when a seventeen year old goes out with another seventeen year old? What happens when a 19 year old goes out with a 17 year old? The law must deal with that because we can’t pretend that children are not having sexual intercourse amongst themselves but the law must answer that,” said Biti.
Veritas Zimbabwe programs manager Lizwe Jamela concurred with Biti saying “The Government and Parliament have to come up with comprehensive policy that speaks to those issues so that we have comprehensive policies to protect the children,”
