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Indicator
This page was last updated on 19th April 2024
Meets Criteria:
Yes
Partly
No
No evidence
N/A
Multiple jurisdictions
South Africa’s sexual offences laws are in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act 2007, as amended (CLSO). The rules of evidence that relate to sexual offences are in the Criminal Procedure Act 1977 as amended (CPA). The common law and relevant case law are not assessed in this report.
All of the provisions of the CLSO covered by this review and the criteria below meet good practice standards. For example, consensual same-sex sexual activity is not a crime, sexual assault offences cover all forms of non-consensual sexual penetration – by penis, objects and other body parts – of all orifices and non-penetrative offences are broadly defined to include all forms of sexual assault. Consent is defined appropriately and there is a comprehensive range of specific child sexual assault provisions, including ‘grooming’ for sexual purposes. The CLSO also provides for close-in-age defences to child sexual assaults for young people who engage in consensual sexual activity with their peers. Consensual sexual activity with a person with a ‘mental disability’ is not criminalised.
South Africa is a state party to relevant international and regional human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It is also a party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol).
The full assessment of South Africa is available here.
This report examines the status of sexual offences legislation in Commonwealth Africa, assessing good practice and identifying where there are gaps in protection, with a particular focus on women, children, LGBT+ people and people with disability.
This report lays out criteria for good practice human rights compliant laws across four areas of sexual offences legislation, namely rape/sexual assault, age of consent for sexual conduct, treatment of consensual same-sex sexual activity between adults, and sexual offences in relation to people with disability.
Since 2015, the Trust's legislative reform programme has been analysing the need for the reform of sexual offence laws and delivering technical assistance to support such reform. Find out more about our Changing Laws, Changing Lives programme.
