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This page was last updated on 20 February 2025
Meets Criteria:
Yes
Partly
No
No evidence
N/A
Multiple jurisdictions
Consensual same-sex sexual activity is not a crime. Consensual same-sex sexual activity between people who are above the age of consent should not be criminalised. The following offences, or any with similar effect, should be abolished: indecency (or gross indecency) between people of the same sex, unnatural acts, carnal knowledge/intercourse against the order of nature, buggery, sodomy, homosexuality, lesbianism, same-sex sexual relations, fellatio, and cunnilingus.
Some Commonwealth countries have repealed these offences through legislation. In others, local courts have found these offences to be unconstitutional, striking down the offending provisions in the criminal law.
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.
This report examines the status of sexual offences legislation in the Commonwealth Pacific, assessing good practice and identifying where there are gaps in protection, with a particular focus on women, children, LGBT+ people and people with disability.
