Under pressure!
Legislators reviewing sex laws stressed, but may not succumb – Chuck
LEGISLATORS WILL face a hard task in making recommendations to the Parliament on submissions made by advocates demanding stronger marital rape laws, decriminalisation of buggery, widening of the definition of rape and sexual intercourse, and raising the age of consent.
That’s according to Justice Minister Delroy Chuck, who said yesterday that there was pressure on the committee made up of senators and members of parliament that heard submissions on the Sexual Offences Act and related laws.
The committee, revived after three years, completed hearings in July and is likely to put forward its recommendations in November for debate by the House.
“There is always pressure, [but] that doesn’t mean we succumb to pressure,” said Chuck, the committee’s chairman. “In any event, we have to sit and consider all the recommendations, and based on the recommendations and submissions, we distil what has to be distilled and make our own recommendations.”
It is quite clear, he said, that some of the proposals to come from the committee will not be unanimous. “There’s likely to be dissenting voices whichever way you propose.”
Chuck has cautioned that it should not be assumed that the Parliament will accept all the recommendations that will be made. He would not be drawn, though, in giving a position on any of the issues because, “as chairman, it’s best for me to just be as neutral as possible”.
One of the major issues facing the committee is whether to recommend the decriminalisation of buggery by striking down an 1864 legislation, to which Chuck, earlier this year, publicly gave support.
He reverted to the Government’s position of a referendum after the Church, which he criticised, hit back at his claim that the Church was a hindrance.