Former Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall has posited that in light of recent calls for the age of consent to be raised to 18 years old, it is advisable that Government agencies embark on countrywide consultations before making a decision.
These sentiments come after a petition was launched by non-governmental organisation (NGO), “The Caribbean Voice” (TCV) on March 25 for the age of sexual consent to be raised to 18 years. Currently, the age of consent in Guyana is 16 years, while the age of majority is 18; and thus far, the petition for this amendment to the Sexual Offences Act has attracted significant support on social media, and over 100 signatories who support the call.
The petition states that the fact that the age of sexual consent is at such a young age – 16 years – is possibly a factor of the increased cases of teenage pregnancies, which incidentally can lead to higher suicide rates and more often than not, condemn young mothers and their children to lives of hardship.
The NGO is of the opinion that by increasing the age of sexual consent to 18, the Government will be one step closer to tackling the issues of teenage pregnancy and suicide in the country.
However, the former Legal Affairs Minister stated that while the idea may seem feasible to the supporters and TCV, it is important that regard be paid to how the current age of consent was arrived at. “Our laws are similar to other Commonwealth jurisdictions, and in the Commonwealth, generally the age of consent is fixed at 16 years,” he stated.
He explained that the Sexual Offences Act of Guyana was only drafted, passed and enacted in 2010, and this was done after meticulous consultation exercises.
Age 16 is already an internationally-accepted standard while 15 is acceptable in the European Union.
Will two 16 or 17 year olds who have sex below the 18 age of consent be guilty of statutory rape? The age of consent law will cause havoc if it’s increased that way.
While millions of children around the world still live in poverty, and thousands die every day from famine, disease and war, the TCV and other feminist mandates are to jet around the world organizing conferences to wipe out the scourge of 17 year old ’children’ choosing to do what they want with their bodies.
How high will they go? Will they go to increase it to 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 until sex by itself will become illegal?
“The [American] NGO is of the opinion that by increasing the age of sexual consent to 18, the Government will be one step closer to tackling the issues of teenage pregnancy and suicide in the country.”
Yeah. Like if the female suffragettes of the 1900s who voted for Prohibition in the USA successfully stopped people from drinking alcohol. “sarcasm”.
How many more jails will Granger have to build to accommodate the tens of thousands of consenting teenagers if such a high age of consent law is enforced?
If a female teacher gets impregnated by a 13-year-old male student, then how come that is not considered “teenage pregnancy”? It’s his sperm which impregnated her from her sexual predations.
The issue with raising the age of consent law to 18 is that the NGOs do not care if thousands of young men end up in jail, nor do they appear to care that boys can also be sexually abused.
The American NGO has a hidden agenda which the white woman is behind the scenes. White women don’t end up in jail for raping little boys, but the same group wants to imprison an 18-year-old male for engaging in a mutual sexual relationship with a 16-year-old female. Tragic.
And just the other day, a concerning amount of prisoners in Camp Street died because of their protest of the inhumane conditions they were in? SHAME on the NGOS for for trying to put more people in jail!!!
Countrywide consultations needed regarding increasing age of consent – Former AG Nandlall
Pretty soon yall will have to review it again over and over and over.
In this generation there are no kids..when they get pregnant at 11 –12 13 14 15 16 17 —what will you do them if they choose not to disclose their baby daddies?
jail them? you better be prepared to build bigger and much more jails..
in toronto canada most of the underage when asked for the baby daddy they put unknown /…what to do with them?