2023-04-27 19:40:49
For the past few days, on social networks, Internet users have been pointing the finger at the United Nations (UN), just that. At the origin of this indignation, a particularly relayed publication. “Here is the UN report. It is indeed a question of decriminalizing pedocrime to legitimize the consent of children, it is the pretext that minors have rights and therefore if they wish to have sexual relations with an adult, it is their right, ”he published. on Twitter on April 22.
A site that prides itself on being “today the first truly Catholic information site”, Media-Press-News, also published an article on the subject with the title: “UN recommends decriminalizing sexual relations with minors”. Enough to fuel the controversy that is also circulating in the United States.
FAKE OFF
Of course, the United Nations has never made such a suggestion. Internet users who shared this message attached a document from the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). It is “a new set of legal principles developed by jurists for a human rights-based approach to criminal laws prohibiting behaviors related to sex, reproduction, drug use, HIV, homelessness and poverty,” as explained on the site.
This set forms the March 8 Principles, the result of work launched in 2018 following a first meeting of legal experts by the ICJ, and in collaboration with the Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). So these recommendations are indeed made by UN agencies. On the other hand, at no time can we read in these Principles of March 8 that it would be necessary to decriminalize paedocriminality.
The principle n° 16 of this text – which can be found on page 22 of the document -, concerns “consensual sexual relations”. It is argued that consensual sex “may in no way be criminalized”, regardless of the type of sexual activity, gender, sexual orientation or marital status of individuals. “As regards the application of criminal law, any legal minimum age of consent must be applied in a non-discriminatory manner. The application cannot be linked to the sex/gender of the persons involved or to the age of consent to marriage”, specifies the text.
A “serious distortion” of the ICJ text
Until then, nothing can leave room for doubt. It is the rest of the text that Internet users have misinterpreted. “Furthermore, sexual relations involving persons under the minimum age of consent as defined by the law of a country, may be consensual in fact, if not in law. In this context, the application of criminal law should reflect the rights and capacity of persons under the age of 18 to make decisions about their participation in consensual sex and their right to be heard on matters affecting them,” is it registered.
Following the explosion of the scandal on social networks, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) spoke, arguing that “the content of the March 8 Principles has been severely misrepresented on a number of social media and websites.” Before specifying: “The Principles of March 8 do not call for the decriminalization of sexual relations with children, nor for the abolition of the minimum age of consent to sexual relations prescribed by States. The ICJ clarifies that states have a clear obligation under international law to protect children from all forms of abuse. »
As a reminder, in France, the legal age of sexual consent is established at 15, and at 18 in the event of incest. However, from the age of 13, minors can consent if the age difference with their partner is less than five years.
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