The United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on violence against women (VAW), Dubravka Šimonović, in her report on rape has recommended that states across the world incorporate international human rights (IHR) standards on rape into their national laws for the criminalization and prosecution of rape in respect of all the constitutive elements of the crime of rape.
Although rape has been criminalized in a large number of states, it remains one of the most widespread crimes with the majority of perpetrators enjoying impunity and most women victims failing to report it, the Special Rapporteur observed in her report submitted for the forty-seventh session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) scheduled for 21 June–9 July 2021. This is her last report as the UN Special Rapporteur on VAW as her term in office ends in July this year.
Submitted pursuant to HRC resolution 41/17, the report describes the activities that the Special Rapporteur has undertaken and addresses the theme of rape as a grave, systematic, and widespread human rights violation, a crime, and a manifestation of gender-based violence against women and girls, and its prevention.
- According to the report, globally one in three women and girls has been subjected to gender-based violence and one in ten girls has been a victim of rape
- The impunity for perpetrators is now being challenged by many feminist movements such as the Me Too movement and civil society movements in Chile, Spain, and India that are breaking the silence on rape
- Among the states that have not ratified the Rome Statute, only Myanmar had no statute of limitation for rape in times of peace or conflict
- Having a statute of limitation for the prosecution of rape contributes to the widespread impunity for perpetrators
- Nepal’s statute of limitation that requires rape to be reported within a year prevented the prosecution of rape cases that occurred during the conflict (Nepal had not ratified the Rome Statute)
- Although, in accordance with IHR standards in many states, marital rape is criminalized, in a significant number of states this is explicitly excluded from criminalization
- Almost half of the 54 Commonwealth States still need to amend their legislation to remove the marital rape exception
- States including Bahamas, Bangladesh, India, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nigeria, Samoa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and the Syrian Arab Republic still exclude marital rape from criminalization
- In Nepal and Rwanda, while marital rape is criminalized, it is punishable by reduced sentences
- In Morocco, rape is criminalized as an act by which a man has sexual intercourse with a woman against her will
- An important feature of consent is the age of sexual consent which is among the most contentious issues related to the criminalization of rape
- The majority of states set the legal age of sexual consent at 15, 16, or 18 years
- Virginity testing is still being reported in some states i.e., in Armenia, an ordinance by the Ministry of Health provides for forensic medical examinations including the identification of sexual condition, sexual integrity, and virginity
Emphasizing that states should review and abolish all mitigating circumstances that are not in accordance with IHR standards, especially the ‘marry your rapist’ provisions and cease their application on the basis of gender stereotypes and myths on rape, the Special Rapporteur has recommended that rape is criminalized using a definition of rape that covers all persons, includes marital rape, and all acts of penetration of a sexual nature and explicitly includes lack of consent at its centre.
