By
Abhijit Pandya
13:50 EST, 9 April 2012
|
01:56 EST, 10 April 2012
Shocking: Brazil’s highest criminal court has ruled that there was no crime in a man having sex with a girl aged 12 (picture posed by model)
In an extraordinary ruling just over a fortnight ago, Brazil’s highest criminal court ruled that there was no crime in a man having sex with a girl who was of the age of 12 years.
In an interesting twist of immoral legal chicanery, the court decided that it would not be automatic for sex with a girl of under 14 years to be rape (sex without consent).
This undermines the entire purpose of an age limit for sex. This is to imply that below a certain age children are vulnerable to be taken advantage of, and their consent to sexual activity may be dubiously obtained.
It is more than likely that their consent will be based on a poor understanding of the long-term risks and implications of sexual disease and pregnancy.
This ruling will not just be a shock for those of us who morally deplore Britain’s 16 year old limit, but swallow it realising the difficulty in enforcing a higher age band for legitimate sex.
This ruling is a blow for all those who globally campaign for better treatment and education for young children. This includes those who fight for moderate education of young persons of the risks of sexually transmitted diseases.
It is a particularly blow for those who have been fighting against the proliferation of child prostitution in Brazil.
The ruling seems to have occurred as a result of a lack of clarity in the current national law expressly outlawing sex at fourteen and not making it clear that all sex below that age is illegal and rape.
Contradiction: Brazil enjoys a thriving economy, but this decision does not seem very socially progressive
Brazil’s economy may be about to overtake Britain’s in global rankings, but its treatment of children is even more appalling than the UK’s.
A UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund) supported report in 2006 found that child prostitution occurs in at least a sixth of the municipalities in Brazil.
With the European Convention of Human Rights forcing our courts to perversely deliberate over the human rights of paedophiles, Brazil’s court judgment is a timely reminder how the law and courts can get it very wrong indeed on one of our most important issues of all- child protection.
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There was a case recently in Luton UK where a judge deemed that no crime had been committed when a girl of 11 “enjoyed sex with several men at the same time” who were aged around 21. The reason he felt no crime was committed- she looked 14
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Why is Brazil not ostricised by the international politicians??.Everything about Brazil is backward, it is a rich country full of poverty stricken citizens and it is massively unfair competition for governments that care about their peoples standard of living.
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