U. N. Comes Under Fire for Suggesting Young Kids Have a Right to Engage in Sex
By John Grimaldi
Is the U.N. saying young children have a right to engage in consensual sex-- including consensual sex with an adult? It certainly appears to have officially announced that the world needs to adopt a kinder, gentler approach to what is commonly known as “Statutory Rape” in the civilized world. If not, what does the United Nations mean when it publishes a declaration that: “sexual conduct involving persons below the domestically prescribed minimum age of consent to sex may be consensual in fact, if not in law. In this context, the enforcement of criminal law should reflect the rights and capacity of persons under 18 years of age to make decisions about engaging in consensual sexual conduct and their right to be heard in matters concerning them.”
The U.N. document, The 8 March Principles for a Human Rights-Based Approach to Criminal Law Proscribing Conduct Associated with Sex, is the handiwork of the International Committee of Jurists, the UNAIDS [the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS] and the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
It goes on to state that "Pursuant to their evolving capacities and progressive autonomy, persons under 18 years of age should participate in decisions affecting them, with due regard to their age, maturity, and best interests, and with specific attention to non-discrimination guarantees." Although the report doesn’t overtly suggest sex with minors should be legalized, it claims that children younger than 18 years of age are capable of willingly having sex with older individuals, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
The paper goes on to quote Grace Melton, who served as a public delegate on the U.S. delegation to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, led by former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and who told the Free Beacon, "this document advocates for a lot of troubling ideas and bad policies. Not only does it suggest that minors may be mature enough to consent to sexual activity, but it also asserts that 'criminal law may not in any way impair' the so-called right to abortion or to 'gender-affirming care.' [It] illustrates some of the consequences of the progressive left's expansion of what constitutes 'human rights’."
As one observer put it, “Worse yet, the UN report effectively and insidiously provides adults who engage in sex with underage children an affirmative defense against committing statutory rape … Indeed, the report, in effect, suggests it is no longer criminal conduct and detracts from the protections accorded an under-age girl or boy against intimidation to say it was consensual.”
The reaction to the "The 8 March Principles” came under fire on the social media site, Twitter, says Fox News. In its coverage of the report, Fox quoted a Twitter post by women’s rights activist Michelle Uriarau of Melbourne, Australia, who wrote "This hideous UN report … seeks to decriminalize sex — even between children and minors. Evil." The report also quoted Canadian Olympic gold medalist Theo Fleury who succinctly declared, “The UN is full of pedophiles!!!!"
