The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

ATTORNEY General Ryan Pinder says he hopes to present draft legislation that addresses juvenile matters, including the age of consent, to Cabinet as early as next week.

Mr Pinder made the comments when asked for an update on the compendium of legislation that his ministry is working on to address such issues of national concern as gender-based violence and sexual assault among other things.

Recently, there have been heightened calls for the government to strengthen legislation to better protect minors after a 40-year-old man was given a four-year sentence for unlawful sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl who he impregnated.

 The current age of consent is 16. However, some people, including Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper, believe that age should be raised to 18.

 Yesterday, Mr Pinder reiterated that his ministry is addressing “inconsistencies” in law with the age of consent.

 He also said that other matters relating to citizenship and sexual assault will be looked at and addressed separately.

 He said: “We have split that up (the compendium of legislation) into three separate advancements because they deal with different items and it’s rather voluminous, so we now split that up to deal with immigration, citizenship and asylum as one block with sexual assault matters as another block and then equalising the juvenile ages and looking at all that as a third block for human rights matters with respect to juveniles.

 “And if you would actually look at all the different pieces of legislation in the country that deals with juveniles, you’ll see numerous inconsistencies and ages of what you can do as a juvenile and not do as a juvenile. So, for instance, you can get married at a certain age but you can’t go and get medical treatment by yourself at a certain age so these things are all inconsistencies throughout.

 “So what we’re looking to do on the juvenile side is we’re looking to provide recommendations to Cabinet on all these discrepancies throughout all these different pieces of legislation and get a consensus on equalising the age so there is less confusion and there’s more routine and transparency on how we deal with juvenile matters.

 “What I would like to do is bring that as the first block to Cabinet maybe as soon as next week and then bring the second block, maybe the sexual offences matters and then the immigration citizens matters, but I will deal with them in independent blocks,” Mr Pinder said.