Hong Kong authorities’ proposed overhaul of the city’s sexual offence laws has gone further than suggestions made by a law reform body, but some advocates remain concerned over a legal defence loophole.
Advocacy groups have welcomed authorities’ proposals to include a list of circumstances that define situations of no consent to a sexual act, as well as adopting gender-neutral wording to cover victims of all genders.
But lingering vagueness over a defence claiming an “honest but mistaken” belief in a victim’s consent, and whether law enforcement and the criminal justice process will reflect the law’s gender-neutral stance, remain concerns for some groups.
“While the first part of the proposed consent clause is well-drafted, leaving such a massive back door that allows ‘mistaken belief’ to override the new statutory definitions would be a disappointment,” Doris Chong Tsz-wai, executive director of the Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women, said.
The Security Bureau submitted a 59-page consultation paper to the Legislative Council on Monday. It outlined the administration’s proposed amendments to existing sexual crimes and laid out dozens of new offences in a major overhaul that came two decades after the Law Reform Commission (LRC) set up a subcommittee in 2006 to examine the issue.
A South China Morning Post check found that some of the administration’s proposals exceeded the scope of the commission’s suggestions.