Austin Frederic Harrison (1873-1928)
was a notable British journalist and Editor, who became acclaimed in the
thinking of media historians, because of his remarkable editorship of the
English Review from 1909 until 1923. This is because at the time he assumed
duty as editor of the English Review the circulation of the paper which
plummeted to as low as 1,000 rose to 18,000 by 1911.
R.N. Munshi, in his recent book “World
Famous Quotations,” credited Austin Harrison with making an emphatic
statement about sex as follows; “A woman is judged by sex, a man by life”.
A keen observer of the world of
entertainment reports emanating from Hollywood in the United States of America
and the British capital of London will note that the female gender has
increasingly come under greater focus and caricature as a sex symbol.
In this piece however, our attention
is not focused on the achievements in the media industry of Austin Harrison but
on his thought about sex as claimed by the contemporary author aforementioned
in which he seemed to be arguing that the female gender is a sex symbol.
We are therefore returning to the
important issue of sex because of the raging debate in the United Kingdom
regarding whether the age of consent for sex should be adjusted to 15 years as
canvassed by the respected President of the faculty of public health in
Britain- Professor John Ashton. As we know now, the age of consent for sex in
Britain is 16 or older very much close to what obtains in
Nigeria. In Britain for instance a boy who has sex with a girl under 16 is
breaking the law even if she agrees. If she is 13-15 years of age, the boy
could go to prison for two years if convicted. If a girl is under 13 a boy who
had sex with her could be sentenced to life imprisonment. A girl age 16 or over
who has sex with a boy under 16 can be prosecuted for indecent assault. These
facts are contained in the website of http://www.bbc.com/.
Captivated by this swift return to
the topic of sex, I thereby decided to consult the website of the most
respected independent electronic medium in the United Kingdom which is the
SkyNews television.
As a background to this whole debate
and talk about sex, it must be noted that the faculty of public health is a
part of the Royal Colleges of physicians, charged with the legal responsibility
and duty of giving advice to ministers and civil servants, although it is said
to be independent.
The call for a backward review of
age of consent for sex in the United Kingdom has however received considerable
negative reactions both from official and un-official segments.
In a story anchored in the SkyNews
television on November 18th 2013, the reporter concluded that Prof Ashton's intervention comes against a backdrop of
official figures which suggest that up to a third of teenagers have sex before
the present age of consent of 16.
There are however scanty
report showing how many violators have had to face the full weight of the law
even in Britain that is reputable for strict compliance to the letters and
principles of the Rule of Law.
Professor Ashton told
Sky News: "The problem we have got is we have got this massive
sexualisation and pornographication of childhood and early adolescence.
Lowering the age would make it easier for 15-year-olds to get
contraception".
"Huge commercial
interests - pop music, fashion, internet pornography everywhere, social media.
There doesn't seem to be any real appetite among politicians and leaders to
address this. in the meantime, our young people are becoming sexually active at
younger and younger ages. If we are not going to create an environment where
they are not sexualised, then we need to address their needs," Professor
Ashton argues.
He added: "What we
know from other European countries that have lower ages of sexual consent, I am
thinking here particularly about the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, is that
very often what that leads to is where there's an atmosphere of discussion
within the family, within the school, within the social environment, they
actually defer putting off sex, even though the age of consent is lower, and
that they have lower teenage pregnancy rates".
"It also means if
they are not indulging in what's illegal activity, they won't be frightened to
come forward for help if they are getting involved in a dangerous situation
with an older male who's grooming them or what have you", he stated.
"We have got this
conundrum. Where you have got illegal activity which large numbers of people
are engaging in, you are creating an environment of risk, potential abuse,
potential exploitation", he argued further.
"We need to do
something about the sexualisation of childhood, and we need to do something
about responding properly to the needs of young people who are becoming
sexually active, perhaps with somebody of a similar age where it is part of a
normal maturing process into adult life, but also so that we can begin to
tackle this problem of girls particularly, being exploited by older
males", so says Professor Ashton.
From all intents and
purposes, Professor Ashton’s point of view is cogent, verifiable and germane
just as these disturbing trends he intellectually and pragmatically espoused
and deposited in the public domain for debate have global application because
even in Nigeria, the society is battling with an avalanche of cases of sexual
violations of teenage girls and also growing trend of teenage pregnancies.
The situation in Nigeria
has even assumed a dramatic stage because we now have an unknown phenomenon called
babies’ factories that have sprung up from all corners of Nigeria run by
organized crime gangs who maintain illegal maternity facilities whereby teenage
girls from poor homes are lured into illegal pregnancies and paid to sell
off their babies to rich clients.
In Nigeria, the age of
consent for sex is at par with the politically recognized universal adult
suffrage put at eighteen years. This age of consent for sex put at 18 years in
Nigeria is said to have derived from the African charter on the Rights and
welfare of the child of 1990 which legal scholars have identified as the second
major human rights treaty in the African continent just as Nigeria ratified it
on June 23rd 2001.
The African charter on
the Rights and welfare of the child, 1990 was adopted on July 11th 1990 in the
defunct organization of African Unity (now African Union) and it came into
force on November 29th 1999.
Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, is a
reputable law teacher who has achieved fame and acclaim in her chosen
profession.
In her scholarly book
titled; “Women, Law and Human Rights: global and national perspectives,”
this brilliant writer had lucidly argued that the African charter on the Rights
and welfare of the child came at the heels of the United Nations convention on
the Rights of the child which in her intellectual conclusion, similarly
recognized wide range of rights, civil and political, socio, economic and
cultural as well as right to development.
Ezeilo argued that the
African version is higher in purity, form and substance than the United Nations
convention on the Rights of the child.
She wrote thus; “It can
be argued, albeit effectively, that this Charter is of higher threshold than
the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, as it dealt with a subject
that the latter shied away from. For example, Article 21 stipulates that:
State Parties to the present Charter shall take all appropriate measures to
eliminate harmful social and cultural practices affecting the welfare, dignity,
normal growth and development of the child and in particular; that those
customs and practices prejudicial to the health or life of the child; and that
those customs and practices discriminatory to the child on the grounds of sex
or other status [must be abolished].
Secondly, the African
charter stated clearly how illegal and unconstitutional child marriage and the
betrothal of girls and boys is and shall be prohibited and effective action,
including legislation, shall be taken to specify the minimum age of marriage to
be 18 years and make registration of all marriages in an official registry
compulsory.
From the submissions of
Professor Ezeilo grounded in extant laws, it is assumed that 18 years is the
official age of consent for sex in Africa. But why do we have so much teenage
pregnancies by girls as little as 14 in Nigeria even with this higher age of
consent?
Another question is why
relevant government agencies are not compelled by law to enforce relevant laws
against sexual violations of girls who are less than 18 years?
Not long ago, a serving
Nigerian Senator who participated in the passage of a national child rights law
which stipulates 18 years as age of consent for sex, was in the news for
flagrantly breaching this law by marrying a 13 year old Egyptian girl-child in
a wedding ceremony consummated in Abuja whereby this same law was passed and
signed.
In most parts of Europe
whereby the age of consent for sex is significantly lower, there are almost
total absence of such negative trends such as teenage pregnancies and high rate
of sexually transmitted diseases that are present in Britain and in greater
proportion in Nigeria.
David Niven a blogger
added his voice to this raging debate by saying that; “The debate, however, is
much more complex than reactions on an instinctive level. To my mind there are
serious anomalies in some of our European partner countries that just don’t
seem to make safeguarding sense. Germany for example, the power house of
European economy and a country considered to be a sophisticated democracy still
has the age of consent at 14 as long as a person over the age of 21 does not
exploit a 14-15 year-old person’s lack of capacity for sexual
self-determination.”
“Spain has recently
engaged in a critical debate following various cases that have come to light
(one in particular where child of 13 insisted that she was having a consensual
relationship with a man of 39], this was legal. Now the Spanish authorities are
speaking out in favour of increasing the age of consent to 16 but apparently
are receiving cultural objections from the large Romany community in Spain, who
insist the age of marriage is part of their tradition at 13", David Niven
observed.
For me, I am happy that
we are gradually returning to this all important romantic question of sex vis-à-vis
the most acceptable age of consent for sex.
In Nigeria, whereby
abortion and other contraceptives are not officially made available to
youngsters, one begins to wonder why the law enforcement mechanism is weak in
apprehending and legally sanctioning morally depraved male adults who engage in
the wanton sexual violations of teenage girls who are far below the age of
consent for sex in compliance with extant legal provisions.
There is therefore the
urgent need for national debate to begin on ways and means of protecting these
vulnerable girls and also on how to use effective law enforcement to check such
illegalities including the growing trend of babies factories which seem
unfortunately to be native and/or indigenous to Nigeria.
* Emmanuel Onwubiko; Head; HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA; blogs@www.huriwa.blogspot.com; www.huriwa.org.
18/11/2013
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