Advice on the General Scheme of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2014

The Minister for Justice and Equality published the General Scheme of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2014 (“the General Scheme”) on 27th November 2014. The Bill proposes wide ranging reforms of the law, including stronger sanctions aimed at protecting children from sexual exploitation, child pornography and online grooming. As stated, the Bill, when enacted, will implement the EU Directive on Combating the sexual abuse and exploitation of children and child pornography as well as paving the way for Ireland to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on the protection of children against sexual exploitation and abuse.

We believe that there are a number of areas in which the legislation could be enhanced to better serve the interests of children and conform more fully with Ireland’s international human rights obligations, namely with regard to consensual sexual acts between peers; special protection measures for child witnesses; and clear and precise definitions of certain provisions.

• July 2015
• Type: Advice
• Topic: Child protection, Online