WHY IS 12 YEARS OLD ALARMINGLY LOW?
At 12 years old, children are still biologically and mentally underdeveloped. Biological development
The Philippines has the 2nd lowest minimum age of sexual consent in the world. 12 A comparative observation of countries’ laws shows that the Philippines has the second lowest minimum age for determining statutory rape in the world. Too low by international conventions The 2016 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Concluding Observations on the Philippines’ Combined 7th and 8th Periodic Reports raised concerns that the minimum age of sexual consent is set too low at 12 years and recommended that the age should be raised to at least 16 years old. Similarly, the UN CRC advised the Philippine government to “set a clearly defined minimum age of sexual consent at an internationally acceptable level in its domestic law”.
• First menses (menarche) is not an indicator of the readiness of the girl’s body for sexual intercourse • The average age of menarche in the Philippines is 12-13 years old. 1O
Mental development • The area of the brain
responsible for cognitive development and control inhibitions reaches maturity only at around age 25. 11
• The center on decision-making and understanding consequences and risk, have not yet fully developed at 12 years and continues to develop at 18 years. A higher age would allow more time for the child’s brain and body to develop and contribute to his/her capacity to make an informed decision regarding sexual activity. At 12, children are physically and emotionally not ready yet to deal with the consequences of sexual activity, such as early pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
AGE OF CONSENT 13
16 YEARS OLD WORLD WIDE AVERAGE
21 YEARS OLD HIGHEST AGE SET
14-18 YEARS OLD SOUTH EAST ASIA
11 YEARS OLD NIGERIA
12 YEARS OLD PHILIPPINES
12 YEARS OLD ANGOLA
While the UN CRC Committee did not specify a specific age, its Concluding Observations provided some guidance on unacceptable lower limits. For instance, it found some country’s minimum age of sexual consent of 13 years to be “very low”. 14
04-05 | RAISING THE ALARM: A POLICY BRIEF ON INCREASING THE AGE OF STATUTORY RAPE
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