The Press Association of Jamaica has given its support to a submission made by the Jamaica Bar Association to the committee deliberating the Incest (Punishment) Act recommending that cousins be brought within the ambit of the Act.

Making a submission to the committee during Wednesday’s sitting, first vice-president of the PAJ, Hylton Dennis, said “to do otherwise would be a travesty of justice if relations that are not blood relations like step-parents and persons in loco parentis relationships are included”.

“We do not support the view advanced that the historical practice of excluding cousins should stand, or that prominent persons in society who are known to have indulged in sexual relations with a cousin, leading to marriages in some instances, would now be regarded with disgust as a consequence of the amendment,” Dennis argued.

The PAJ’s argument was in relation to one of the main areas of change in the act which proposes to, among other things, broaden the scope of persons who can be found guilty of the offence. Such persons include, among others, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces and persons in loco parentis relationships (ie persons who are not parents but are in parental-type relationships with children).

According to the PAJ, ‘first cousins’ should at least be considered under the list of persons.

But Government Senator Donna Scott-Mottley, who was far from happy with the proposal, cautioned against this, arguing instead that legislators were to bear in mind the particular mischief that the bill sought to address.

“I oppose that proposal. Because of our culture, you have gentlemen out there who have numerous children who don’t even know they are related. sometimes they even go by different names,” she pointed out, noting that in instances persons have found themselves romantically and sexually involved and upon deciding to get married discover that they are related.

“Sometimes you have to look at the mischief which you are trying to address, and the mischief you are trying to address is not the fact of people having those kinds of sexual relationships; we are talking about an incest punishment act which is dealing with situations that are taking place within the household where the person forcing themself on the other individual has power, dominance, control and authority,” the senator argued.

Furthermore, she said, the intent of the act was not to capture ‘every single relationship’.

“Let us move a little bit cautiously, let us think about what it is we are trying to achieve. We are not trying to outlaw relationships, we are not trying to say if you marry your third or your fifth cousin you are committing an offence,” she added.

Attorney-General and Committee chair Senator AJ Nicholson, in noting the concerns, said further consideration will have to be given as to how step-relations would be treated in the bill.

In the meantime, the committee is to take a second look at the draft definition of ‘sexual intercourse’ under the Offences Against the Person Act.

The bill defines ‘sexual intercourse’ as certain sexual acts, including anal and oral sex and the use of inanimate objects.

“If you move away from the traditional acknowledgement of what is known as sexual intercourse you are likely to invite people to think that you are tinkering with the buggery law, and that’s one of the reasons among others that it is recommended that you don’t move away from the traditional understanding of it, so that you don’t import these things into it,” the attorney-general noted.

He pointed out that this was also the position adopted by the Lawyer’s Christian Fellowship, which has aired its concerns on

the matter.

“That is one of the areas that was giving problems with the first committee years ago. the Lawyer’s Christian Fellowship is saying you should not bring in things like anus and mouth and all those things. I would prefer if we don’t go in that direction,” Nicholson advised.

In the end, committee members decided that it was best to refrain from changing the traditional concept of sexual intercourse, which is now understood to be sexual relations between a man and a woman, to include other penetrative acts.