THE Joint Select Committee considering the Offences Against the Person Act and the Incest (Punishment) Act on Wednesday signed off on a final report after some 16 meetings.

Committee Chair and Attorney General Senator AJ Nicholson said the report will be tabled in the Senate today, and then in the House of Representatives.

Nicholson said the Bills when drafted and approved by Cabinet, are expected to be debated and passed into law before the end of the calendar year.

“It is likely to be debated in the Senate first because that is where the Bills originated and then in the House of Representatives, there are no valid reasons why the debates could not be concluded before the occurrence of a certain event,” Nicholson said in a veiled reference to the upcoming elections which are due by October of this year.

In the meantime, Nicholson said the onus was now on the Ministry of Health to ensure that the public education campaign on the provision is mounted.

“My concern now is the public education process. I would like that by the time the report comes to be debated, it will be reported that it (campaign) is taking some form,” Nicholson said.

According to the him, “at least the format which it is to take must be told to the House of Representatives”, which is going to be debating the actual Bills in “a number of weeks”.

Nicholson said the campaign and the passage of the legislation was imperative given the increased incidents of sexual indiscretions.

“What I hear going on in the schools is not a joke and it really can’t continue,” he noted.

The committee during its deliberations on the Bills, accepted several proposals which when implemented will have far-reaching implications for the treatment of sexual offences within the justice system.

Key among them will be an amendment to the Offences Against the Person Act to make the offence of rape gender-neutral, meaning it can be committed by a male or female against both male and female. Previous proposals to provide a statutory definition of rape and sexual intercourse and extend ‘rape’ beyond vaginal penetration by a penis has since been thrown out by the committee. Instead, it was agreed that the traditional understanding of rape would be kept, and have other sexual acts recognised under further offences elsewhere in the provision and under a new Sexual Offences Act.

Under the Act, the penalty for marital rape will now be the same applied for rape under the law.

Under the current Act, the maximum penalty for rape is life imprisonment, while attempted rape where the offender is armed, attracts a ten-year sentence. The decision was also taken to abolish the presumption that a boy under the age of 14 years cannot be found guilty of rape.

Meanwhile, one main change to the Incest Punishment Act will be to, among other things, create a single, gender-neutral incest offence by persons of 16 years and older, and broaden the scope of persons who can be found guilty of the offence to include, among others, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces and persons in loco parentis relationships (persons, not parents, in parental-type relationships with children) as well as persons in positions of trust. It also provides for the reclassification of the offence of incest as a felony, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment (as is the case for rape).