KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica AIDS Support for Life (JASL) is reiterating its call for the broadening of the definition of sexual intercourse to provide greater protection for our women and girls and remove the bias in the law towards men and boys.

The call follows Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern, Lisa Hanna’s motion in Parliament last Tuesday, June 11.

READ: Here we go again: Hanna reopens long-running contention on definition of rape

The motion supports positions put forward by JASL almost a decade ago.

It noted that in a submission to a 2016 Joint Select Committee of Parliament reviewing the sexual offences and related acts, the JASL recommended that the Sexual Offences Act adopt a gender neutral language throughout the act; broaden the definition of sexual intercourse to include the penetration of the mouth or anus by a penis, any other body part or object; and broaden the offence of rape to include non- consensual penetration of the mouth or anus by a penis or object and remove the exemptions for marital rape.

A report put out by the committee in December 2018 showed that of these three recommendations only the latter part of recommendation three was accepted by the committee and that was for the removal of the marital rape provisions.

“The Jamaican Sexual Offences Act [SOA] defines sexual intercourse as ‘penetration of the vagina of one person by the penis of another person’. We submit that such gender specific and orifice specific language provides no protection for our men and boys if it is that they encounter forced anal or oral penetration via penis or manipulated object,” the JASL had said in its 2016 submission to Parliament.

Additionally, JASL pointed out that the language provides limited protection to our women and girls if it is that they are also forcefully penetrated in the mouth and anus with a penis or object.

“We submit that the definition of sexual intercourse be broadened to include (i) the penetration of a person’s anus or mouth with the penis of another person or object manipulated by another person (EXCEPT for medical purposes) and (ii) adopt a gender neutral language,” JASL outlined in its 2016 submission to Parliament.

In the submission the organisation continued to argue that, “having a broadened definition of ‘sexual intercourse’ will now allow for the broadening of the offence of rape to capture this definition. As it stands, the definition of rape as set out in Section 3 (1) of the SOA provides no protection for persons who experience forced anal and oral penetration”.

The JASL said it is of the view that not only is rape and sexual assault a serious social issue but it is also a public health one which must quickly be addressed.

It noted that as a service provider, individuals who experience sexual assault are at risk of a range of medium to long term health problems including sexual transmitted diseases such as HIV and syphilis, pregnancy, mental health problems and attempted suicide.

In light of its decade-long call of action to address these legislative shortfalls, the JASL is calling on all members of both Houses of Parliament as well as Jamaicans to support this position as “the current state of law is untenable, if we are serious about protecting the rights of all”.