Dear Editor,
I WOULD like to voice my concerns regarding the relentless pursuit by foreign gender rights and human rights activist groups and NGOs in their campaign to increase the age of sexual consent in Guyana from 16 to 18, or even higher.

First of all, the foreign NGOs and gender rights activists are claiming that increasing the age of sexual consent in Guyana will decrease teenage pregnancies, but increasing the age of consent will more likely cause consenting teenagers to have their relationships in secret, because the older partner, who might be 18, will become subject to imprisonment if his girlfriend is 17.

Additionally, there were, in 2005, numerous calls from foreign gender rights activists and NGOs to increase the age of consent from 13. It was agreed by the PPP/C administration and various stakeholders in 2005, and upon assent of the Sexual Offenses Bill 2010, that 16 is a satisfactory age of consent, because it follows the Commonwealth law, and countries like the United Kingdom has their age of consent at 16 for both heterosexual and homosexual relationships.

Many European countries have their age of consent at 15. China’s age of consent is 14. Therefore, the issue is not the age of consent.

Furthermore, the Sexual Offenses Bill already deals with the prevention of sexual exploitation by authority figures by increasing the age of consent to 18.

The provision shows there is a huge difference between consenting teenagers and young adults as compared to someone abusing their power and authority to coerce a little child into a sexual relationship.

Based on this information, one should question the motives of these foreign rights activists, who aim to impose a law which would cause more harm to society than help to prevent teenage pregnancies.

Under the proposed law these foreign activists promulgate, many older teenagers and young adults will be forced into Camp St. prison for having consensual sexual relationships with 16- or 17-year-old persons. The older teenagers and young adults would be more likely to later become infected with HIV/AIDS and diseases from having forced unprotected anal sex and drug use while in prison.

In other words: why are these foreign activists proposing a law which will criminalize teenagers, destroy the lives of consenting teenagers, and increase the risk of HIV/AIDS, crime and poverty in our society?

I propose that the foreign rights activists demand that American teachers who engage in sex with prepubescent students be given similar jail time if the offender were a male teacher. However, these foreign rights activists only care to criminalize teenagers and put more people in jail using deceptive measures. Therefore, I urge the current government to consider allowing access for 16- and 17-year-old people to sexual health services, rather than creating a law which will criminalize thousands of older teenagers and create a burden on society due to increased strain on resources for prisoners, HIV/AIDS from anal rape in prison, and poverty and increased crime due to the stigma of being incarcerated.
Sincerely,
MARVIN PERSAUD