Zimbabwe Raises Age Of Consent To 18 Years
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has invoked the Presidential Powers Act to amend the Criminal Law Code and reinstate the age of consent to eighteen (18) years.
The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts.
It is the minimum age at which a person is considered old enough to be able to legally agree to sexual activity.
In 2022, sections of Criminal Law on sexual crimes were ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.
These were sections that described “young people”, for the purposes of sexual consent, as only a boy or girl under 16.
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The court suspended the ruling for 12 months to give Parliament time to draft a better law. However, the 12 months expired on 24 May 2023 before this was done.
As a result, a legal loophole was created that allowed paedophiles to get off scot-free. This loophole has now been closed.
Statutory Instrument 2 of 2024 (Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) (Criminal Laws (Protection of Children and Young Persons) Regulations, 2024) has criminalised having sexual intercourse with anyone below the age of 18. Offenders face up to 10 years imprisonment.
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