Dionne Rose, Parliamentary Reporter

Three women's organisations have objected to a proposed legislative clause which would require consultation with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) before determining whether prosecution should occur in cases where marital rape has been proven.

Representatives of the Bureau of Women's Affairs, Woman Inc. and the Association of Women's Organisations raised concerns about the clause in the amendment to the Offences Against the Person Act during yesterday's sitting of Parliament's joint select committee considering amendments to the legislation.

Faith Webster, acting executive director of the Bureau of Women's Affairs, said that, while the bureau recognised that the objective of the legislation was to safeguard the privacy of marriage, it was convinced that the bill was ignoring the fact that, in cases where marital rape occurred, the marriage had already broken down.

Exposure

She said public policy should favour the exposure of these acts, rather than their concealment in the guise of protection of privacy in marriage.

She further pointed out that the requirement for the consent of the DPP appears to reflect the ambivalence of policymakers and legal drafters who seem unable to accept fully the idea that marriage does not constitute consent to sexual abuse.

"We submit that this clause may have the undesirable consequence of reinforcing the tendency of women to refrain from reporting such incidents of rape," she said.

The groups seem to have won over at least one member of the committee, Opposition Member of Parliament Ernest Smith, who said he was in agreement with the position taken by the groups.

Meanwhile, committee chairman Senator A.J. Nicholson said the concerns would be reviewed.

Senator Nicholson, the Justice Minister and Attorney-General, also instructed the committee that the core of its deliberations should be to decide whether the two bills would remain as they are, where rape becomes gender neutral, or whether to maintain rape as traditionally known, where it is an act that can only be committed by a male against a female.

"That is the real core of the deliberations here," he pointed out. "That is the issue that could, or perhaps has caused some sort of dividing lines in the society."