The ALP made a follow-up submission to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development regarding the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Bill. The submission was made on 15 August 2006 based on a new draft version of the bill.
The arguments and recommendations in this submission are based on a number of human rights and public health considerations. In particular we have focused on the following four areas: the rights of the survivor of sexual assault; the rights of the accused; theimpact of the draft bill on public health measures to limit spread of HIV; and the impact of the bill on state services for survivors of sexual assault. These are not isolated concerns, being interrelated and having an impact on each other.