Subject: Re: Age of Consent (was Re: KRON (San Francisco) report on NAMB)
From: [email-masked] (MICHAEL JONES)
Date: 20 Jan 92 19:17:00 GMT

New York University Law Review 
                                 October,  1990 
                             65 N.Y.U.L. Rev. 1044, 1090 

NOTE: FINDING A CONSENSUS ON EQUALITY: THE  HOMOSEXUAL  AGE OF CONSENT AND THE 
EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS 

LAURENCE R. HELFER 

[omitted about 40 pages]

The following chart documents the ages of consent in the Contracting States 
in 1990, the footnotes showing recent modifications, including those made 
after the Committee's report in 1981. n321 

   n321 See P. Tatchell, Out in Europe: A Guide to Lesbian and Gay Rights in 30 
European Countries 18-19 (1990).  No information is available on the age of 
consent in force in San Marino.

                                      MALE 
                                  HOMOSEXUALS  LESBIANS  HETEROSEXUALS 
Spain n322                         12          12        12 
Italy n323                         14          14        14 
Denmark n324                       15          15        15 
France n325                        15          15        15 
Greece n326                        15          15        15 
Sweden n327                        15          15        15 
Belgium n328                       16          16        16 
Netherlands n329                   16          16        16 
Norway n330                        16          16        16 
Portugal n331                      16          16        16 
Switzerland n332                   16          16        16 
Malta n333                         18          18        18 
Turkey n334                        18          18        18 
Austria n335                       18          14        14 
Finland n336                       18          18        16 
Federal Republic of Germany n337   18          14        14 
Iceland n338                       18          16        16 
Luxembourg n339                    18          14        14 
Liechtenstein n340                 18          14        14 
United Kingdom n341                21          16        16 
Cyprus n342                       n/a          16        16 
Ireland n343                      n/a          17        17 

   n322 Sexual relations with adolescents between the ages of 12 and 16 are an 
offense if the younger person is tricked or pressured.  Id. at 25. 

   n323 Sexual relations with adolescents between the ages of 14 and 16 are 
punishable if the younger person is "sexually innocent" and "morally pure" and 
if he or she complains to the police.  Id. at 21. 

   n324 Uniform age of consent introduced in 1976.  Id. at 15. 

   n325 Homosexual age of consent reduced from 21 to 18 in 1978 and to 15 in 
1982.  Id. at 16. 

   n326 Until 1987, the age of consent was 16 for heterosexuals and lesbians, 
and 17 for gay men. 
Id. at 17. 

   n327 Uniform age of consent introduced in 1978.  Id. at 26. 
   n328 Homosexual age of consent reduced from 18 in 1985.  Id. at 13. 

   n329 Uniform age of consent introduced in 1971.  Id. at 22. 

   n330 Uniform age of consent introduced in 1972.  Id. at 23. 

   n331 Uniform age of consent introduced in 1852.  Id. at 24. 

   n332 In Switzerland, it remains an offense for an adult male to "seduce" any 
adolescent between the ages of 16 and 20.  A government commission has 
recommended that this section of the penal code be repealed.  Id. at 26-27. 

   n333 There is no specific age of consent for any form of sexual orientation. 
In practice, however, the age of majority is treated as the age of consent.  Id. 
at 22. 

   n334 Homosexuality has never been banned in modern times.  Id. at 27. 

   n335 Higher age of consent for homosexuals imposed in 1971 when total 
prohibition of homosexual acts was ended.  Id. at 12. 

   n336 Discriminatory age of consent imposed in 1971.  Id. at 16. 

   n337 Homosexual age of consent reduced from 21 to 18 in 1973.  The German 
Democratic Republic maintains a uniform age of consent at 14, which was 
introduced in 1989.  Id. at 17, 27.  The GDR's territory became subject to the 
Convention as part of the new, united Germany in October 1990.  See Colitt, 
Pastor Helps to Forge the Future of a New Germany, Fin. Times, May 12, 1990, at 
2. 

   n338 A bill to remove all distinctions between heterosexuality and 
homosexuality from the penal code is under consideration by the Icelandic 
parliament and is expected to become law soon.  P. Tatchell, supra note 321, at 
20. 

   n339 Discriminatory age of consent introduced in 1971.  Law reform to 
equalize the age of consent is currently under consideration.  Id. at 22. 

   n340 Total ban on consensual homosexual sodomy lifted in 1988.  See Int'l 
Lesbian & Gay Ass'n, Second ILGA Pink Book: A Global View of Lesbian and Gay 
Liberation and Oppression 235 (1988). 

   n341 Consensual adult homosexual sodomy decriminalized in 1967, and age of 
consent fixed at 21 in England and Wales.  Decriminalization extended to 
Scotland in 1980 and Northern Ireland in 1982.  P. Tatchell, supra note 321, at 
29. 

   n342 The island of Cyprus currently is divided between Greeks and Turks.  In 
the Greek area, all homosexual acts between men are outlawed.  Id. at 14. 

   n343 Law Reform Comm'n, Consultation Paper on Child Sexual Abuse 54, 58 
(1989).  In June, 1990, David Norris, the Irish senator who challenged Ireland's 
sodomy laws before the European Court of Human Rights, initiated a late-night 
proposal to repeal the laws after the Senate had refused to consider reforming 
the law for over a year.  Although only two other senators were present -- the 
minimum number required to take such action -- the law reform was adopted.  See 
World Gay News: Irish Sodomy Law Dies After Parliamentary Maneuver, Au Courant, 
Sept. 10, 1990, at 20.