Layba Zubair has delivered a 12,000 strong petition to Parliament calling for consent law reform in New Zealand.
“Now I know that I’m not alone in my hardship, and I know that because 12,000 who signed agreed with me. They agree with me when I say that right now the definition of consent in our current laws does not reflect the need for free and voluntary agreement at the time of the act.
"They agree with me when I say it is integral and it is necessary that our legislation has clear and affirmative consent laws to keep our youth safe, and they agree with me that it is frankly disturbing that we don’t even have a legal age for consent within our Crimes Act,” Layba Zubair said.
Currently, the Crimes Act does not define what consent is. Instead, the law only defines what consent isn’t.
“It is vital that we reform our consent laws to make them more effective in holding perpetrators accountable for sexual violence and assault.” Layba Zubair said.
Members of Parliament from Labour, National, the Greens and ACT showed up to support the campaign.
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson accepted the petition, and said she fully supports the need for a clear definition of consent.
“We know this is long overdue, we have an opportunity to make right, what we should have made right some time ago,” Davidson said.
HELP Auckland is a charity that provides specialist support for sexual abuse survivors. Executive director Kathryn McPhillips supports the call for consent law reform.
“The current state of our consent legislation is failing both survivors and communities. It has been encouraging to see significant growth in the movement for consent law reform, and we hope that Parliament takes this opportunity to bring the law more in line with public expectations of sexual behaviour,” said McPhillips.
A recent New Zealand Crimes and Victims Survey states that about 35% of females, and 12% of males had experienced sexual assault in their lifetime.
Layba Zubair, the petition organiser, shared her story with 1News about experiencing a sexual assault court case.
“When you take a court case against an assaulter, they only have to prove that there was reasonable grounds of belief for consent, which basically just means that they have to prove that they believed consent was given, not that it actually was and that is extremely detrimental,” Zubair said.
Layba Zubair said she hopes to see the Government “walk alongside” policy advisers and people who work in the system to re-write our laws in a way that keeps communities safe.
“I think this petition, at its core, is sort of a testimony to 13-year-old me who was failed by the legal system again and again, and I know for a fact after this petition that there are so many young women, and so many other young people who are going through the same struggles with the legal system and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
The petition was tabled at Parliament this afternoon, and will be referred to the Petitions Committee.
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