The age of consent debate: Where does Ireland stand?
Ireland has one of the highest ages of consent in the EU. And until recently, Vatican City had the lowest, reports Peter O’Dwyer.
VATICAN City is a curious place. The walled Roman enclave is, of course, home to his Holiness but peculiarly, it is also home of the world’s highest per capita crime rate.
There is a straightforward explanation for this, however, given that fewer than 850 people live in the city. Thousands of tourists visit every year and pickpocketing is rampant. Another oddity that existed until last year is a little harder to explain, though — the exceptionally low age of consent for sexual activity in the State. In July of last year, Pope Francis raised the age of consent to 18 — the joint highest in Europe. Prior to his intervention it stood at just 12.
Worldwide, only Angola, Mexico and the Philippines have minimum ages of consent as low, although variations occur for a variety of reasons in what is a complex issue especially when considered across national boundaries.
In the Vatican’s case, the anomaly is again a little more convoluted due to the convergence of Italian and Papal law. In signing the Lateran Treaty of 1929, Vatican City became an entirely sovereign State but also adopted the Italian criminal code.
Italian law, in theory if not always practise, is intended to play second fiddle to divine law, Papal decrees and canon law; the laws of Catholicism in other words. As all sex outside of marriage is illicit in the eyes of the Church and, according to canon law, a man must be 16 and a “woman” 14 before they can marry, it’s easy to see how difficulties arise.
Add to the mix that the age of consent at the time of the Lateran Treaty was 12 but in modern-day Italy is now 14 and the Pope’s intervention is a welcome clarification amidst a fog of numbers, ancient laws and decrees.
As Vatican City climbed the age of consent ladder from the lowest rung to highest, where do other EU states fall between the two extremes and is there any uniformity across the Union? The simple answer is no, and the EU has no plans to harmonise ages of consent, either.
“The age of consent would definitely not be an area where the EU would seek to harmonise as it is a core Member State right well beyond the remit of the EU,” a European Commission spokesperson said.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid-20264694.html