An expert opines that China's Rape Law is outdated and must be modified to include male victims of sexual assault. (Photo : Reuters)
For the sake of gender equality, Jia Jian, a legal expert lecturer at the Chongqing-based Southwest University of Political Science and Law, made a proposal last Monday that the Chinese government expand the Criminal Law's definition of rape victims in order to include males.
Jian told the Global Times that the proposed changes aim to protect the rights of men to sexual autonomy. The expert added that several cases of sexual abuses committed against men have gone uncorrected, and victims were ignored rather than safeguarded by the authorities.
One of Jia's proposed changes is to refine the definition of "rape victim" in the Criminal Law, as the current law specifies that only women or underage girls can be rape victims and that the crime of rape applies only on man-to-woman assaults.
The proposal suggested that the law use gender-neutral terms, expanding the rape definition to include both men and women as victims, and the crime to include man-on-man, woman-on-woman and woman-on-man assaults.
Jia added: "This mode has been widely adopted by countries such as Germany, France and Italy, which define the victim of rape as 'others' and equally protect both women and men's sexual rights."
Jia stressed out that women are also capable of rape.
The proposal was greeted with mostly positive response when it was published on Monday by the Procuratorial Daily of the Supreme People's Procuratorate. Many netizens, mostly LGBT activists, expressed their support for Jia's proposal.
Xiao Tie, executive director of the Beijing LGBT Center, said that the LGBT community has been promoting the proposal for a long time.
Liu Junhai, a law professor at the Renmin University of China, said that the proposed changes may solve the legislative gender discrimination.
Lastly, Liu added that China's Criminal Law is outdated and should be modified to keep up with the changing times.
