SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION OF BOYS IN SOUTH ASIA A ...

Amendment) Act 2006; and the Pakistan Penal Code 1860. With the exception of some
amendments, Pakistan shares the nineteenth century British Penal Code with Bangladesh and
India.
Boys are inadequately protected from both sexual abuse and sexual exploitation in Pakistan
law. There is an absence of legislation clearly prohibiting child sexual abuse, and the legal
definitions of sexual abuse, sexual consent and trafficking are inadequate. The sexual abuse
of boys is not only generally ignored in legislation, but some laws severely penalize boys for
sexual activities with other males, whether or not they are coerced into the activities.
Trafficking laws are focused on external trafficking and primarily apply to girls. Key passages
in legislation that could address trafficking of boys, such as laws against abduction, apply
only to boys below the age of 15.
7.2.1 Definition of a child
The legal age of children in Pakistani law varies from 14 to 18. The Prevention and Control
of Human Trafficking Ordinance 2002 (Trafficking Ordinance) defines a child as a person
who is under 18 years. While there is no specified age for sexual consent, the legal age for
marriage is 16 for girls and 18 for boys. However, the Offence of Zina (Enforcement of
Hudood) Ordinance 1979 prescribes the age of adulthood for boys as 18 and for girls as either
16 or the onset of puberty, whichever comes earlier.
As dictated by the Hudood Ordinance, Pakistan law holds all persons, male and female,
regardless of age, criminally responsible for a number of crimes including rape and
adultery. 350 Children are given consideration only in the level of their punishment. For crimes
not addressed in the Hudood Ordinance, laws such as the Penal Code prescribe the age of
criminal responsibility as 7 years. Under a proposed child protection bill, submitted to
Parliament in 2007 and awaiting approval, the minimum age for criminal responsibility
would be raised from 7 to 12 years, in compliance with international standards. 351
The Employment of Children Act 1991 forbids the use of children under 14 in hazardous
labour, but permits them in ‘non-hazardous’ work. The act does not forbid children under 14
from working in hotels or restaurants –situations known to be conducive to the sexual abuse
of boys in Pakistan.
7.2.2 Sexual abuse
Pakistan has no specific legislation addressing sexual intercourse with a child, which is in all
cases considered rape. Among the diverse forms of child sexual abuse, Pakistan legislation
only criminalizes rape. It does not address sexual harassment, oral sex, indecent touching,
molestation, using indecent sexually explicit language with a child as well as indecent
exposure and showing children pornographic material.
350 UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia, 2005, ‘South Asia and the minimum age of criminal responsibility’.
351 National Commission for Child Welfare and Development, 2007, ‘Pakistan’s consolidated third and fourth
periodic report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’.
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