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A pivotal constitutional battle over the Sexual Offence Act has reached its conclusion in the Pretoria High Court, where a landmark ruling declared that the defence of “believed consent” will no longer hold ground.

On Monday, the Pretoria High Court delivered its judgment on the Embrace Project’s legal challenge, striking down key provisions of the Sexual Offences Act as unconstitutional, per EWN.

The Embrace Project, an NGO fighting against gender-based violence, stated that the ruling effectively strips those accused of sexual violence of the ability to claim a subjective belief that the complainant gave consent and to use that as a defence.

The Embrace Project along with an anonymous young woman launched the case, arguing that the law hasn’t been strict enough on rape-accused who used “believed consent” as a defence.

The Embrace Project said going forward, a person accused of sexual violence will have to take objectively reasonable steps to ascertain that the complainant consented to sexual conduct.

The Embrace Project’s director, Lee-Anne Germanos said the ruling was a significant victory for other victims of sexual violence.

“For the first time, an accused person has an onus to confirm, or to take reasonable steps that consent has been given.”

That basically means an active and enthusiastic YES from the person you’re about to have sex with. If they’re wearing sexy clothing, they are not asking for it. If they are passed out and not saying a word, then they cannot say a clear enough yes, so step off and away.

“We’re removing the effect of rape myths and rape stereotypes that says because you were wearing a short skirt you were asking for it.”

The NGO said the judgment could significantly improve conviction rates in sexual offence cases and rape cases. FYI, Amnesty International has a decent article on how to talk (and think) about consent, which could benefit everyone to brush up on.

This Pretoria Court ruling has come at a high time, amidst the conversation around all the terrible sexual violence cases popping up all over the world, including P. Diddy and the terrible French rape case in which the defiant Gisèle Pelicot is challenging myths about rape. French law is taking a long hard look at itself after it came to light that Gisèle’s husband of 50 years was drugging and raping her, allowing hoards of other men to do the same – some of whom claim, in their rotten defence, that they thought she was awake and wanting it.

Read more about that here. At least we can say our laws around rape are a little more progressive compared to France.

[source:ewn]