Caribbean youth leaders have called for a review of the age of consent as it is not aligned with the age when most young people are allowed to access sexual and reproductive health services.
According to a press release, speaking at a meeting convened by PANCAP in Trinidad and Tobago on Friday, Minister of Health, Wellness and the Environment, St Vincent and the Grenadines Robert T L V Browne, had also said earlier, “The disparity between the age of consent and access to sexual health services is a shame. As young people, we must challenge policymakers to review this since it has a direct impact on young people contracting HIV and AIDS.”
Browne, who described himself as just out of his twenties, is Chair of the Executive of Board of PANCAP.
On Saturday, Raymoniya Lawrence, a representative of the Carib-bean Forum for Liberation and Acceptance of Genders and Sexualities echoed him. “It is unacceptable that a young man or woman can legally engage in sexual activity but not be allowed to access critical sexual health services. This has a direct impact on preventing new HIV infections. We need our policymakers to join the conversation on this issue,” the release quoted her as saying.
The meeting on Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS, which was funded by the Global Fund and PAHO and forms part of a wider intervention programme created by PANCAP for youth advocacy, concluded on Saturday.
The release stated that facilitating youth leaders’ participation in high-level meetings to influence policy decisions affecting youth and the development of a regional youth advocacy network is among interventions slated for implementation towards the creation of a youth advocacy body that can advance the concerns of young people on sexual and reproductive health services and HIV/AIDS.
Meanwhile, the release said youth leaders agreed to explore opportunities to engage policymakers in their home countries and committed to utilising their advocacy platforms and organisations to further the agenda for a change to the age of consent and accessing sexual health services. They also voiced concerns about the lack of comprehensive sexual education programmes in Caribbean schools. In creating a framework for action, youth leaders proposed that policymakers should join in a conversation on the creation of sexual education programmes for schools across the region as a tool to educate youth about sexual health issues and HIV and AIDS.
The youth leaders attending the meeting were drawn from Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, the Baha-mas, Barbados, Belize, the Commonwealth of Domi-nica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Grenada, Guyana, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
