Global Progress Towards Ending the Sexual Exploitation of Children
A global problem requires truly global solutions to address the sexual exploitation of children.
Indicators
Age of Consent
Partial
Age of sexual consent is 16. The national legislation provides for a two years close-in-age exemption for children from the age of 12 years old and 4 years close-in-age exemption for children from the age of 14.
Analysis of country legislation on age of sexual consent, 2024
Extraterritoriality & Extradition
No
Active extraterritoriality is provided for all crimes in the Sexual Offences Act. Double criminality is a requirement. No provisions related to passive extraterritoriality are mentioned.
Extradition requires a minimum gravity of two years of imprisonment. Double criminality principle is required.
SECTT Legal Checklist Guyana, 2020
CSAM Definition
Not Yet Assessed
Background Check Required
Partial
There is a mandatory legal provision for organizations offering employment in child care to verify if the individual has been convicted for an offence against a child and therefore has been declared unsuited to work with children. It is unclear whether this provision also applies to other sectors which involve contact with children beyond childcare and whether it applies to volunteers as well as workers.
SECTT Legal Checklist Guyana, 2020
National Commitments
No
Guyana has ratified the CRC, the OPSC and the ILO Convention No. 182.
Guyana has not ratified the the Trafficking Protocol, the OPIC, the UNWTO Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics nor the Council of Europe's Lanzarote and Budapest Conventions.
SECTT Legal Checklist Guyana, 2020
Child Advocacy Centers
Not Yet Assessed
SEC Police Unit
Not Yet Assessed
Protection Standards Travel and Tourism
No
Guyana just started the process to develop a national code for child protection for the tourism industry.
SECTT Legal Checklist Guyana, 2020
Public SEC Case Data
Not Yet Assessed
Age of Consent Law is Appropriate
The age of sexual consent for both males and females is 18 and a close in age exemption (up to 3 years) is provided for consensual sexual relationships between adolescents.
The age of sexual consent is the legally defined age at which a person is considered mature enough to agree to sexual activity. The age of sexual consent varies across jurisdictions around the world and there is no international legal instrument establishing it, however various forms of advocacy have encouraged States to establish a minimum age under which engaging in sexual contact is considered a criminal offence. This is intended to prevent sexual contact with children and to prevent argument that the child consented as a defence.
Often national provisions related to the age of sexual consent include an exception, known as a close-in-age exemption, making consensual sexual activities between young people lawful if the partners are of similar ages and the age difference is not higher than a certain number of years.
To ensure that cases of child sexual exploitation do not go unpunished, ECPAT advocates for the age of sexual consent to be set at 18 for both males and females with a close-in-age exemption of 2-3 years provided in order to ensure young people are not penalised for consensual sexual acts with peers. The age from which the exemption applies should be established by States but may begin for young people somewhere between 12 and 16 years of age.
Yes The national legislation explicitly indicates that the age of sexual consent unequivocally is 18 for both males and females, with a close-in-age exemption for sexual acts between peers (of up to 3 years) is provided by law.