Conservative critics of the growing libertinism in the West have warned that the next step will be to allow adult/minor consensual sex. Those who scoff at such warnings as paranoia should scoff no more. Two U.N. agencies, in conjunction with the International Committee of Jurists, have published a new report on criminal law that urges doing just that.

It is eye-popping. The report seeks to decriminalize behavior that “is prohibited as condemnation of certain conduct seen as deserving reprobation and punishment.” That apparently includes some sex between adults and minors:

PRINCIPLE 16 — CONSENSUAL SEXUAL CONDUCT

Consensual sexual conduct, irrespective of the type of sexual activity, the sex/ gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression of the people involved or their marital status, may not be criminalized in any circumstances. Consensual same-sex, as well as consensual different-sex sexual relations, or consensual sexual relations with or between trans, non-binary and other gender-diverse people, or outside marriage — whether pre-marital or extramarital — may, therefore, never be criminalized.

With respect to the enforcement of criminal law, any prescribed minimum age of consent to sex must be applied in a non-discriminatory manner. Enforcement may not be linked to the sex/gender of participants or age of consent to marriage. Moreover, sexual conduct involving persons below the domestically prescribed minimum age of consent to sex may be consensual, in fact, if not in law. In this context, the enforcement of criminal law should reflect the rights and capacity of persons under 18 years of age to make decisions about engaging in consensual sexual conduct and their right to be heard in matters concerning them.

Pursuant to their evolving capacities and progressive autonomy, persons under 18 years of age should participate in decisions affecting them, with due regard to their age, maturity and best interests, and with specific attention to non-discrimination guarantees. [Emphasis added.]

This is despicable. If national laws are changed in line with this recommendation, it would essentially gut statutory-rape laws because it can only mean that if the minor consented to whatever kind of sex was engaged, it should not be prosecuted if the minor is deemed sufficiently mature to have said yes. (It is worth noting that this same approach is being pushed in Canada to grant “mature minors” access to euthanasia without parental consent.)

That’s not all. The report urges an end to all criminal laws that prohibit prostitution — which presumably would include that involving mature minors — all drug use, public homelessness, and abortion. And it would greatly reduce incarceration:

PRINCIPLE 13 — CRIMINAL LAW SANCTIONS

Criminal law sanctions must be consistent with human rights, including by being non-discriminatory and proportionate to the gravity of the offence. Custodial sentences may only be imposed as a measure of last resort. [Emphasis added.]

Apparently, these NGO bureaucrats have not seen the chaos that these very policies produced in our once-great cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle.