Marital Rape: What You Need to Know

The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Committee called for Putrajaya to criminalise marital rape from the year 2006 onwards. However, the Malaysian government has been reluctant and slow in recognising as well as codifying marital rape as a criminal offence.

I. INTRODUCTION

On International Women’s Day last year, the Women’s Aid Organization (WAO) reiterated their stance on the criminality of rape and stressed that its international standards do not cease to exist even when rape happens within a marriage. In defiance to international pressure, Malaysia has yet to ratify the criminalisation of marital rape as recommended in the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) despite being a signatory to the Convention.[1]
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