29 July 2022

Women’s Declaration International Canada (WDI Canada) supports today’s ruling from the Supreme Court that men who do not wear condoms after being requested to do so by their partners can be convicted of sexual assault.

In the majority decision, Justice Sheila Martin wrote that ‘A complainant who consents to sex on the condition that their partner wear a condom does not consent to sex without a condom’.

This ruling is in line with Article 8 of the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights, ‘Reaffirming the Need for the Elimination of Violence Against Women’ which states that ‘States should “[d]evelop penal, civil, labour and administrative sanctions in domestic legislation to punish and redress the wrongs caused to women who are subjected to violence”’.

The full judgment from the Supreme Court of Canada can be found here.