Rechtsidee

Vol. 13 No. 2 (2025): December
Criminal Law

Consent Capacity of Persons with Disabilities in Sexual Relations: A Comparative Legal Study of Indonesia, Canada, and the United Kingdom: Kapasitas Persetujuan Bagi Penyandang Disabilitas dalam Hubungan Seksual: Studi Perbandingan Hukum Indonesia, Kanada, dan Inggris

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  • Sayyidina Azzahra,
  • Rugun Romaida Hutabarat
Sayyidina Azzahra
Program Studi Ilmu Hukum, Universitas Tarumanagara
Bio
Rugun Romaida Hutabarat
Program Studi Ilmu Hukum, Universitas Tarumanagara
Bio
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21070/jihr.v13i2.1100
Categories

Published 2025-11-20

Keywords

  • Consent Capacity,
  • Sexual Consent,
  • Persons With Disabilities,
  • Indonesian Criminal Law

How to Cite

Azzahra, S., & Hutabarat, R. R. (2025). Consent Capacity of Persons with Disabilities in Sexual Relations: A Comparative Legal Study of Indonesia, Canada, and the United Kingdom: Kapasitas Persetujuan Bagi Penyandang Disabilitas dalam Hubungan Seksual: Studi Perbandingan Hukum Indonesia, Kanada, dan Inggris. Rechtsidee, 13(2), 10.21070/jihr.v13i2.1100. https://doi.org/10.21070/jihr.v13i2.1100

Copyright (c) 2025 Sayyidina Azzahra, Rugun Romaida Hutabarat (Author)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Background (General): Consent serves as the central boundary distinguishing lawful sexual relations from criminal sexual violence. Background (Specific): For persons with disabilities, assessing consent becomes more complex due to cognitive, mental, physical, or sensory limitations that may affect their ability to understand and communicate agreement. Knowledge Gap: Indonesian criminal law, including the UU TPKS, lacks explicit definitions of consent and standardized indicators for determining consent capacity, unlike jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom and Canada. Aim: This study examines Indonesia’s legal framework on sexual consent and evaluates the absence of consent-capacity standards for persons with disabilities through comparative analysis with UK and Canadian regulations. Results: Findings show that Indonesian law narrowly associates non-consent with coercion or threats, failing to consider cognitive incapacity, whereas the UK (Sexual Offences Act 2003; Mental Capacity Act 2005) and Canada (Criminal Code Section 153.1) provide clear criteria for assessing mental ability, voluntariness, and relational power imbalance. Novelty: This research identifies the structural legal gap in Indonesian consent-capacity regulation and proposes a model grounded in comparative jurisprudence. Implications: The study underscores the urgent need for legal reform to establish explicit consent-capacity standards, strengthening protection against sexual exploitation of persons with disabilities.

Highlights:

  • Highlights the absence of explicit consent-capacity standards in Indonesian law.

  • Shows how UK and Canada provide clearer protections through defined legal criteria.

  • Emphasizes the urgency of legal reform to safeguard persons with disabilities from exploitation.

Keywords: Consent Capacity, Sexual Consent, Persons With Disabilities, Comparative Law, Indonesian Criminal Law

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