A Hong Kong NGO has urged authorities to amend “outdated” sexual offences legislation, after nothing a sharp rise in sexual violence cases involving private images and intimate partners in the city.
Anti-sexual violence group RainLily publishes publishes the Retrospective Study Statistical Report 2019-2023 on October 29, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
There was a “steady increase” in the number of sexual violence cases followed up by RainLily over the past 15 years, the local anti-sexual violence organisation said on Tuesday when it released a report analysing close to 2,000 cases handled over the past five years.
According to the report, RainLily recorded 1,074 cases between 2009 and 2013. This figure rose to 1,336 between 2014 and 2018. The caseload increased further to 1,984 between 2019 and 2023.
Among the cases handled in the past five years, 448 cases – or 23 per cent – involved “non-contact sexual assault,” which included image-based violence and verbal sexual harassment. The figure more than tripled compared to the 137 cases recorded from 2014 to 2018.
Between 2019 and 2023, 45 per cent of the 304 image-based sexual violence cases involved intimate partners as predators. The number of cases perpetrated by the victims’ current or former partners, or regular sexual partners, also rose from 199 between 2014 and 2018 to 344 between 2019 and 2023.
Doris Chong, executive director of RainLily, said the NGO observed that there was a “societal gap” in the understanding of consent. In cases where private images were shared without consent, some people thought the victims had already consented to distribution when they were photographed, she said.
“This reflects a general misunderstanding that assumes giving consent to one act means automatically consenting to other acts, and it highlights the need for clearer public education and legal reforms to promote respect for individual autonomy,” Chong said.
Doris Chong, executive director of RainLily. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
The RainLily study divided cases into “penetrative sexual assault,” “non-penetrative sexual assault,” and “non-contact sexual assault.” Its definition of penetrative sexual assault encompassed any non-consensual act involving penetration, including vaginal, anal, and oral acts, which is broader than Hong Kong’s legal definition of rape which only refers to the penetration of the vagina.
The NGO said such definition better reflected the range of cases it handled, as all types of penetrative acts inflicted “equally severe fear and harm on victim-survivors,” the group said.
The study found that many sexual violence victims in Hong Kong put off seeking help, with an average delay of around 4.2 years from the date of the incident before they reached out for assistance. The reporting rate of sexual violence incidents also declined, with just 41.4 per cent of cases being reported to the police from 2019 to 2023, compared to 56.8 per cent from 2009 to 2013.
Dr Albert Yau, Senior Research Officer at RainLily. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Albert Yau, senior research officer at RainLily, said the study also found that many cases that initially entered judicial proceedings were eventually withdrawn by the complainants. It showed that Hong Kong’s judicial process did not provide sufficient protection and thus diminished the victims’ confidence in seeking justice, he said.
“Judicial support measures require further improvement, and authorities should explore enhancements in reporting, investigation, and prosecution procedures for sexual offences to incorporate trauma-informed principles at every stage, reducing the stress faced by victim-survivors of sexual violence,” Yau said.
RainLily called on the Hong Kong government to “modernise” what it called outdated sexual offences legislation and prosecution policy, including legislating a clear definition of “consent.” The definition of rape should also be expanded to “sexual penetration without consent,” which would encourage victims to seek help and pursue justice, the NGO said.
The government should launch sexual violence prevention education programmes to address issues such as informed consent, image-based sexual violence, and cyber literacy, RainLily suggested.
A woman walks up some steps in Hong Kong. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
It added that primary and secondary schools should make sexuality education a compulsory subject, and implement comprehensive sexuality education that was in line with UNESCO guidelines, encompassing the cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality.
Earlier this year, more than 100 cases of sexual violence cases surfaced involving the victims whose bums were splashed with unidentified liquid in public areas. Ruby Lai, an assistant professor at Lingnan University specialising in gender studies, told HKFP in March that there was a grey area in local laws, as there was no legislation covering sexual harassment in a public place or sexual assault which does not involve direct touching.
In July, a 56-year-old man was jailed for four months after he admitted to spraying women’s buttocks with liquid. Last month, a PhD student was fined HK$5,000 for splashing liquid containing his own semen onto a woman’s buttocks at the City University of Hong Kong. The sentence sparked outrage from concern groups, who said the penalty sent a message that sexual violence had “no real consequences.”
