Women, minors and other vulnerable people will get more protection from violent and sexual crimes, if recommendations tabled by a committee are accepted by the Government and passed by Parliament. The committee, set up in 2016 to conduct a wide-ranging review of the Penal Code, has called for marital immunity for rape to be removed and also for attempted suicide to be decriminalised. SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan commented that the proposed changes to the Penal Code give it a “thorough scrubbing” and the proposed change to criminalise marital rape is long overdue.

Making the access of obscene videos illegal would reduce the demand for pornographic images, said Associate Prof Tan, who added that public spaces should not be feared as places where people “might become unknowing victims of a crime.