Due to the small size of Barbados’ population there were concerns and pushback over creating a sexual offences registry.

The law in Barbados criminalizes all forms of sexual intercourse with children below the designated age of consent, without providing for close-in-age exceptions (commonly known as “Romeo & Juliet” clauses), thereby punishing consensual sex between adolescents.

Contrary to international and regional standards Barbados has no requirement for consent to a sexual act to be voluntary and genuine, making rape cases more difficult to prosecute.

The definition of rape in the Penal Code of Bolivia is based on force, requiring intimidation, physical or psychological violence, taking advantage of a severe mental disease or insufficient intelligence of the victim.

The Penal Code of Bolivia contains an estupro provision, whereby having carnal access to a person between the ages of 14-18, through seduction or deceit is punishable with a lower penalty of imprisonment between 3-6 years, as compared to imprisonment of 15-20 years for rape.

Currently, the Penal Code of Bolivia has a limited statute of limitations for all offenses, including rape. A rape victim is only afforded 8 years to come forward and report the crime before prosecution is no longer possible.

Ecuador’s estupro provision provides a penalty of 1-3 years’ imprisonment (far lower than the penalty for rape which is imprisonment for 19-22 years) for perpetrators who resort to deceit to engage in sexual intercourse with persons between the ages of 14 and 18; until the penal code was reformed in 2005, the estupro provision required that the victim be an “honest person.”

In August 2020, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled in the case of Paola Guzmán Albarracín v. Ecuador, holding Ecuador responsible for failing to protect Paola from the sexual violence she suffered in her school and ordered reparations for her family.

Ecuador calculates statutes of limitations based on the sentence possible for the offense. Given that penalties for rape and sexual assault can be very low, limiting a time period for reporting a case of sexual violence based on these very short ranges of punishment is doubly discriminatory.

Recent research on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on community violence found widespread so-called consensual sex between girls aged 12 to 15, sometimes younger, with much older men in their thirties and up into their sixties. In these situations girls are generally paid very little, but the men portray it as if they are helping the family.

Contrary to international and regional standards Jamaica has no requirement for consent to a sexual act to be voluntary and genuine, making rape cases more difficult to prosecute.

The law in Jamaica explicitly permits marital rape (except in certain limited circumstances, such as if the parties are divorced, separated or a protection order has been issued).

41.3% of women above the age of 15 have reported facing at least one incident of sexual violence.

The definition of rape in the Federal Penal Code is based on force, requiring physical or moral violence, unless the victim is under the age of 15, is incapable of understanding the act, or is unable to resist.

The Federal Penal Code of Mexico contains an estupro provision, whereby sexual intercourse with a person between the ages of 15-18 with deceit is punished with a lower penalty of imprisonment of 3 months to 4 years (as compared to 8-20 years for rape).

Paraguay’s legal definition of rape requires the use of additional physical violence or intimidation, contrary to international standards which urge the use of rape definitions based on lack of consent.

Article 137 of the Paraguay Penal Code provides a lower penalty (just a monetary fine) for sexual offences against adolescent girls between the ages of 14-16 than for rape of a child or a woman (4-15 years).

The law in Paraguay has a separate offense of homosexual acts against minors, which has a lower penalty than rape but higher penalty than those applicable for estupro.

The Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress in 1972, and reached the required number of state ratifications in 2020, but has yet to be incorporated into the Constitution.

Only 6 states have set the minimum age of marriage at 18 and eliminated all exceptions, and 20 U.S. states do not require any minimum age for marriage, with a parental or judicial waiver.

The definition of sexual abuse and aggravated sexual abuse in the United States Code is based on force, requiring force, fear or threat unless the victim is incapable of appraising the nature of the conduct, or is physically unable to decline participation in the sexual act.