End Marital Rape: Protect the Right to Consent Within Marriage
For countless married women and girls around the world, the person they trusted and married can become a source of fear and violence. Marital rape can have devastating physical, emotional, and psychological consequences, yet marriage should never be treated as consent to sexual activity.

Despite growing international recognition of sexual and gender-based violence, legal protections against marital rape remain unequal across countries. In some jurisdictions, marriage continues to create legal exceptions or barriers to prosecuting rape within marriage. This leaves survivors without equal protection under the law and undermines their rights to bodily autonomy, dignity, safety, and equality.

Marital rape is not a private family matter. It is a form of sexual violence that can violate fundamental human rights. International human-rights standards recognise the importance of protecting women and girls from violence and discrimination, regardless of their marital status.

The United Nations and its Member States have an important role to play in strengthening international action against gender-based violence. We call upon the United Nations and governments around the world to work towards ensuring that marriage is never used as a legal justification for sexual violence.

We call for:
International recognition of marital rape as sexual violence, regardless of the relationship between the perpetrator and survivor.
The removal of marital exemptions and legal provisions that prevent or limit the prosecution of rape within marriage.
Stronger international standards and guidance encouraging States to criminalise marital rape and ensure equal protection under their domestic laws.
Training for law-enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges, and other authorities to handle cases of sexual violence within marriage with sensitivity and without discrimination.
Accessible support services for survivors, including medical care, psychological support, legal assistance, and safe shelters.
International and national awareness campaigns addressing consent, bodily autonomy, and sexual violence within marriage.
Regular monitoring and reporting on the legal status of marital rape and States' progress towards eliminating marital exemptions.
Marriage is not permanent consent.

Every person has the right to bodily autonomy, dignity, safety, and freedom from sexual violence — regardless of whether they are married, unmarried, separated, or divorced.

We call upon the United Nations, its Member States, and relevant international human-rights bodies to strengthen international action against marital rape and support legal reforms that ensure equal protection for every survivor.

Sign this petition to support stronger international action against marital rape and to help build a world where marriage can never be used as a shield for sexual violence.