CRIMINAL
CODE
Harm
186. Harm
Any person
who unlawfully causes harm to another is guilty of a crime and is liable to
imprisonment for 5 years or, upon being found guilty summarily, to imprisonment
for 2 years.
Definitions
186A. Definitions
In this
Division:
authorised professional means:
(a) a health practitioner who has a right of practice under the Health
Practitioners Act in the category of health care practice of:
(i) Aboriginal health work; or
(ii) midwifery; or
(iii) nursing; or
(b) in relation to an operation performed in a place outside the
Territory - a person who is entitled to practise
nursing or midwifery under a law of that place.
female genital mutilation means the
excision, infibulation or any other mutilation of the
whole or any part of the labia majora or labia minora or clitoris.
gender reassignment procedure means a
surgical procedure to give a female, or a person whose sex is ambivalent, the
genital appearance of a particular sex (whether male or female).
medical practitioner , in relation
to an operation performed in a place outside the Territory, includes a person
who is entitled to practise medicine under a law of
that place.
Female
genital mutilation
186B. Female genital mutilation
(1) A person who
performs female genital mutilation on another person is guilty of a crime and
is liable to imprisonment for 14 years.
(2) An
offence is committed against this section even if one or more of the acts
constituting the offence occurred outside the Territory if the person mutilated
by or because of the acts is ordinarily resident in the Territory.
(3) It is not
an offence against this section to perform a surgical operation if the
operation:
(a) has a genuine therapeutic purpose and is performed by a medical
practitioner or authorised professional; or
(b) is a gender reassignment procedure and is performed by a
medical practitioner.
(4) A
surgical operation does not have a genuine therapeutic purpose by virtue of the
fact that it is performed as, or as part of, a cultural, religious or other
social custom.
Removal
of child from Territory for female genital mutilation
186C. Removal of child from
Territory for female genital mutilation
(1) A person
who takes a child from the Territory, or arranges for a child to be taken from
the Territory, with the intention of having female genital mutilation performed
on the child is guilty of a crime and liable to imprisonment for 14 years.
(2) In
proceedings for an offence against subsection (1), if it is proved that:
(a) the accused took a child, or arranged for a child to be
taken, from the Territory; and
(b) female genital mutilation was performed on the child while
outside the Territory,
it shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, that the
accused took the child, or arranged for the child to be taken, from the
Territory with the intention of having female genital mutilation performed on
the child.
Consent
not relevant
186D. Consent not relevant
It is not a defence to a charge of a crime defined by this Division
that the person mutilated by or because of the acts alleged to have been
committed:
(a) consented to the acts; and/or
(b) consented to being taken from the Territory,
or that a parent or guardian of the person so consented.