provisions in the penal code that discriminate against women and girls continue to enable impunity for perpetrators, such as Articles 505, 518, and 519. 33. Article 505 currently allows for the marriage of adults with minors who are 15 to 18 years-old in “consensual” relationships under the supervision of a judge and a social worker. If amended, Article 505 would instead punish adults who have sex with 15-18-year-olds girls, without any exceptions for subsequent marriage. Article 518 allows prosecutions to be stopped or sentences to be suspended for men who marry “virgin” girls they had initially “seduced” with promises of marriage and any sentence or prosecution they would have faced for this seduction, is suspended under this Article. Article 519 currently gives consideration to a minor’s “consent” in cases of “sexual harassment” of 15 to 18-year-old girls. 34. On 2 November 2017, a proposal to amend these sex discriminatory articles was submitted to the Speaker of the House by three members of Parliament, in consultation with the National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW). However, the Speaker of the House has yet to submit the bill to the full Parliament for a vote. 35. As set out in Equality Now’s 2017 Report The World's Shame - The Global Rape Epidemic - How Laws Are Failing to Protect Women and Girls,49 such provisions and exemptions to the application of criminal law fail to prevent and combat discrimination against women and girls and ensure that survivors of sexual violence have access to justice. Moreover, these types of provisions help fuel the global rape epidemic and are incompatible with the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 5, which were adopted by UN member states in September 2015,50 among other international commitments made by Lebanon.51 36. Article 519 should no longer consider a minor’s “consent” in cases of “sexual harassment” of 15 to 18-year-olds. In May 2018, the UN Human Rights Committee52 expressed its concern that Articles 505 and 518 of the Criminal Code are still applied to exempt rapists of minors between 15 and 18 years of age from prosecution or punishment when the survivors have been promised for marriage to the rapists by their parents. The Committee urged Lebanon to “amend articles 505 and 518 of the Criminal Code to ensure that perpetrators of rape incur criminal responsibility without exception and regardless of the age of the victim.” Other causes of statelessness Stateless Persons excluded from the 1932 Census Available at http://www.equalitynow.org/campaigns/rape-laws-report This includes under Goal 5 provides that States should “eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres” (Target 5.2) and “adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels” (Target 5.c), and Target 10.3, which calls on all governments to “[e]nsure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws….”. 51 See UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), CCPR General Comment No. 28: Article 3 (The Equality of Rights Between Men and Women), 29 March 2000, CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.10, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/45139c9b4.html [accessed 3 July 2020], ¶24 “A woman’s free and full consent to marriage may also be undermined by laws which allow the rapist to have his criminal responsibility extinguished or mitigated if he marries the victim. States parties should indicate whether marrying the victim extinguishes or mitigates criminal responsibility and, in the case in which the victim is a minor, whether the rape reduces the marriageable age of the victim, particularly in societies where rape victims have to endure marginalization from society.” See also: the Joint general recommendation No. 31 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women/general comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on harmful practices against Women on harmful practices, CEDAW/C/GC/31- CRC/C/GC/18, ¶41 (“legislation that enables a perpetrator of rape and/or other sexual crimes to avoid sanctions through marriage to the victim,” is “contrary to the obligation of the States parties under both conventions”). Available at: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/807256 52 CCPR/C/LBN/CO/3, 9 May 2018, available at: https://undocs.org/en/CCPR/C/LBN/CO/3 49 50 8