New campaign to tell UK men to ensure sex consent

LONDON, Mar 14 (Reuters) Men must make sure they gain consent before having sex to avoid being sent to jail, the British government is to say in a hard-hitting advertising campaign being launched today.

The 400,000 pound campaign comes amid low conviction rates for rape cases in England and Wales. Changes to the law are also being considered.

The advertisements will be launched in men's magazines such as ''Nuts'' and ''Zoo'', on the radio and on posters in men's toilets in bars and clubs.

Using provocative imagery and down-to-earth language, the ads will warn that consent is active, not passive, and that unless women actively say ''yes'' to sex, men must assume the answer is ''no''.

Home Office Minister Fiona Mactaggart said she hoped that challenging men's attitudes would also give women confidence that the law was on their side.

''For a long time, work to raise awareness of sexual violence has focused on the need for women to take responsibility for their personal safety,'' Mactaggart said in a statement.

''That is still important, but I believe that we need to start putting the onus onto men and make them aware of their responsibilities.'' Consent is a central issue in the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which states that a person must agree to sex by choice and have the freedom and capacity to make that choice.

Mactaggart said that while recognising that only a small minority of men ever commit rape, the campaign was nevertheless aimed at the male population because the majority of sex offences are committed by men.

Solicitor General Mike O'Brien said last week that the law might need clarification on the question of whether a woman who was drunk could give consent, in the light of several cases which have been thrown out of court.

The government has said it would publish proposals to improve conviction rates for rape, such as allowing expert witnesses to explain victims' behaviour to juries.

Home Office figures show that rapists were convicted in only 5.8 per cent of reported cases in 2004.

The Home Office also believes attitudes to rape are a problem.

Research by Amnesty International last November found that a third of people in the UK believed a woman was to blame for being raped if she had behaved in a flirtatious manner.

More than a quarter also believed a woman was at least partly responsible for being raped if she wore revealing clothing, or was drunk, the study revealed.

Victim support charities said at the weekend they were concerned about a reported 15 per cent reduction in sentences for sexual offences to be outlined in guidelines from the independent Sentencing Guidelines Council.

REUTERS CS KP0923