Addressing Sexual Violence in New Zealand

The launch event for this report was streamed as a webinar. You can watch a recording here.

Addressing Sexual Violence in New Zealand is a new report by The Helen Clark Foundation, funded by the Clare Foundation. The report highlights a number of areas in which New Zealand’s laws and policies could be improved to close gaps with best practice.

Sexual violence is one of the most pervasive and damaging forms of offending in New Zealand with nearly one in four adults (24%) reporting having experienced sexual assault in their lifetime, according to the Ministry of Justice.

The report identifies four key areas for practical, meaningful, and lasting change:

• Closing the gaps in the justice system to reduce underreporting of sexual violence and increase the number of cases continuing to trial and a verdict;
• Updating the definition of consent in law to an affirmative ‘yes means yes’ consent model;
• Addressing the harm caused by sexually-explicit deepfakes; and
• Eradicating the practice of ‘virginity testing’ in New Zealand.

The report is accompanied by detailed literature reviews, analyses and draft legislation, which can be found at the following links.

Underreporting and attrition (Dr. Emily Henderson and Chloe Cashmore)

Consent law reform (Dr. Anna High)

Proposed Consent Reform Bill (Dr. Anna High)

Deepfakes (Chloe Cashmore and Sophia Harré)

Virginity-related harm (Sophia Harré)

Latest media:

• NZHerald: Sexual violence laws under fire as Helen Clark Foundation seeks reform (Dec, 2025).
• RNZ: Better laws needed to protect sexual violence survivors - Helen Clark Foundation (Dec, 2025).
• RNZ: Virginity testing harming women in New Zealand - researcher (Dec, 2025).
• The Spinoff: Pseudoscientific ‘virginity testing’ happening in Aotearoa, report finds (Dec, 2025).
• NZHerald: New report says we should modernise laws on consent and sexual harm - The Front Page (Dec, 2025).