Penal Code (Amendment) Act No. 8 of 2023.

The Amendment of 2023 introduces significant reforms to Malawi’s criminal justice framework, with a particular focus on child protection, sexual offences, counter-terrorism, and anti-money laundering measures. The Act (i) harmonizes the definition of a child by establishing 18 years as the minimum age threshold and revises several offences accordingly, including those relating to abduction, procurement, indecent assault, and child neglect; (ii) strengthens protections against sexual exploitation by adopting gender-neutral provisions on defilement, expanding safeguards for persons with mental disabilities, introducing the offence of abuse of a position of trust for sexual purposes, and increasing penalties for a range of sexual offences involving children and other vulnerable persons; (iii) establishes a comprehensive legal framework for the suppression of terrorism through the introduction of a new chapter defining terrorist acts, organizations, and property, and criminalizing activities such as participation in, support for, financing of, recruitment for, training related to, or concealment of terrorist activities, including offences with extraterritorial application; (iv) strengthens the anti-money laundering regime by broadening the criminalization of transactions involving the proceeds of crime, including the concealment, transfer, or conversion of illicit assets; (v) repeals several obsolete provisions of the Penal Code, further modernizing the legislative framework.