Rape now defined as sex without consent in Slovenia

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Slovenia has become the 13th country in Europe to adopt the definition of rape as sex without consent.

The Slovenian Parliament’s decision earlier this month means that victims are no longer required to present evidence of coercion, threat or violence to classify an act as rape, as per rights group Amnesty International on June 4.

Slovenian Criminal Law previously required victims to present the said evidence following the Istanbul Convention, which Slovenia ratified in 2015.

“This is a historic victory for women in Slovenia and an important step along the road to changing culture, attitudes and behavior,” said Amnesty International Europe director Nils Muižnieks.

“It is also a testament to years of campaigning by survivors who have helped to ensure that other women do not have to go through what they endured,” he added.

Amnesty International noted that the change comes after a long campaign by individuals and civil society groups including the said non-profit organization itself.

“Incredibly, Slovenia has become only the thirteenth country in Europe to recognize the simple fact that sex without consent is rape, although there is a positive trend in the region, with more and more countries changing their legal definitions of rape,” the director noted.

Muižnieks further explained that the new definition is “based on an explicit ‘yes means yes’ consent model,” overthrowing the previous requirements of physical evidence to have crimes sexual in nature to be classified as rape.

The organization shared that the first 12 countries that adopted the said law prior to Slovenia are Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Consultations on similar bills, meanwhile, are still ongoing in Spain and in the Netherlands to adopt the said consent-based model, according to the release.

In the Philippines, the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) is also pushing for the amendment of the current law on rape, which is similar to the previous law in Slovenia.

The current Anti-Rape Law in the country still requires the “use of force, threat, intimidation, fraudulent machination or grave abuse of authority by the offender before the act can be considered as rape,” as pointed out by the PCW on June 14.

Similar to the recent change in Slovenia, the PCW is also campaigning that the law be amended and changed to a consent-based model as well.  /ra

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