Penal Code Amendment Act 2015

Brief Description

The 2015 Amendment to the Penal Code criminalizes various forms of violence against women. This include: 

- Spousal violence and any form of abuse against the spouse or frequent verbal and psychological violence that makes the victims in a situation that affects their dignity or physical or psychological safety. These penalties also apply to crimes committed by the former spouse, and these violations are found to be related to the previous marital relationship. The perpetrator does not benefit from the mitigation conditions if the victim is pregnant or has a disability, the crime is committed in the presence of the children or at gunpoint, or the husband who deliberately abandons the wife for more than two months with the absence of a credible reason, or who is exercising any form of intimidation to take control of the wife’s property or financial resources.

- Harassment of women in public places by touching, verbally, or by any kind of signs that are considered crimes against public morality, and increasing the penalty if the victim is a minor.

- Any attack committed by violence, coercion or threat and related to the sexual inviolability of the victim and harassments by any act, speech or behavior of sexual nature or connotation and increasing the penalty if the perpetrator is incest or if the victim is minor or suffering from a certain physical or mental disability facilitated the crime.