Law 3500/2006: Combating Domestic Violence

Brief Description

Law 3500/2006, entitled «For combating domestic violence» which entered into force on 24 October 2006, aims to prevent and combat domestic violence, and protect the fundamental rights of women and children. The forms of violence that are punished under the law are intimate partner violence, such as battering, marital rape, sexual violence and abuse, sexual assault and intimidation. This law provides for the punishment of these acts and for support and assistance to the victim/survivor of domestic violence. It also punishes the sexual abuse and assault of minors by adults to whom they have been entrusted or whose care they are under. Significant reforms introduced by the law include: 

• stricter sanctions imposed for committing certain culpable acts within family (especially corporal injuries and illegal violence or threat)
• establishment of the procedure of penal mediation for misdemeanours of domestic violence
• definition of forced sexual intercourse without the consent of both spouses as a crime
• explicit prohibition of corporal violence against minors as a means of correction
• extension of the scope of application of the law to the permanent cohabitation of an unmarried couple
• ensuring the protection of victims by means of facilitating their access to judicial procedures, and, on the other hand, guaranteeing their security within and outside family. In particular, the immediate expulsion of the perpetrator from the residence and the prohibition for him to have access to the places of residence and work of the victim, to the residence of the victim's closest relatives, to the shelters and to the children's schools, so as to ensure the most effective protection of victims and their children
• moreover, the acts of domestic violence against a pregnant woman are severely punished, while the exercise of domestic violence constitutes a rebuttable presumption of marriage breakdown, as do the cases of adultery, bigamy, and attempt on the life of the victim.