As part of the public debate on the draft Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code, which was held on September 10 until October 1, 2025. In 2008, the AWC submitted its comments and proposals to the Ministry of Justice, the most important of which is the opposition to the introduction of a new, milder crime of rape called "sexual intercourse without consent".
As during the public hearing in October 2024, it was again pointed out that the proposed amendments to the Criminal Code are not synchronized with the proposals for amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure, because on the one hand, the threatened sanctions for criminal acts of gender-based violence are increasing, and on the other hand, they are collapsing the achieved level of rights of the victims of these crimes, the concept of prosecutorial investigation and the Prosecutor's Office as a prosecuting authority, and defendants are given greater rights in the procedure than prosecutors have.
The AWC praised the proposal for the introduction of the new criminal offense Misuse of a recording, photograph, portrait, audio recording or file with sexually explicit content, in which way it was harmonized with the provisions of Directive 2024/1385/EU of May 14, 2024 on the fight against violence against women and domestic violence. In this way, the Ministry of Justice accepted the proposals of a large number of citizens, as well as civil society organizations, submitted during the previous public hearing in October 2024, that Serbia should finally criminalize all forms of gender-based violence that are carried out through information technology and in the online space.
It was also reiterated that we are not opposed to increasing the penalties for crimes against sexual freedom and the criminal offense of domestic violence, but we reminded that the mere increase in penalties as such is not enough, and that we believe that the Criminal Code should have included:
- introduced new measures of protective supervision in Art. 79, namely the measure of removal from the joint household, the measure of banning access to the Internet and the measure of protective supervision after serving a prison sentence
- amendment that work in the public interest can be imposed even without the consent of the defendant
- that para. 6 Art. 80 ought to have been amended, so that the measure of prohibition of approaching and communicating with the injured party can be imposed in the case if the offender has been imposed a security measure of mandatory psychiatric treatment at liberty and mandatory treatment of alcoholics and drug addicts
- that it be stipulated that for crimes against marriage and family, against sexual freedom, persecution, sexual harassment and abuse of video, photograph, portrait, audio recording or files with sexually explicit content, a conditional sentence can be imposed only with a measure of protective supervision or work in the public interest.
You can read the comments and proposals of the AWC on the draft Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code HERE.
