Legislation that redefines rape as sex without consent came into effect in Ukraine on Jan. 11. The punishment for the crime remains unchanged: three to five years in jail.
Previously, Ukrainian legislation defined rape as sex by force, by threat, or one where perpetrator used the victim’s helpless state. Under the new legislation, seen as more progressive, consent to sex must be given.
The law specifies that consent must be “given by a person out of free will” and adds that “circumstances must be taken into account.”
The same legislation also introduces an increased punishment of five to 10 years for non-consensual sex when the victim and perpetrator are spouses, ex-spouses, or when they are or used to be in any close relationship.
The legislation enforces the Council of Europe’s Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The law was approved by parliament and signed by President Petro Poroshenko in December 2017, but only came in force a year later.
As of April 2018, only eight countries in Europe recognized sex without consent as a crime, according to Amnesty International, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Cyprus, and Sweden. In Europe, mobile apps allowing partners to give consent before sex have been launched.
The expectation is that the new legislation may prompt the victims to report sex crimes more often. Today, rape often remains unreported in Ukraine, according to activists. in 2018, fewer than 2,000 rapes were reported in Ukraine, where at least 42 million people live. It means the rape rate in Ukraine is approximately five per 100,000 people, which is considerably lower than in other European countries, where it can get up to 50 per 100,000 people, according to Eurostat.
The same piece of legislation also criminalizes domestic violence in Ukraine.
Domestic violence is defined as “systematic physical, psychological or economic violence against a spouse, a former spouse, or another person that the perpetrator is or used to be in a family-like or close relationship that leads to physical or psychological suffering, harms the victim’s health, causes disability, emotional dependence, or impairs the quality of life of the victim.”
Domestic violence can be punished by two years in jail, but the law also envisions an option of community works as punishment.
