President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a law on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The document, in particular, introduces fines for offensive messages of a sexual nature. This was reported by UNN with reference to the draft law on the parliament's website.
Details
Zelensky signed the draft law "On Amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses in connection with the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention)" (No. 8329)
According to this law, sexual harassment, i.e. the commission of verbal, non-verbal or physical acts of a sexual nature without the person's consent that did not cause bodily harm, the purpose or effect of which is to humiliate a person, in particular by creating an intimidating, hostile, humiliating or offensive environment, and not involving penetration of another person's body, is punishable by fines or correctional or community service.
A fine of eighty to one hundred and sixty tax-free minimum incomes (from UAH 1,360 to 2,720) is envisaged.
Penalties are also possible in the form of community service (20 to 40 hours), correctional labor (one month with 20% of earnings deducted), or administrative arrest for up to 15 days.
In addition, the document:
- obliges the courts, when considering cases of administrative offenses related to domestic violence, gender-based violence, and failure to comply with an urgent restraining order, to mandatorily decide on the referral of persons to a program for offenders with the mandatory justification of such a decision in the decision on an administrative offense in this category of cases;
- introduces administrative liability for officials in case of failure to report domestic violence against a child and liability for sexual harassment;
- empowers police officers to consider cases of administrative offenses related to the failure of a person subject to an urgent restraining order, according to which he or she must leave the place of joint residence (stay) with the affected person, to inform the authorized units of the National Police of Ukraine of his or her place of temporary residence, which will relieve the courts;
- extends to 24 hours the period of administrative detention of persons in cases of domestic violence, gender-based violence or failure to comply with an urgent restraining order, where necessary, to establish identity or clarify the circumstances of the offense.
This law shall enter into force on the day following the day of its publication.
Today is the International Day to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. In Ukraine, the facts of such crimes have been known since 2014, when Russia launched a hybrid war against Ukraine. But after the full-scale aggression, the enemy forces use sexual violence as a method of warfare on an unprecedented scale.
Currently, about 300 criminal proceedings are being investigated in Ukraine on the facts of sexual violence during the war, the victims of which were women, men, and children.
In 2023, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine recorded 85 cases of conflict-related sexual violence. These crimes were committed against both civilians and prisoners of war.
In particular, the victims were 52 men, 31 women, one girl and one boy.
In most documented cases where the victims were adult men, various forms of sexual violence were used as a method of torture in Russian captivity.