Siol.net reports that the public debate on changes to Slovenia’s rape law has now concluded, with support for adopting a definition based on consent in place of the current system. The proposed amendment will now go back to the Ministry of Justice where the final version will be prepared before being presented to the National Assembly for a vote.
The current law in Slovenia defines rape based on coercion, and thus if no force is used, or the victim is unwilling or unable to say “no”, then no crime is said to have been committed. This attracted considerable attention in early 2019, when a man who raped a woman was charged with criminal coercion rather than a sex crime, because the woman, passed out drunk in the man's apartment, did not - and could not - resist. The man, from Koper, received a 10-month sentence.
The proposed changes would make every non-consensual sexual act a criminal offence, including those during which the victim did not physically resist the perpetrator or say no out of fear, shock or any other circumstances preventing such action.
