The Romania Network for Prevention and Combating Violence Against Women (VIF Network) has sent an open letter to the Romanian MPs today, on the very first day of the autumn parliamentary session. The 180 non-governmental organizations supporting the letter of the VIF Network call for the introduction into law of the age limit of 16 years for valid consent in the case of sexual relations with minors.
Currently, there is no minimum age of the minor under which it is considered that he cannot give valid consent in the case of sexual intercourse with an adult partner or with a partner with an age difference of more than three years. This minimum age would eliminate the possibility of classifying the act as a crime of sexual intercourse with a minor and would classify it as a crime of rape.
The Judicial Inspection report, published in July 2021, shows numerous examples of the classification of acts of rape against minors aged 10-12 as consensual sexual acts with adult men, justifying this classification by the fact that the minors consented to the sexual acts by the way they were clothing, their physical development and behavior, and by assuming that if they didn’t tell anyone what they experienced, the deed didn’t exist, or by justifying these deeds as culturally associated.
In June, the Senate adopted Legislative Proposal L423/2022 regarding the amendment of the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, which introduces an age limit (15 years) for valid consent in the case of sexual relations with minors. In the case of amendments to organic laws, the Chamber of Deputies is the decision-making chamber. The arguments for which the Chamber of Deputies must introduce 16 years as the limit of valid consent are very numerous and well-founded.
This age limit is a necessary protection measure against sex offenders, VIF Network argues. “Sexual abuse of minors is often hidden, difficult to prove because of the unequal power relationship between adult perpetrators and minor victims. Probation in criminal cases is on the shoulders of minor victims of sexual violence, not the aggressors, it being much more difficult for minor victims to provide evidence that proves coercion, inability to express their will or the fact that the aggressor took advantage of this state where the minor was, as specified in the Penal Code in the case of rape crimes. The introduction of the 16-year age limit reduces the pressure on minor victims to prove a crime that is often hidden. In addition, the minimum legal age for marriage is 16 (only on the basis of a medical certificate and with the consent of the parents/guardian and the authorization of the guardianship court), the natural person acquires the capacity to work at 16, minors cannot have access to contraceptives up to 16 without parental or guardian consent.”
The VIF network asks the deputies in its letter:
- To Legislate 16 years, not 15 years (as provided for in Legislative Proposal L423/2022) as the age threshold for classifying the act as the crime of rape committed with a minor.
- To classify the act as the crime of rape committed against a minor when there is an imbalance of power in the case of sexual relations between a minor between the ages of 16 and 18 and an adult, (eg adult teacher, guardian, parent).
- To expressly regulate that it is NOT a mitigating circumstance if the crime of rape against a minor, sexual act with a minor and sexual assault against a minor are committed under the control of a strong disturbance or emotion, determined by a provocation from the minor injured person.
- To introduce an article that recognizes as forms of sexual violence the practices associated with forced marriages.