For more than two years now, non-governmental organizations, including Association SOS Helpline for Women and Children – Victims of Violence in Slovenia have been actively calling for criminal offenses against sexual integrity to be defined in Slovenian legislation as soon as possible in accordance with the concept of consent and the “yes means yes” model.
A change in legislation, in this case an urgent change in the Penal Code, is not sufficient to effectively address the challenge of impunity for acts of sexual violence, but it is a necessary step to change attitudes and eliminate gender stereotypes and surviving beliefs about rape and other forms of sexual violence.
As the victim is often unable to express disagreement, we advocate that the Penal Code of the Republic of Slovenia, in addition to existing criminal offenses, also defines the criminality of sexual intercourse or equal sexual conduct or any other sexual act committed by the perpetrator without the victim’s consent. Just because the victim did not resist the act and could not “say no” and the perpetrator therefore did not have to use force or threat, the act of rape or sexual violence is no less reprehensible. Offenses in which the perpetrator does not have to use force or threat to achieve unconsensual sexual intercourse or another sexual act are common in relationships between partners where domestic violence already exists (when victims do not resist sexual intercourse because they know it will had negative consequences for them).
We should therefore not be interested in whether a person said “no”, but whether the person said “yes”.
‘No means no’ model is not sufficient. ‘Only yes means yes’ model counts.
Legislation is expected to change in May 2021.
Maja Plaz, President of the Association SOS Helpline for Women and Children Victims of Violence from Ljubljana