The justification of criminalizing sexual harassment in the Republic of Serbia
Keywords:
the right to sexual self-determination; sexual morality; sexual harassment; unwanted behavior; hostile/degrading/humiliating/offensive environmentAbstract
The Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code of Republic of Serbia of November 2016, in a group of criminal offences against sexual freedom, prescribes a new criminal offence - sexual harassment. The reason for this criminal offence is the provision of Article 40 of the so called Istanbul Convention, which does not, however, imposes the obligation upon States that have ratified the Convention that unwanted conduct of a sexual nature with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person, in particular when creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment should be prescribed as a criminal offence, but to provide an appropriate legal protection. While some countries deal with sexual harassment within the framework of labor and civil law, the number of states in which this behavior is prescribed as a criminal offence has recently been increased. The paper deals with issues related to the actus reus and mens rea of the newly introduced criminal offence of sexual harassment, as well as the criminal-political (in)adequacy of such legislative intervention, by which our criminal legislation deviates from the basic idea of the policy of supppressing crime - criminal law as the last resort in the fight against crime.
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