Croatia - Age of Sexual Consent
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CROATIA LAWS: 1. Has no sodomy laws, the age of sexual consent is 18 for
homosexuals and 14 for heterosexuals.
Source:
Croatia - Croatie - Croacia Zagreb
I. Ages for legal purposes
Age of simple majority
The legal age of majority in the Republic of Croatia is attained when a person has reached
the age of
eighteen (18), according to the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, Article 45 :
" All citizens of the Republic who have reached the age of eighteen (18) years shall
have universal and equal suffrage... "
Age of consent for sexual activity
The legal age of consent for sexual activity is fourteen (14) years.
Age of consent for marriage
Concerning the legal age of consent for marriage, the Law on Marriage and Family Relations
in its article 34 says :
" (1) The person who has not attained the age of eighteen (18) cannot enter marriage.
(2) If the reasons are justified, the court can allow the person who has attained the age
of sixteen (16) to contract marriage, if that person is mentally and physically mature for
marriage.
(3) The application for marriage licence can be submitted only by the person from the
paragraph 2 of this Article.
(4) Before reaching the decision, the court will hear the underage applicant and his
parents or guardians. "
We must notice that in October 1997, the penal legislation in the Republic of Croatia was
modified.
Among other laws, the new Penal Law, Criminal Procedure Law on Juvenile Courts were
brought
and drafted. They will become effective on January 1st, 1998.
According to Article 2 of the Law on Juvenile Courts, a minor is the person who has
attained the
age of fourteen (14) and has not attained the age of eighteen (18) in the time of the
commission of
the offence. A younger adult is the person who has attained the age of eighteen (18), but
has not
attained the age of twenty-one (21) in the time when the offence was committed.
According to Article 89, paragraph 9 of the Penal Law of the Republic of Croatia : "
A child is a
person younger than fourteen (14) years of age". According to paragraph 10 of the
same Article :
" A minor is a person younger than eighteen (18) years of age ".
II. Rape
Chapter XIV of the Penal Code relates to the criminal acts against sexual freedom and
sexual
morality. It includes the offence of rape, described in Article 188 of the Penal Law :
" (1) Who forces another person by acts or by threatening to cause the death or
bodily injury to that person or a person close to that person, to sexual intercourse
or an equivalent sexual act, will be punished by a prison sentence lasting from one
to ten years.
(2) Who commits the criminal act described in the paragraph 1 of this Article in a
particularly cruel or humiliating way, or if more sexual intercourse or equivalent
sexual acts are committed by more than one perpetrator to the detriment of the
same victim ; will be punished by at least three (3) years’ imprisonment.
(3) If the criminal act described in the paragraph 1 of this Article has caused the
death of the person or serious bodily injury, or that person’s health has been
seriously damaged, or the raped female person has become pregnant, the
perpetrator will be punished by at least three (3) years’ imprisonment.
(4) If the criminal act described in paragraph 2 of this Article has caused
consequences described in paragraph 3, the perpetrator will be punished by at
least five (5) years’ imprisonment. "
III. Other forms of child sex abuse
‘Sexual Intercourse with a disabled person’, Article 189 of the Penal Law
" (1) Whoever commits sexual intercourse or an equivalent sexual act with another
person,
having used that person’s mental illness, mental derangement, insufficient mental
development,
some other mental disturbance, or some other state of that person, due to which that
person is not
able to protect himself from harm, will be punished by a prison sentence lasting from six
(6)
months to five (5) years.
(2) Who commits the criminal act described in the paragraph 1 of this Article in a
particularly
cruel or humiliating way, or if more sexual intercourse or equivalent sexual acts are
committed by
more than one perpetrator to the detriment of the same victim, will be punished by a
prison
sentence lasting from one (1) to ten (10) years.
(3) If the criminal act described in the paragraph 1 of this Article has caused the death
of the
person or serious bodily injury, or that person ‘s health has been seriously damaged,
or the female
person has become pregnant, the perpetrator will be punished by a prison sentence lasting
from
one (1) to ten (10) years.
(4) If the criminal act described in the paragraph 2 of this Article has caused
consequences
described in the paragraph 3, the perpetrator will be punished by at least three (3)
years’
imprisonment. "
‘Coercion on criminal intercourse’, Article 190 of the Penal Law
" Who forces another person, by serious threats that something bad will happen, will
be punished
by a prison sentence from three (3) months to five (5) years. "
‘Sexual intercourse by abusing of power’, Article 191 of the Penal Law
" (1) Whoever abuses his power to force another person, who due to difficult
financial, family,
social, health or other difficult conditions is in dependant position towards him, into
sexual
intercourse or an equivalent sexual act, will be punished by a prison sentence lasting
from three (3)
months to three (3) year.
(2) A teacher, educator, parent, adoptive parent, guardian, step-parent or other person
who
abuses his/her power or relationship to a minor entrusted to that person for the purposes
of
teaching, education, guarding or caring, to commit sexual intercourse or an equivalent
sexual
act with that minor, will be punished by a prison sentence lasting from six (6) months to
six (6)
years. "
‘Sexual intercourse with a child’, Article 192 of the Penal Law
[EDITOR: A child is a person younger than fourteen (14) years
of age}
" (1) Who commits sexual intercourse or an equivalent act with a child, will be
punished by a
prison sentence lasting from one (1) to eight (8) years.
(2) Who commits violent sexual intercourse or an equivalent sexual act with a child or a
disabled
child will be punished by at least three (3) years’ imprisonment.
(3) Who commits sexual intercourse or an equivalent sexual act by abusing his/her power
over
the child will be punished by a prison sentence lasting from one (1) to ten (10) years.
(4) Who commits the criminal act described in paragraph 1 of this Article in a
particularly cruel
or humiliating way, or if more sexual intercourse or equivalent sexual acts are committed
by more
than one perpetrator to the detriment of the same victim, will be punished by at least
five (5)
years’ imprisonment.
(5) If the criminal ac described in the paragraph 1 of this Article has caused the death
of the child
or serious bodily injury, or the child’s health has been seriously damaged, or the
female child has
become pregnant, the perpetrator will be punished by at least five (5) years’
imprisonment or
long-term imprisonment. "
‘Incest’, Article 198 of the Penal Law
" (1) Who commits sexual intercourse or an equivalent sexual act with a blood
relative of the same
level or a brother or a sister, will be fined or imprisoned for a term not exceeding one
(1) year.
(2) Who commits the criminal act described in the paragraph 1 of this Article with a
minor, will
be punished by a prison sentence lasting from six (6) months to five (5) years.
(3) Who commits the criminal act described in the paragraph 1 of this Article with a
child, will be
punished by prison sentence from one (1) to eight (8) years. "
‘Obscene acts’, Article 193 of the Penal Law
" Who in the cases described in the Articles 188-192 of this Law commits only an
obscene action,
without even attempting to commit the described criminal acts, will be punished by a
prison
sentence lasting from three (3) months to three (3) years. "
‘Gratifying lust in front of a child or a minor’, Article 194 of the
Penal Law
[EDITOR: a minor is the person who has attained the age of
fourteen (14) and has not attained the age of eighteen (18)]
" Whoever commits actions designed to gratify his /her own or any other person’s
lust in front of a
child or a minor ; and whoever induces the child to do such actions in front of any
person, will be
punished by a prison sentence lasting from three (3) months to three (3) years. "
IV. Child prostitution
‘Pimping’, Article 195 of the Penal Law
" (1) Who organises or makes possible for another person to provide sexual services
for profit,
will be fined or punished by maximum one year imprisonment.
(2) Who, in order to gain profit, compels the other person by the use of physical force or
threatening to use force to provide sexual service, will be fined or punished by maximum
three (3)
years’ imprisonment.
(3) If the criminal act described in paragraph 1 or 2 of this Article is committed with a
minor, the
perpetrator will be punished by a prison sentence lasting from six (6) months to five (5)
years.
(4) If the criminal act described in paragraph 1 or 2 of this Article is committed with a
child, the
perpetrator will be punished by a prison sentence lasting from one (1) to eight (8) years.
(5) Whether the person who is being solicited has been engaged in prostitution before has
no
bearing on the criminal act described in this Article. "
‘International prostitution’, Article 178 of the Penal Law
" (1) Whoever tempts, recruits or instigates the other person to provide sexual
services for profit
in a country other than the one whose resident or citizen that person is, will be punished
by a
prison sentence lasting from three (3) months to three (3) years.
(2) Who compels another person by using physical force, or induces that person using
threats, or
by deceit to go to a country other than the country of that person’s residence or
citizenship, to
provide sexual services for money, will be punished by a prison sentence lasting from six
(6)
months to five (5) years.
(3) If the criminal act described in the paragraph 1 and 2 of this Article was committed
to the
detriment of a child or a minor, the perpetrator will be punished by a prison sentence
lasting from
one (1) to ten (10) years.
(4) The fact whether the person who is being induced, recruited, instigated, forced or
induced by
deceit to be engaged in prostitution has been involved in it before, has no bearing on the
existence of the criminal act described in this article. "
V. Child pornography
‘Exploiting children or minors for pornography’, Article 196 of the Penal Law,
" (1) Every person who records a person or a minor for making photos, audio-visual
material or
other things of pornographic content, or sells, distributes or shows such material, or
induces a
child to participate in pornographic performance, will be punished by a prison sentence
lasting
from one (1) to five (5) years.
(2) The materials and objects from paragraph 1 of this Article will be confiscated. "
‘Introducing children with pornography’, Article 197 of the Penal Law
" (1) Every person who sells, gifts, displays, or makes accessible by public
presentation or in any
other way anything written or printed or any picture, drawing, audio and video production
or any
other things of pornographic content to a child, or shows a pornographic performance to a
child,
will be fined or imprisoned for a term not exceeding one (1) year.
(2) The materials and objects from paragraph 1 of this Article will be confiscated. "
CROATIA: NEW PENAL CODE
by Helmut GRAUPNER, Rechtskomitee LAMBDA, Vienna
Croatia adopted a new Criminal Code in 1997 (Official Gazette (Narodne Novine¦ No.
110/97). This new Code did away with the prior discriminatory age of consent for
homosexual relations.
The (first) Yugoslav Criminal Code of 1929 banned (Lewdness Against the Order of Nature¦
(anal intercourse) between human beings (Art. 286). Thereby it recriminalized anal
intercourse in those parts of the new Yugoslav state, which formerly belonged to the
Turkish empire (which decriminalized in 1858) and to the Kingdoms of Serbia and
Montenegro. Socialist Yugoslavia restricted the offence to homosexual anal intercourse
(Art. 186 CC 1952; maximum sentence reduced from 2 to 1 year in 1959).
In 1971 the competence for Criminal Law legislation (with some exceptions) was referred to
the six republics and the two autonomous regions. These enacted their own Penal Codes in
the late seventies. While Bosnia-Hercegovina, Macedonia (decriminalized in 1996), Serbia
(decriminalized over 18 in 1994) and Cosovo kept the total ban on homosexual anal
intercourse, Slovenia, Montenegro and Vojvodina did away with it and hitherto treated
homo- and heterosexual contacts alike (age of consent: 14). Croatia did away
with the old total ban but introduced a new offence of homosexual relations with persons
under 18, thereby decriminalizing homosexual anal intercourse over 18 but at the same time
newly criminalizing
lesbian contacts (over 14 and) under 18 as well as other gay male contacts than anal
intercourse (over 14 and) under 18.
The new Penal Code of 1997 does not contain such a provision anymore. It establishes a
general age of consent of 14 years (Art. 192, 193 CC). Also cohabitation with a 14-under
16 year old adolescent in a non-marital relationship is penalized equally (Art. 214 CC).
The new CC contains extensive offences for violating fundamental rights. Of particular
relevance for l/g/b-rights seem the offenses of (Violation of the Equality of Citizens¦
(Art. 106 CC: denying or limiting freedoms or rights laid down in constitution, statutes
or other legal provisions on the basis of + other characteristics + or on the basis of
such difference granting any privileges or advantages +), (Violation of the Right to Work
and Other Labor - Related Rights¦ (Art. 114 CC: denying or limiting the right to work,
the freedom of work, the free choice of vocation or occupation, access to a work place and
to duties offered everyone under the same terms +) and (Racial and Other Discrimination¦
(Art. 114 CC: persecution of organizations or
individuals for promoting equality between people).
Art. 61 of the Croatian Constitution of 1998 orders (some) legal recognition of
non-marital relationships: (The family enjoys special state-protection. Marriage as
well as the legal conditions in marriage, in non-marital communities and the family are
regulated by law.¦