The draft law on amendments to the Criminal Code of Montenegro proposed the introduction of a special criminal offense - misuse of someone else's recording, photograph, portrait, audio recording or file with sexually explicit content, as this is intended to stop the spread of "revenge pornography" as a social phenomenon in the time of expansion social networks and the Internet.
"Revenge pornography", as it was stated in the Draft submitted by the Ministry of Justice for public discussion on Monday, is presented as a social phenomenon that takes on large proportions and becomes a dominant form of sexual violence, predominantly against women.
"Pornography without consent is usually preceded by the voluntary sharing of intimate photos between partners at a time when the emotional relationship is functioning, but only with the intention that the intimate contents are intended for the partner at that time and with the trust that such contents will never be misused. The term "revenge pornography", although it is most often associated with the relationship between ex-partners, should be interpreted in a wider context and bear in mind that the perpetrator does not necessarily have to be an ex-partner, bearing in mind that recordings and photographs can be made without the knowledge of the victim, by filming in intimate situations, during the sexual abuse of a woman, by hacking the victim's device from which photo and video materials can be downloaded, which were not intended to be sent, but also by using artificial intelligence, explicit images and recordings that are manipulated with the help of software (photoshop, deepfake) in which in this case, it will be about the publication of virtual pornography without consent, which has the same devastating effects as the publication of real footage. Therefore, although the phenomenon as such is not new, today's possibilities of distributing content via the Internet enable the use of content in such a way that in a short time they become "viral", i.e. accessible to an incalculable number of people, and hence the breadth of the scale of serious consequences for the victims", states the explanation of the proposed legal amendments to the CC.
In the current Montenegrin legislation, "revenge pornography" has not been introduced as a separate criminal offense, so the prosecution of perpetrators is undertaken exclusively under Article 175 of the Criminal Code, which refers to "unauthorized publication and display of other people's writings, portraits and videos", and the penalties prevented are mild or are often replaced by a fine.
"The state must tighten its penal policy if international and regional recommendations are taken into account, which state that criminal acts involving sexual violence should be more severely sanctioned," the explanation reads.
Sexual violence
The draft of legal amendments to the Criminal Code foresees the introduction of special criminal offenses - sexual violence and sexual harassment, given that the Istanbul Convention, to which Montenegro has been a signatory since 2014, provides for premeditated behavior - "inducing another person to engage in sexual acts with a third party." face without consent".
"The scope of intention is wider than that which includes the concept of aiding and abetting. It covers not only the intent to, for example, assist in rape, but also extends to the intent to cause both acts," the legal amendments state.
The proposed criminal offense of sexual harassment defined by Article 40 of the Istanbul Convention includes unwanted behavior of a sexual nature that affects or may affect a person's dignity.
"In addition to the basic form of this criminal offense, for which prosecution is undertaken by private lawsuit, it is also proposed to introduce a qualified form that exists when a person sexually harasses another person with whom he is superior or who is in a dependent relationship with him or who is particularly vulnerable due to age , illness, disability, addiction, pregnancy, severe physical or mental disabilities. In addition, in addition to the victim, this criminal offense would also protect public morality and the normal atmosphere in our society", according to the proponents of CC amendments.
Family violence
Article 45 of the Draft Law amended the criminal offense from Article 220 - Violence in the family or family community. In the explanation, they refer to the report of the GREVIO group - Committee on the assessment of legislative and other measures applying the provisions of the Convention of the Council of Europe, where it is written that "there are no uniform criteria that are consistently applied to the difference between a misdemeanor and a criminal act of domestic violence".
Precisely because there is no clear legal interpretation in the practice of the Montenegrin judiciary, the interpretation of domestic violence is often qualified as a misdemeanor rather than a criminal offense...
"In order to harmonize the elements of a misdemeanor and a criminal offense and to make a clear distinction between these illegal behaviors, it was proposed to overcome this in such a way that physical and psychological violence are fully transferred to the characteristics of the criminal offense. Namely, a way that would not create dilemmas in practice regarding the legal qualification of certain behavior, above all the actions of this criminal offense are described in three paragraphs. Anyone who easily physically injures a member of the family or family community or endangers his safety by threatening to attack the life or body of that person or a person close to him, shall be punished by imprisonment from six months to five years. This punishment is also threatened if a person abuses a member of his family or family community or treats him in a way that offends human dignity. Also, a person who in another way repeatedly uses violence, sends threats, or by insolent or reckless behavior threatens or violates the physical or mental integrity of a member of his family or family community. The range of punishment has been tightened for the basic form, so the range in other forms of this criminal offense has also been harmonized. Also, if the act was committed in the presence of a child, it is also incriminated," states the Draft Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code of Montenegro.
That document foresees changes to dozens more legal provisions, and the reason for changing the CC is to harmonize with the conventions of the Council of Europe and the United Nations, the legal standards of the European Court of Human Rights and other international documents.
"Next, further modernization of the general and special part of the Criminal Code based on the good practice of other European criminal law systems, elimination of certain legal inconsistencies and further improvement of certain existing solutions," the public version of the document reads.
Exploitation of gravel and sand...
In the proposed legal text, within the framework of criminal offenses of environmental protection, it is envisaged to introduce a new criminal offense related to the unauthorized exploitation of river sediment - sand and gravel.
The legislators clarified that there was a need to protect all acts of "unauthorized exploitation of river sediment (sand and gravel) by criminal legislation".
Illegal exploitation of gravel and sand from Montenegrin rivers has been a serious problem for decades, which affects the environment, endangers the eco-system and devastates Morača, Tara...
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