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Resolution 1691 (2009)
Rape of women, including marital rape
1. Every year,
millions of women are raped: by their husbands, partners or ex-partners,
male relatives or acquaintances, or complete strangers. However,
most of these rapes are not reported and the perpetrators go unpunished.
2. Rape is a serious violation both of women’s physical and
psychological integrity and also of the right to freedom, safety
and dignity enjoyed by all human beings.
3. Unfortunately, the extremely low level of reporting of rape
is matched by a very high rate of attrition and an extremely low
level of conviction – especially, but not only, for marital rape.
This is due to several factors, including:
3.1. widespread attitudes to rape and sexual assault which
tend to shift the blame from the attacker to the victim and undermine
victims’ credibility (attitudes widespread also amongst the members
of the police, the legal profession, public prosecutors and the
judiciary);
3.2. unreformed rape legislation which requires a victim to
physically resist the attacker, to initiate proceedings, and/or
makes it possible for the most intimate details of victims’ private
lives to be exposed in court;
3.3. a lack of support, assistance and protection for victims.
4. It needs to be made clear that any woman can be raped, but
no woman deserves to be raped, and that consent is necessary for
sexual intercourse every time, whatever the relationship of the
victim with the rapist. Only then will more rapes be reported to
the authorities, and will more rapists actually be convicted of
their crimes. There is no excuse for rape; lesbian, bisexual and
transgender women need particular protection in this regard as they
face sexual violence on both accounts.
5. The Parliamentary Assembly thus recommends that Council of
Europe member states:
5.1. fully
implement the recommendations on sexual violence and rape contained
in Recommendation (2002)5 of the Committee of Ministers on the protection
of women against violence, as well as the recommendations contained
in Assembly Recommendation
1777 (2007) on sexual assaults linked to “date-rape drugs”, and
in Assembly Resolution
1670 (2009) and Recommendation 1873
(2009) on sexual violence against women in armed conflict;
5.2. ensure that their legislation on rape and sexual violence
reaches the highest possible standard, ensuring that rape is defined
in essence by the absence of consent or the absence of the choice
to consent by the victim, and avoiding a re-victimisation of the
victim by the criminal justice system; legislation should thus,
as a minimum:
5.2.1. make rape (including
marital rape) an ex officio crime;
5.2.2. define consent as agreement by choice when having the
freedom and capacity to make that choice;
5.2.3. not require that a victim physically resist the attacker;
5.2.4. have prosecutors make all discontinuance decisions and
give the victim the right to challenge such decisions;
5.2.5. protect victims’ private lives, especially in court;
5.2.6. allow evidence gathered in pre-trial proceedings to be
used when the victim avails herself of her right to refuse to testify
once in court;
5.2.7. establish procedures to ensure victim and witness safety,
where the victim or witness is facing threats or intimidation;
5.2.8. give victims a legal right to advice and support throughout
the process;
5.3. establish marital rape as a separate offence under their
domestic law so as to avoid any hindrance of legal proceedings,
if they have not already done so;
5.4. penalise sexual violence and rape between spouses, cohabitant
partners and ex-partners, if they have not already done so, and
consider whether the attacker’s current or former close relationship
with the victim should be an aggravating circumstance;
5.5. consider instituting compensation for the victim, if they
have not already done so;
5.6. develop a comprehensive strategy which should comprise
measures to prevent rape in the first place, by empowering girls
and women not to be victims and teaching boys and men to respect
women, as well as to ensure (securely-funded) protection of and
assistance to rape victims at every step of the proceedings;
5.7. develop compulsory training programmes for police officers,
judicial, medical and forensic personnel, social workers and teachers
so as to enable them to identify cases of rape and sexual violence,
and, in particular, of marital rape, and to enable them to advise
and assist the victims more effectively and consistently.