2024-02-20 16:38:50
In February, the Slovak government coalition of Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smér-SD) pushed for the shortening of the statute of limitations for rape and sexual violence by ten years. Victims’ stories collected by Slovak daily SME show that for some of the traumatized women, even ten years was not enough time to realize that they had been sexually abused as children. They feel that the deputies spat in their face by accepting the changes.
“I don’t know how I would perceive it today if the gynecologist who abused me was still alive, but it really annoys me how the deputies comment on it. And why should there be a statute of limitations? I live with it every day,” says Jana Geralská, one of the nineteen victims SME spoke to. More than half of them were abused as children.
The women decided to speak out after the ruling coalition MPs approved an amendment to the criminal code in early February that reduces the statute of limitations for, among other cases, rape and sexual violence. With exceptions, he also expects to reduce criminal rates for corruption or economic crime or abolish the elite prosecutor’s office. The government defends the changes by trying to harmonize Slovak legislation with the laws in force in European countries.
Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová signed the amendment last week. At the same time, she announced that she would have the law reviewed by the Constitutional Court and would ask it to suspend its validity. Čaputová justified the non-use of the right of veto, which the coalition has enough votes in the lower house to break, by the fact that the Constitutional Court will have more time to examine the amendment.
The victim was particularly touched by the statement of MP Richard Glück (Smér-SD), who said that perhaps the woman would have noticed if she had been raped. “Imagine that he won’t notice,” Alexandra Stanová, another of the women who confided in the Slovak newspaper, responded to the daily SME.
According to SME, the stories show that shortening the statute of limitations on rape does not motivate people to report it to the police sooner. Some victims are still not able to talk openly about what happened to them, not even their closest friends know about it.
This is also why some stories are anonymous, the newspaper editors know the names of the victims. Among them are a teacher, priest, manager, courier or member of parliament. As a sign that the statements were real, each of the women provided an orange palm print to complement the story. This color is a symbol of the fight against violence against women and children.
The women describe that, by accepting the amendment, the deputies made it clear to them that they themselves were to blame. They ask if they want to help the perpetrators. “I told myself that I can at least close it this way, when the deputies have already closed it for me under criminal law,” wrote Michaela. If the parliamentarians do not change the amendment or the constitutional court does not intervene, what happened to it will be time-barred forever.
You can read the entire text with all 19 stories on the pages of the SME newspaper.