Failure to help rape victims remains unpunishable in Switzerland

At present, failing to help a person in imminent danger of death is punishable. This is not the case when someone is being raped in the next room, argued parliamentarian Tamara Funiciello. Keystone-SDA

Failing to come to the aid of a rape victim will remain unpunishable in Switzerland. Against the advice of the House of Representatives, the Senate on Monday rejected by 30 votes to 13 a Social Democrat parliamentary initiative to review the current law.

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At present, failing to help a person in imminent danger of death is punishable. This is not the case when someone is being raped in the next room, argued parliamentarian Tamara Funiciello in her text.

She therefore wanted to amend the Criminal Code to make it a punishable offence not to come to the aid of a person who has suffered serious physical or sexual harm, if this is reasonable in the circumstances. The penalty would have remained a custodial sentence of up to three years or a financial penalty.

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She pointed out that the Federal Court acquitted a man who had left the room in which a person he knew was being raped. Even though he knew she was in great distress, he did nothing to prevent the rape and even let the rapist into the room himself.

Choice of words

Committee rapporteur Beat Rieder from the Centre Party welcomed the intention of the text, but he refused to legislate on the basis of a specific case. He went on to say that it would be difficult to define the constituent elements of the offence, asking what constituted a “serious” attack on physical or sexual integrity, or what would be “reasonably” required of potential witnesses.

Mathilde Crevoisier Crelier from the Social Democratic Party countered that the current text was not set in stone and could change when the law was drafted. And she called for “a legal vacuum to be filled in the area of failure to assist a person in danger”. Crevoisier Crelier also regretted that we were “turning a blind eye” to the rise in gender-based violence and masculinist rhetoric.

Opposing the text, Daniel Jositsch from the Social Democratic Party, a professor of criminal law, rejected the idea that criminal law should become moralistic. Pierre-Yves Maillard, also from the Social Democratic Party, countered that criminal law does have a societal objective. In his view, it was important to specify what was expected of citizens in such circumstances – in vain.

Translated from French by DeepL/ts

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