Proposition 53K2473

Projet de loi modifiant l'article 405quater du Code pénal et l'article 2 de la loi du 4 octobre 1867 sur les circonstances atténuantes.

General information ¶

Submitted by

PS | SP the Di Rupo government

Submission date

Oct. 30, 2012

Official page

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Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

physical aggression sexual minority criminal law aggravating circumstances

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR VB

Party dissidents ¶

• Bert Schoofs (VB) abstained from voting.

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Discussion ¶

Dec. 13, 2012 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

I refer to the written report.

(Mr. Bert Schoofs intervened on this bill during the discussion of the previous bill containing various provisions relating to justice (fiscal provisions), no. 2430/1-6)

This proposal tends to aggravate the penalties for those mentioned. It seems to me that it is time for our Parliament to stop the systematic aggravation of penalties in all possible and imaginable situations. We are already struggling with an excessive prison population, we would more need policies that allow disengagement.

Supplements to these aggravations of punishment are needed in subjects such as this, in particular education and pedagogy.

In the committee, the Minister told us that a plan concerted with the Minister of the Interior was in preparation for this purpose. For me, it will have as much importance, or even more interest, as the simple fact of systematically aggravating penalties, a political response sometimes quite easy, but not necessarily the most effective.

Mr. Speaker, it has already been said here, but this bill is indeed giving an important signal. Any form of violence against persons is repugnant and a severe punishment is in place.

Although it is an important signal, it remains only a signal. Please allow me to formulate a few critical comments, which I have already done in the committee. The legislation will not solve the problem or provide peace of mind to the victims of homophobic violence if you only continue to commit to tightening the penalty.

As has been stated in previous penalties approved by Parliament, you must also bet on the execution of the penalty. Only then will you solve something in practice and change something for the good of the victims of homophobic violence.

Mr. Minister, you have not been able to give us a number of data in the committee. Apparently this is not present. It is therefore regrettable that this additional penalty barrier could not be substantiated and confirmed. It is a new law that is being passed and we are carrying out a penalty warrant in which we currently do not even know if it will produce something and will have effect in practice.

You should bet on a global and comprehensive approach that would be in place here. That is important. I will not repeat everything, but in the committee we have cited a number of points that we believe you should work on.

Recently, together with your fellow Minister Milquet, you announced that you would come out with a global approach in early 2013. We are therefore surprised that you are already coming out with this bill without waiting for the global plan that you will announce soon.

Minister Milquet has just recently announced a new anti-sexism law and it is therefore a little surprising that you and your colleague apparently did not consult on whether your bill is compatible with Mrs. Milquet’s future bill.

Finally, Mrs. Minister, we will approve the present bill because it is indeed a good signal, but we add the critical note that it is very regrettable that this bill could not be supported by numerical material and that no full approach was used.

On behalf of our group, I would also like to emphasize that we will approve the present proposal. We are involved in its although limited signal function. Furthermore, we have also provided for a penalty leverage when it comes to cybercriminals and NMBS staff.

However, we are well aware that this is a theoretical intervention that will not necessarily lead to large effects on the ground as an action against homophobic violence. We actually attach more faith to the National Action Plan against Homophobic Violence, which we hope you will submit soon. You promised it by the beginning of 2013, if I am right. We hope that the national action plan includes some effective and preventive measures.

We would also like you to keep the promise you made, which you may repeat, in order to review the interrelationship of the penalties in the Criminal Code. You had promised this on the basis of previous proposals, and we will keep that because proportionality and the principle of equality are still important. The State Council has also emphasized this.

In addition, we also count on a serious succession, on an effect measurement, so that we know if this law actually produces something. If this is not the case, then I think we should draw the necessary conclusions from that.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to join in the remarks made by Mrs. Becq and Mr. and broccoli. In fact, given its magnitude, the phenomenon deserves to be controlled and combated. Nevertheless, the increase in the successive penalties we will vote for is not, in the sense of my group, the solution.

I would like to remind Ms. Minister of the promise she made to us in committee – and to which Ms. Becq referred – to provide us with a study and a report on the scale and proportionality of penalties in our country. Because they do not seem to reflect the values we want to confer on our democratic society.

This is an important bill. We all know the shocking cases of homophobic violence, considering that this threatens to undermine one of the fundamental basic values of our society. Therefore, with this bill, we aggravate the penalties, to give the signal that this is unacceptable.

Of course, this bill is not alone. An action plan will be prepared in cooperation with the Minister of Internal Affairs at the beginning of next year. When there is a penalty warrant, when a judge can award a penalty measure, a file must first be drawn up showing that the cause of the beats and injuries lies in the orientation of someone. In the meantime, we must not fail to take the measures that we can take. We knew that the penalty leverage for the maximum penalties was one of the elements in strokes and injuries due to sexual orientation. Therefore, I did not wait to come to Parliament with this draft law after having had extensive contact with the Centre for Equal Opportunities and for Combating Racism on this subject.

Last week we adopted another penalty penalty for violence against bus drivers and persons working in prisons, the cornerstones of safety in society. On the margins of the bill passed last week, I announced that I will ask the NICC for a report on whether our penalty level is still true, as set forth by the legislator. This report will take a few months, but the research assignment has been given to the NICC, which always makes very solid analyses.

For the action plan, we have contact with the Communities and the Regions. After all, it is primarily our goal to ensure that these facts do not happen again. Prevention and education are crucial in this regard, which is why the action plan will be written together with them. If this law is passed today, we will give a strong signal about basic values in our society that are very dear to all of us.