to consent, explaining a series of circumstances that would generate said
presumption: violence or threat, restriction or confinement, state of
unconsciousness,
intoxication,
mental
disability,
physical
disability,
impersonalization, deception, exploitation of coercive power, pretext of cultural,
ancestral or religious practices or social, cultural or religious disadvantage. I consider
that such parameters effectively reinforce those that were already introduced in the
judgment:
(…) The Court considers it necessary that criminal law also establish that consent
cannot be inferred (i) when force, threat of force, coercion or taking advantage of a
coercive environment has diminished the victim's ability to give a free and voluntary
consent; (ii) when the victim is unable to give free consent; (iii) the victim's silence or
lack of resistance to sexual violence, and (iv) when there is a power relationship that
forces the victim to carry out the act for fear of its consequences, taking advantage of
an environment of coercion.
(...) The Court considers that it is essential that the regulations concerning crimes of
sexual violence provide that consent cannot be inferred, but must always be offered
expressly, freely and prior to the act and that it can be reversible. By virtue of this
premise, as this Court has already pointed out, in the face of “any type of coercive
circumstance it is no longer necessary for the concept of consent to occur because that
circumstance has, without a doubt, eliminated consent.” 167
IV.
On the imperative to give greater visibility to incestuous rape and the
appropriateness of establishing a specific nomen juris for this purpose.
89. The Case of Angulo Losada v. Bolivia revealed, in addition to the difficulties in
adequately protecting victims of sexual violence due to the lack of effective
incorporation of the standard of consent discussed above, particularities of the
legal approach to incestuous rape that also led to the revictimization of Ms.
Losada. 168 The Court considered that, due to the differentiated nature of
incestuous rape in relation to other forms of rape and its differentiated impact on
the rights of children, the crime requires a specialized approach by the State. 169 I
therefore determine that the State had to adapt its legislation to give greater
visibility to the crime of incestuous rape, and that this visibility had to be given
through the attribution of a specific nomen juris in the Criminal Code to the
classified conduct. Below, I will set out the reasons why the adoption of a specific
nomen juris for incestuous rape is an appropriate remedy in the case at hand.
a. The approach to incest by the Bolivian legal system
90. Since the entry into force of the current Bolivian Criminal Code in 1972, the
aggravating circumstances of sexual crimes are specified in its Article 310. The
original text established that the death of the victim would increase the penalty
for rape from 10 to 20 years and for statutory rape from 4 to 10 years, and three
circumstances that would increase the penalty by one third: serious damage to
the victim's health, the concurrence of two or more people in the act and the case
where “the perpetrator was ancestor, descendant, brother, half-brother, or person
adopting or in charge of the education or custody of the victim. 170 Thus, we have
the classification of incest as an aggravating circumstance of sexual crimes in the
Criminal Code – but without the term “incest” being used in the legislation.
167
168
169
170
Cf. Judgment, para. 148.
Ibid., para. 200.
Ibid., para. 201.
Original text available at: http://www.silep.gob.bo/norma/4368/texto_ordenado.
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