penal code

Law No. 10,224, of May 15, 2001, amending the Penal Code to establish the crime of sexual harassment

The Brazilian Penal Code was amended to introduce Article 216-A, which defines sexual harassment as the act of constraining someone with the intent of obtaining a sexual advantage or favor by taking advantage of a position of hierarchical superiority or influence associated with employment, office, or function. The punishment for this offense is detention from one to two years. This law took effect on the date of its publication.

In 2010, Spain amended its Penal Code by enacting Article 177 to prohibit human trafficking. Spain did so in response to international human rights agreements regarding human trafficking. This ruling was the first conviction under this new article. Two women reported to authorities that the defendants had lured them from Paraguay under false pretenses, forced them to work as prostitutes, and physically and emotionally assaulted them.

Articles 623-624 of Book Five of the Islamic Penal Code of Iran ban abortion and proscribe prison sentences for, respectively, "anyone" and doctors, midwives, and pharmacists. Article 630 of the Iranian Penal Code allows a man who witnesses his wife in the act of having sexual intercourse with another man (zina) to kill both of them if he is certain that his wife is a willing participant. If the husband knows that is wife was the subject of coercion, he is justified in murdering only the other man.