The victim’s request for criminal prosecution will no longer be required in cases of domestic violence. Amendments to the Criminal Code have enabled the removal of prosecution upon proposal in cases where the offence has been committed, among other things, within the context of gender-based violence, violence against women, and domestic violence. We recall that domestic violence continues to record a worrying increase in North Macedonia.
According to official data, a total of 1,260 victims of domestic violence were registered during 2025, of whom 932 were women, indicating that women remain the most at-risk group affected by this form of violence. Despite the high number of cases, domestic violence has until now been prosecuted exclusively through private lawsuits. Last week alone, within a single day, the police recorded four separate cases of domestic violence.
With the latest amendments to the Criminal Code, the victim’s consent will no longer be required for the criminal prosecution of the perpetrator. Instead, the police and the Public Prosecutor’s Office will be able to prosecute domestic violence ex officio. Accordingly, the provision under which the criminal offence was prosecuted “by private lawsuit” will be deleted, and the victim will no longer be obliged to file a complaint, as the offence will be prosecuted regardless of whether the victim wishes to initiate proceedings or not.
“Through the proposed provisions of the Draft Law, further harmonisation with the Istanbul Convention is achieved, through the reformulation of the criminal offence ‘Bodily Injury’ (Article 130) of the Criminal Code. With these amendments, criminal prosecution upon proposal is abolished in cases where the offence is committed within the context of gender-based violence, violence against women, domestic violence, hate crimes, or against persons who are particularly vulnerable due to age, physical or mental disability, or pregnancy, thereby ensuring that this form of criminal offence is prosecuted ex officio, in accordance with the provisions of the Istanbul Convention,” the text states.
The Ministry of Justice told Mollëkuqja that the reformulation of the criminal offence ‘Bodily Injury’ (Article 130) was undertaken with the aim of strengthening criminal-legal protection against domestic violence, as well as achieving a repressive and preventive effect.
“With this reformulation, criminal prosecution upon proposal is abolished in cases where the offence is committed as gender-based violence, violence against women, domestic violence, a hate crime, or against persons who are particularly vulnerable due to age, physical or mental disability, or pregnancy. In such cases, this form of criminal offence will be prosecuted ex officio, in accordance with the provisions of the Istanbul Convention,” the Ministry stated.
The Ministry of Justice expects that this reform will contribute to increasing the accountability of perpetrators and encouraging victims to seek help, leading to an overall improvement in the situation regarding domestic violence in the country.
As part of the amendments, the introduction of a new criminal offence into the Criminal Code has also been adopted: The misuse of photographs, videos, audio recordings, or written materials with sexually explicit content, without the consent of the person concerned.
“Based on the identified misuse of privacy and the legal gaps observed in the existing provisions of the Criminal Code during their application in practice, it was assessed as necessary to introduce a new criminal offence, namely the criminalisation of the ‘Misuse of recordings, photographs, audio recordings, or writings with sexually explicit content’. With this criminal offence, privacy is defined as the protected legal interest, while the act of perpetration consists of making available to third parties a video or other type of recording, photograph, audio recording, or written material with sexually explicit content, without the consent of the person to whom the material refers, that is, without the consent of the person depicted in the recording or photograph, or whose voice is recorded in the audio recording,” the text of the new legal amendments states.
We recall that, according to the Istanbul Convention, ‘violence against women’ is understood as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women. It encompasses all acts of gender-based violence that result in, or are likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological, or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.
