CHAPTER 9

• Jurisdiction: United States

CHAPTER 9

#MeToo in Belgium: Confronting the Failure of Criminal Law

Emmanuelle Bribosia, Chloé Leroy, and Isabelle Rorive¹

"Femme de la rue" and the First Signs of Awareness

According to a recent survey, 95 percent of women living in Belgium have already faced sexist behavior in public spaces and 94 percent in the work sphere. Furthermore, one out of two women has already been the victim of sexual assault on the street or in public transport.² If these numbers prove the magnitude of sexual harassment in Belgium, it is only recently that this phenomenon has been brought to the public's attention.

The launch of the documentary "Femme de la Rue" ("Woman of the Street") by Sofie Peeters in July 2012 became a turning point. In this thirty-minute short-film, Sofie Peeters films herself while walking in the streets of Brussels. Many men catcall her, follow her, insult her, and make comments and propositions that are sexual in nature. Once released, the documentary went viral. It has been criticized for presenting an ancient phenomenon as new, for inciting women to flee "bad" neighborhoods, and for designating men of Northern African origin as the main culprits of street harassment. Nevertheless, this documentary caused such a stir that a legislative response followed. The law aiming to combat sexism in public spaces was adopted on May 22, 2014 (see below).

While sexual harassment in public places had largely been ignored until 2012, Belgium has been part of the worldwide movement to fight gender inequality. Since 2001, a National Action Plan to combat domestic violence, female genital mutilation, forced marriages, honor-related violence, and sexual violence has been in place. Again in 2002, the fight against gender inequality in political representation became a matter of constitutional import. As part of that effort, a series of laws were enacted to ensure strict gender parity on the ballots. Since 2011, public companies and companies listed on the stock market have been required to implement quota systems to ensure that one-third of the board of directors are women. With females constituting 60 percent of graduates, all Belgian universities have adopted gender policies to ensure equal representation in the academic world. Furthermore, these last years, two inter-university Masters in Gender Studies were launched.³

Despite all those laws and policies, inequality levels remain high in real life, and have been extensively documented by statistics and gender benchmarks.⁴

A Comprehensive Legal Armory

Anti-discrimination Legislation Derived from European Law

The fight against sexual harassment has been part of Belgian anti-discrimination law for several decades. At the end of the 1990s, Belgium adopted a sophisticated legal framework to combat gender inequality in the workplace. Driven by the European Union, this framework was extended, at the early aughts, to goods and services. The prohibition of discrimination targets not only direct and indirect discrimination, but also harassment and the instruction to discriminate. The law distinguishes between sexual harassment and harassment on the basis of sex.⁵ The law also provides for a shared burden of proof in the case of discrimination or harassment on the basis of sex: if the veracity of the claims of such behavior, established by the victim, can be presumed, it is for the respondent to prove that there has been no discrimination.

In addition to those classic tools, European Union law also put in place gender mainstreaming policies, as well as the creation of a gender equality body. In Belgium, this duty has been carried out since 2002 by the Institute for the Equality of Women and Men (IEWM), which collects and manages complaints of victims of discriminations on the grounds of sex, and which can initiate legal proceedings in defense of gender equality. In 2017, the IEWM received 295 complaints and brought twenty-six legal proceedings, 12 percent of the complaints concerned sexual harassment.

While Belgian antidiscrimination law provides for a high level of protection, it still suffers from a lack of effectiveness. Discrimination remain commonplace, and victims' access to justice is fraught with difficulties: lack of knowledge of their rights; high costs and the lengthiness of the procedures; fear of retaliation; and difficult burden of proof. The challenge for the authorities is no longer the adoption of new anti-discrimination legislation, but making sure existing laws are being enforced and facilitating access to justice.⁶

AmbitiousYet Ineffective Criminal Law

The criminal legal framework in Belgium is rather classic when it comes to sexual harassment. The Belgian Criminal Code prohibits voyeurism, indecent behavior, and rape.⁷ These infractions, as well as procuring and bigamy, are included under the chapter relating to "crimes and offences against family order and public morality"; this title dates back to the adoption of the text in 1867. Insult and harassment are also infractions,⁸ and the sentence can be doubled if the offence was...