The Belgian National Action Plan with respect to combatting violence between partners, as approved during the Belgian interministerial conference (federal, community and regional ministers) of 8 February 2006 adopts a common definition of domestic violence, which reads as follows:

Domestic violence is a set of behaviors, acts, attitudes of one partner or ex-partner that aim to control and dominate the other. It includes verbal, physical, sexual, economic, repeated or repetitive aggression, threats or coercion that undermines the integrity of the other person and even his or her socio-professional integration. Such violence affects not only the victim, but also other family members, including children. It is a form of intra-family violence. It appears that in the vast majority of cases, the perpetrators of such violence are men and the victims are women. Violence in intimate relationships is the manifestation, in the private sphere, of the unequal power relations between women and men still at work in our society.

The National Action Plan to combat all forms of gender-based violence^[14] defines domestic violence as:

A set of behaviors, acts, attitudes of one partner or ex-partner that are intended to control or dominate the other. It includes verbal, physical, sexual, economic or sexual assault, threats or coercion, whether repeated, which undermines the integrity of the other person and even his or her socio-professional integration.

This action plan was coordinated by the Belgian Institute for the Equality of Women and Men and relies on the close cooperation between the federal government, the communities and the regions to convert this plan into 235 new measures to combat gender-based violence.

A definition was drawn up by the College of Public Prosecutors on 21 April 2005 and was included in COL 4/2006, which refers to COL3 /2006: "Any form of physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence between spouses or persons who cohabit or have cohabited and maintain or have maintained a lasting emotional and sexual relationship."

Voyeurism is defined in Belgian law as:

1. The act of observing or make a person observed, or made or caused to be made a visual or audio recording of a person:

a. directly or by technical or other means

b. without that person's permission or knowledge;

c. while the person was in a state of nudity or engaged in explicit sexual activity, and

d. in circumstances in which the person could reasonably consider that his or her privacy would not be invaded;

2. Showing, making accessible or disseminating images or visual or audio recordings of a person who is nude or engaged in explicit sexual activity, without that person's consent or knowledge, even if that person consented to their making (Article 371/1 of the Criminal Code).

The term harassment has not been defined directly in the Criminal Code (Article 442). However, based on Belgian case law and doctrine, it is generally considered that harassing someone means engaging in a behavior that infringes on a person's privacy. To constitute harassment, this behavior must be repeated. It is important to stress that acts of harassment must not be reprehensible in themselves. In other words, the acts must not be unlawful in themselves. Therefore, they can be a letter, a phone call, the delivery of things, etc. In addition, the perpetrator's behavior must be directed at a specific individual. Under Belgian law, harassment requires a moral element, which is the fact of knowing or having to know that his or her behavior seriously affects the victim's peace of mind.

We have also identified several definitions of such terms across the Belgian regulations, which might be of relevance depending on the context and include:

• Pursuant to the Governmental Decree of 5 October 2017 to combat certain forms of discrimination and promote equal treatment, harassment is defined as:

  undesirable conduct which relates to sex, alleged race, color, nationality, descent, national or ethnic origin, age, sexual orientation, marital status, birth, wealth, religious or philosophical conviction, political conviction, trade union belief, language, state of health, disability, physical or genetic characteristic, social origin and condition and which has the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person and of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment

• Pursuant to the Regional Decree of 10 July 2008 on the framework of the Flemish equal opportunities and equal treatment policy, intimidation is defined as harassment that involves sex, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, marital status, birth, property, religious or philosophical belief, political belief, trade union belief, language, health status, disability, physical or genetic characteristics, social position, nationality, race, skin color, national or ethnic origin or descent and that has the purpose or consequence of violating the integrity of the person and of creating a threatening, hostile, offensive, humiliating or offensive environment. In addition, this decree specifies that intimidation of a sexual nature refers to any form of harassment of a sexual, verbal, nonverbal or physical nature, which has the objective or consequence of violating the integrity of the person, in particular, in the case of creating a threatening, hostile, offensive, humiliating or hurtful situation.
• Pursuant to the Act of 10 May 2007 to combat discrimination between women and men, harassment is defined as any undesirable behavior that is related to sex and that has the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of the person and of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. Sexual harassment is also defined as unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, expressed physically, verbally or nonverbally, which has the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person and, in particular, of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.
• Pursuant to Article 32-ter of the Act of 4 August 1996 on the welfare of workers in the performance of their work, harassment is defined as:

abusive and repeated conduct from any source, […] as manifested in particular by behavior, words, behavioral patterns, words, actions, intimidation, unilateral acts, gestures and writings, having the object or effect of bearing injury to the personality, dignity or physical or psychological integrity of [the victim],[…] which create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.

This Act also defines the terms "sexual harassment at work" as "any unwanted verbal, nonverbal or physical conduct with a sexual connotation, which has the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person or of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment."

The victim is not expressly defined in the Criminal Code. However, it is defined by the Act of 17 May 2006, which reads as follows:

The following categories of persons who, in the cases provided for by this Act, may request, in the event of the granting of a sentence enforcement procedure, to be informed and/or heard:

a. the natural person whose civil claim is declared admissible and grounded;

b. the natural person in respect of whom a judgment establishes that offenses have been committed, or his or her legal representative;

c. a natural person who has been unable to bring a civil action as a result of a situation of material impossibility or vulnerability;

d. a relative of the person whose death is the direct result of the offense or a relative of a deceased person who was a party to the proceedings; a relative is the spouse of the deceased, the person who cohabited and maintained a lasting emotional relationship with the deceased, his or her ascendants or descendants, brothers and sisters, and dependents;

e. a relative of an un-deceased victim who has been unable to bring a civil action because of material impossibility or vulnerability.

A relative is defined as the spouse of the un-deceased victim, the person who cohabited and maintained a lasting emotional relationship with the victim, his or her ascendants or descendants, brothers and sisters, and dependents of the victim.

The Criminal Code defines abuser as: "Anyone who willfully wounds or assaults someone (Article 398), whoever commits any act of sexual penetration, of whatever nature and by whatever means, on a person who does not consent to it" (Article 375 of the Criminal Code).

In Belgium, protection orders are orders that can be imposed through criminal, civil and administrative law to protect someone from (threats of) acts of violence or harassment. Most of the laws providing protection orders are generic laws.

Civil protection orders are protection orders that are imposed on the basis of the Civil Code, except for the short-term barring orders that are specific civil protection orders to be imposed on the basis of the specific Act of 15 May 2012.

Belgian law does not provide a definition of the civil protection order. However, it encompasses measures including, but not limited to:

• prohibition to contact the victim
• prohibition to enter the common residence
• ban from the family home and prohibition to contact the co residing person(s)

Under criminal law, protection orders can be imposed at all stages of the criminal procedure (before, during and after the trial) and through different legal provisions.

These are a set of predefined factual elements that allow for a legal remedy. The factual elements needed for a specific cause of action can come from a constitution, statute, judicial precedent or administrative regulation.

For a cause of action to be admissible in court, the plaintiff must demonstrate an "interest to act," i.e., the result, the benefit, material or moral, effective and not theoretical, which the plaintiff seeks by submitting her/his claim to the court. The court assesses "interest" on the day the cause of action is filed.

Article 375 of the Criminal Code defines rape as:

"Any act of sexual penetration, of whatever nature and by whatever means, committed on a person who does not consent" and stresses that

consent shall not be implied, in particular, where the act was imposed by violence, coercion, threat, surprise or deceit, or was made possible by reason of the victim's physical or mental infirmity or disability.

The definition includes marital rape, as Belgian law makes no distinction between marital rape and out-of-marriage rape.

N/A