Federal Minister of Justice Christine Lambrecht wants to criminalize the secret photography under skirts and dresses by law. "Who photographed women and girls secretly under the skirt, intervenes massively in their privacy and their right to privacy," said the SPD politician to the editorial network Germany.
Upskirting so far is at most punishable as an administrative offense. This does not provide effective protection and does not make it clear to perpetrators that their "humiliating and degrading behavior" is totally unacceptable, said Lambrecht.
She is therefore planning an amendment to the Criminal Code: "We are currently working on proposals for how such a criminal law can look and want to implement it quickly." In mid-August, Rhineland-Palatinate had announced a corresponding initiative in the Bundesrat after Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia had already announced a bill.
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So far, such recordings are usually not punishable - unless the victim is in an apartment and the recordings hurt the most personal area of life. Other countries have now adjusted their criminal law, most recently UK upskirting criminalized.
In Germany, two young women had launched an online petition weeks ago to achieve such a change in the law in the Federal Republic (read more here). So far, more than 85,000 signatories have joined their initiative.