Draft bill 122.

Summary.

The draft bill proposes to amend Article 397-A of the Criminal Code (Código Penal), concerning failure to comply with or breach of protection measures. Article 1 sets out the wording that provision would have: a person who has been notified of a protection measure ordered by a competent authority in any criminal proceeding and then fails to comply with or breaches it would be punished by imprisonment for one to six years. The conduct described is tied to a protection measure and to its notification to the person required to comply with it.

The proposed provision brings together several elements. The protection measure must have been ordered by a competent authority; it may arise in any criminal proceeding; the person alleged to have failed to comply must have received notice of it; and the punishable conduct consists of failing to comply with or breaching that measure. The reference to any criminal proceeding defines the procedural scope of the proposed rule. Notification forms part of the description of the punishable conduct: the prescribed penalty applies to a person who, after being notified, fails to comply with or breaches the measure ordered.

For that conduct, proposed Article 397-A prescribes imprisonment for one to six years. The same criminal consequence is stated for the two forms of conduct covered by the provision: failure to comply with a protection measure and breach of such a measure. The article identifies a decision by a competent authority as the source of the measure and places its application within a criminal proceeding. The amendment therefore concerns compliance with notified protection measures in that setting and the prison sentence associated with failure to comply with or breach of them.

Article 2 expressly states that the amendment concerns Article 397-A of the Criminal Code. It identifies the existing provision that the draft bill proposes to change and corresponds to the new wording set out in Article 1. Article 3 provides that the law would take effect upon promulgation. The proposed commencement is therefore linked to promulgation, while the change identified in the operative articles is confined to Article 397-A.

In subject matter, the draft bill relates to competent authorities that order protection measures in criminal proceedings and to people notified of those measures. It could also be of interest to participants in criminal proceedings and to social sectors concerned with the protection of people through such measures. The instrument expressly named is the Criminal Code; the proposed provision addresses breaches of protection measures and the corresponding prison sentence.