Public organisations jointly advocated the decriminalisation of pornography in Ukraine

We, representatives of public organisations, as well as concerned citizens, propose to abolish criminal liability for the importation, production, sale, and distribution of pornographic materials. The relevant articles of the Criminal Code do not correspond to Article 8 “Right to respect for private and family life” of the European Convention on Human Rights and the practice of the ECtHR.

At the same time, we propose to ban only certain types of pornography (those with the use of violence, threats to human life and health, zoophilia, necrophilia, etc.).

Erotic content raised over UAH 31 million for the defence of Ukraine. However, the production and circulation of porn in Ukraine is currently completely prohibited. The maximum penalty for violating the ban is imprisonment for seven years. The laws refer to abstract concepts such as “vile instincts,” “baser instincts,” and “unethical scenes.” A loose interpretation of these concepts allows law enforcement officials to threaten criminal prosecution and demand bribes even from people who create materials that are far from being pornographic ones.

The basis of criminalisation of any act is its public danger. Actions that do not lead to violation of the rights of other persons should not be criminally punishable.

It is obvious that Ukrainian society in general does not consider pornography to be dangerous:

Ukraine is among the top 20 countries in terms of traffic consumption on Pornhub;
The platform onlyfans, which provides access to products of a pornographic nature, was one of the first foreign companies to pay tax for the provision of electronic services in Ukraine;
Erotic content is used to collect donations for defence purposes of Ukraine;
A petition regarding the legalisation of porn and erotica in Ukraine recently gained the necessary 25,000 votes for consideration.

And although existing legislative barriers are unable to significantly limit the consumption or creation of pornographic products, thousands of people are subject to criminal prosecution under the relevant article. We consider it unacceptable extravagance, especially during wartime, to spend the funds of the State Budget and the power of law enforcement agencies, courts and the criminal enforcement system to bring to criminal responsibility for actions that are not socially dangerous and at the same time have a significant level of spread in society, and the execution of the appointed penalties and fines.

All this shows that today Ukrainian legislation does not yet correspond to the experience of most EU member states and international treaties.

Therefore, we call on people’s deputies, representatives of public organisations and all concerned citizens to support the amendments to the legislation developed by us, which are based on the experience of EU countries, international conventions and common sense.

The Law	The essence of the changes
Criminal Code of Ukraine	Decriminalisation of the creation, import and distribution of pornographic products (with the exception of depictions of violent acts, acts that threaten human life, and sexual acts with the participation of animals); Decriminalisation of creating or maintaining places of debauchery and solicitation.
Law of Ukraine “On Protection of Public Morals”	Clarification of definitions of pornography, erotica; Replacing the complete ban with a ban on the production and distribution of pornography with restrictions on minors, images of violent acts, etc.

We emphasise that we do NOT propose to decriminalise:

Production and circulation of pornographic materials with the participation of minors and animals;
Production and circulation of pornographic materials that depict violent acts and acts that threaten human life;
Distribution of pornographic materials among minors.

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