Cyprus has paid 5,000 euros in compensation to settle a European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case brought by a Larnaca man over a law that prevented him from holding his daughter’s wedding with a dancer present.
A bill to repeal the provision is being put before parliament’s plenary session, and the case has put reform of the colonial-era Criminal Code back on the agenda.
Law Commissioner Sofia Kleopa Hadjikyriakou told Phileleftheros that a political decision was needed to set up a committee for a holistic review of the code, rather than piecemeal changes. Her office had long recommended such a committee, she said, and she was doing so again. It should be made up of lawyers from the Law Office of the Republic, the Ministry of Justice and Public Order, academics, other lawyers and her office.
She added that the code contained many derogatory references to women that should be removed, and that her office knew which articles needed to be changed or repealed.
Ban on dancers
The man, a permanent resident of Larnaca of Muslim origin, applied to the ECtHR over Article 79 of the code. As part of the settlement, the Republic committed to repealing it.
Article 79 makes it a misdemeanour for anyone who organises or is responsible for organising a Muslim festival, or owns the premises where one is held, to hire a dancer, paid or unpaid, or knowingly allow one to dance or sing during it. The offence carries a fine of up to 75 pounds or one month in prison. The article defines a ‘dancer’ as a woman who is a prostitute or who dances or sings for payment at a Muslim festival, and a ‘Muslim festival’ as a Muslim celebration held for a wedding or a circumcision.
Talk of sweeping changes to the code began around 2000, but 26 years on there has been no organised reform, only piecemeal amendments made when the Republic came under pressure. One such case was brought by Alecos Modinos, who campaigned for gay rights and took Cyprus to the ECtHR because homosexuality remained a criminal offence. Cyprus lost, and the article was amended in 1998.
Provisions still on the books
Former Law Commissioner Louiza Christodoulidou Zannettou told Phileleftheros that despite 80 amendments, the code still contained outdated provisions, wording, definitions and even offences rooted in older social attitudes that did not meet today’s needs or international standards. Some used language reflecting outdated attitudes or prejudices that could undermine individual autonomy and equality, she said.
She cited the reference to the ‘duty of the head of a family’ in Article 222 and the definition in Article 97 on Muslim festivals that a ‘dancer’ means a woman who is a prostitute, as well as offences in Articles 147 to 155 and other articles that apply only to women and not men. Other examples were offences relating to ‘witchcraft’ and ‘fortune-telling’, the Article 188 offence covering ‘idle and disorderly persons’, and the ‘rogues and vagabonds’ of Article 189.
Repealing or modernising these provisions was important to ensure the code “will reflect the values of modern society”, she said, and effectively protects citizens’ rights without unjustified interference in their private lives and freedoms.
Lawyers’ list of provisions
Ilias Stefanou, chairman of the Cyprus Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Committee, told Phileleftheros the code was drafted in 1929, codified in 1959 and translated in 1980. It belonged to another era, he said, and lawyers came across outdated provisions every day in both the code and criminal procedure.
The association had spoken out on the issue many times, he said, and an organised, coherent effort by the relevant authorities was needed to modernise criminal justice in Cyprus more broadly. It would support any such initiative and wanted a say and a role in it.
His committee has already compiled a list of provisions that need to be repealed or amended to bring them into line with the rule of law, equality and proportionality.
A code amended 80 times
Christodoulidou Zannettou said the Criminal Code, Cap. 154, came into force in 1959, before Cyprus gained independence from the British Empire, was translated into Greek in the 1990s and has since been amended 80 times. Most amendments increased penalties, changed terminology or the elements of offences, or added new offences to meet new needs, with the aim of making criminal law more modern and easier for the authorities to apply.
Cyprus’s code, like those of many countries, was built on historical legal models and needs modernising to fully reflect international conventions and standards, changing views on justice and human rights, and gender equality, she said.
New offences added in recent years in line with international and European standards include incitement to violence or hatred on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity (Law 87(I)/2015), advertising means of terminating a pregnancy (Law 23(I)/2018), obstructing a breastfeeding mother (Law 24(I)/2018) and leaving the scene of an accident without giving help (Law 134(I)/2020).
Outdated wording has also been changed, she said, such as replacing ‘idiot or mentally deficient person’ with ‘person with intellectual and/or mental disability’ (Law 72(I)/2017). Other amendments aimed at protecting human rights and promoting equality expressly banned so-called conversion therapies in 2023 (Law 39(I)/2023) and, earlier, criminalised female genital mutilation (Law 48(I)/2003).
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