Togo

Sub-section XG: Intentional violence

Paragraph 2: Violence against women

Art. 232: Constitute violence against women, all acts of violence directed against persons of female sex that cause them or may cause them preMudice or physical, sexual, psychological or economic.

These include:

1) violence against G women in a situation of armed Conflicts or internal disturbances;

2) violence against a pregnant woman;

3) violence linked to all forms of forced marriage;

4) inhuman and degrading widowhood rites;

5) economic violence

Art. 233: Anyone guilty of violence against women in situations of armed conflict or unrest interns is punished by a penalty of five (05) to ten (10) years of criminal imprisonment

Chapter VI: Infringements of individual liberty

Art. 283: Anyone who arrests, detains or detains, without decision of the competent authority and except in the cases provided for by the law, or kidnap or confiscate a person in a place any, is punished:

1) a prison sentence of three (03) to five (05) years whether the detention, arrest or forcible confinement lasted longer one (01) month;

2) a prison sentence of one (01) to three (03) year (s) if it lasts less than one (01) month.

Art. 284: Anyone who knowingly  provides a place to carry out the detention or sequestration, is punished the same penalties as the author of this detention or sequestration.

Art. 286: The authors of the facts provided for in articles 283 and 284 are punished by a sentence of twenty (20) to thirty (30) years of criminal seclusion:

1) if they have engaged in acts of torture, barbarism or violence against the victim;

2) if the forcible confinement or detention was carried out for facilitate, prepare or consummate an offense against property or to exercise blackmail or to obtain ransom;

3) if the forcible confinement or detention was carried out for early or forced marriage, for practical purposes mystical or ritualistic or for any other illegal purpose

Section 3: Trafficking in persons and illicit trafficking migrants by land, air and sea

Art. 317

Trafficking in persons is the act of recruiting, transport, transfer, harbor or accommodate by the threat of recourse or recourse to force or other forms of restraint, by removal, fraud, deception, abuse of authority or a situation of vulnerability, or by the offer or acceptance of payments or benefits to obtain the consent of a person having authority over another for the purpose of exploitation.

The operation includes:

1) Sexual exploitation including the exploitation of prostitution of others;

2) labor exploitation whose work or services forced, slavery or servitude;

3) exploitation by forced or servile marriage;

4) exploitation in armed conflict;

5) exploitation by begging;

6) the exploitation of the elements of the human body;

7) exploitation by the carrying out of illicit activities by others including the production and trafficking of drugs.

The consent of a victim of human trafficking to the proposed exploitation as defined in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this article, is irrelevant.

Art. 318

Anyone who facilitates or participates, by any medium, to the process of trafficking in persons as defined in the previous article, without necessarily being a party taking part in every act of this process, is punished a prison sentence of ten (10) to twenty (20) years and a fine of ten million (10,000,000) to fifty million (50,000,000) CFA francs.

The deprivation of liberty, incurred by the author or an accomplice in one of the offenses provided for in this section, is reduced by half if, having notified the administrative authority or judicial, it allowed to stop the offense or to avoid that the offense does not result in death of man or infirmity to identify, where appropriate, other authors or accomplices.

Art. 319

The sentence is twenty (20) to thirty (30) years from criminal imprisonment and a fine of twenty million (20,000,000) to fifty million (50,000,000) CFA francs against any person who is the perpetrator or accomplice of the offense of trafficking in persons when it is committed in following circumstances:

1) the offense is committed against a victim particularly vulnerable, in particular because of its minority, advanced age, pregnancy, illness, an infirmity or a physical or mental disability;

2) the offense is committed against several victims

3) the offense resulted in the serious injury of the victim or a third;

4) Infraction is committed as part of the activities of a grouping of criminals;

(5) the victim of the offense was chosen by the author because of nationality, ethnicity, color skin, gender, religion or beliefs, or Political Views;

(6) narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, drugs or weapons are used for commission the offense;

7) the victim has been sequestered or exposed in one place public or private;

8) the acts of trafficking caused the child a disability physical, moral or. mental or other sequelae medically noted;

9) the child has been subjected to the worst forms of work;

(10) the purpose of the offense was to take one or more organs of the child;

(11) the perpetrator or accomplice of the offense is in a state of recidivism;

12) The victim or accomplice of the offense is a public official in the performance of his duties;

13) the perpetrator or accomplice of the offense is the spouse or the concubine of the victim;

14) the perpetrator or accomplice of the offense is in a position authority, responsibility or trust in relation to the victim;

15) the victim has been placed in contact with the author or complicity of the facts through the use, for the dissemination of messages intended for an unspecified public, a electronic communication network.

Is punished the same penalties anyone who organizes the commission of an offense of trafficking or gives instructions for this offense to be committed.

Art. 320

Recruitment, transportation, transfer, the accommodation or reception of a child for the purpose of exploitation are considered to be a trafficking of “persons, even if they do not use any of the means set out in paragraph 1- Article 318 of this section, and are punished by Penalties to previous article.

Section 5: Operation

Paragraph 1: Exploitation of the person human

Art. 341: Forced or servile marriage is any institution or practice whereby

1) an adult person, without their consent, or a child, is promised or given in marriage for a financial or material contribution;

2) a person is transferred to a third party, for consideration or no, by his spouse or a member of his family or his clan with a view to marriage;

3) A person is abducted or held against their will in view of a wedding.

Anyone who subjects others to forced marriage or servile is punishable by a sentence of three (03) years to five (05) years imprisonment and a fine of one million (1,000,000) to five million (5,000,000) francs CF $

Art. 267 – Child marriage is prohibited. The age of majority is set at eighteen (18) years of age.

However, the president of the court of first instance may grant exemptions to children of both sexes over the age of sixteen (16) for serious reasons.

Art. 268 – Parents and guardians are prohibited from promising children in marriage.

Art. 269 –

Each of the future spouses, even if they are a child of sixteen (16) years of age, must personally consent to the marriage.

Otherwise, the marriage is void and any forced sexual act is rape.

The consent is not valid if it has been extorted by violence or if it was given as a result of an error in identity, physical, civil or in an essential quality such that the other spouse would not have contract if he had known the error.

Art. 270 – Even a child of sixteen (16) years old cannot contract marriage without the authorization of his father and mother or, failing that, of the person who, according to the law, has authority over him. In the event of disagreement between the father and mother, this divergence carries authorization.

Art. 271

If one of the father and mother is dead or is unable to express his will, the permission of the other is sufficient.

It will not be necessary to produce the death certificate of the father or mother when the spouse or the father and mother of the child certify the death under oath.

If the actual residence of the father or mother is unknown, the marriage may be celebrated if the child and that of the father and mother who gives his authorization make a sworn declaration.

Art. 272

In the event of refusal of the father and mother or of the person who has authority over the child, any other parent may apply to the court of first instance of the place of the celebration of the marriage if he is satisfied that the refusal of authorization is based on reasons constrained to the best interests of the child.

Art. 273

The penal responsibility of the parents, of the person having authority over the child or of the authorities required to receive the consent and proceed to the registration of the marriage is engaged in the event of non respect of the legal age shown in article 267 of the this code.

Likewise, any person having exercised on the child a contante of any nature whatsoever with a view to bringing him consntur to marriage will be punished by one to three years of imprisonment and a fine of one hundred thousand to one million. of CFA francs.

Art. 274

The substantive and formal conditions as well as the prohibitions on marriage for children aged sixteen remain governed by the provisions of the Personal and Family Code.

Article 2: The child born in marriage bears the name of its father. In caseof disavowal of paternity, he takes his mother’s maiden name

Article 16: Are domiciled:

1 ° -the spouses at the domicile fixed by mutual agreement; for lack of agreement, or in the event of danger to the family at the place fixed by the judge;

2 ° – the unemancipated minor with his father and mother or with the person who exercises over him the right of custody;

3 ° – the adult under guardianship with his tutor.

Notwithstanding, the provisions of point 1 ° above, the spouses may for legitimate interests to have separate domiciles. The fact for spouse to have by mutual agreement and for the legitimate interests of separate domiciles does not affect the community of life.

In this case, the unemancipated child is domiciled with that of the parents with which he resides.

Article 41: Marriage is the public and solemn civil act by which a man and a woman establish between them a legal and lasting union, whose conditions of formation, effects and dissolution are determined by this Code.

Article 42: The law recognizes monogamy and polygamy.

The option is declared by the spouses under the conditions set by article 51.

However, monogamy is the common law form of marriage.

Article 43: The man and the woman freely choose their spouse and enter into marriage only with their free and full consent.

The man and the woman before eighteen (18) years cannot contract wedding.

However, the president of the court or the judge in matrimonial matters of the place of celebration of the marriage may grant age exemptions for serious reasons.

This exemption from age cannot, under any circumstances, be granted for a male and female under sixteen (16) years of age.

The request for an exemption from age is sent by request to the court of first instance of the place of celebration of the marriage by the child, his father and mother or one of them, his guardian or the public prosecutor Republic. The court of first instance rules within eight (08) days as a last resort.

Article 44: Each of the future spouses, even minors, must consent personally at the wedding.

Otherwise, the marriage is void and any forced sexual act is rape.

Consent is not valid if it has been extorted by violence or if it was given only as a result of an error in the physical identity, civil or on an essential quality such that the other spouse would not have contracted if he had known the error.

Article 45: A minor may not contract marriage without the authorization of his father and mother or failing that, the person who, according to the law, has authority on him. In the event of disagreement between the father and mother, this sharing involves refusal of authorization.

The dissent between the father and mother can be noted, at the request of the future spouses, by the competent judge. It can also be noted either by a letter whose signature is legalized and sent to the registrar who must celebrate the marriage or by a deed drawn up by a notary, the competent judge, the registrar of the ascendant’s domicile or residence or, if the latter resides abroad, by an act drawn up by the agent Togolese diplomatic or consular. The refusal of authorization by the father and mother or their dissent may be referred to the president of the court, at the request of the future spouses or of one parents. The president of the court or the competent judge will rule in the chamber of advice by reasoned order, subject to appeal.

Article 46: If one of the father and mother is dead or unable to manifest his will, the authorization of the other is enough. Proof of death is made by producing the death certificate.

In case impossibility of producing the death certificate, the spouse or the father and mother of the deceased attest to the death under oath. When the residence current status of the father or mother is unknown, the celebration of the marriage if the minor and that of the father and mother who gives its authorization makes the declaration under oath.

Article 48: In case of refusal of the father and mother or of the person who authority over the minor, any other parent may apply to the chairman of the Court of the place where the marriage is celebrated if it considers that the refusal authorization is based on reasons not in the interests of the minor. The President of the General Court will rule in chambers by reasoned order, subject to appeal.

Article 62: The public prosecutor, the father and mother or failing them, the person having authority over one or the other of the future spouses as well as the person already engaged by marriage with one of these, can oppose the celebration of marriage, if the conditions and prescribed formalities are violated or evaded.

Article 63: The same right belongs to the married woman under the regime polygamous if she provides proof that she and her children are abandoned by the husband

Article 82: The nullity of the marriage must be pronounced:

1 ° – when it was contracted without the consent of one of the husband;

2 ° – when the spouses are not of different sex;

3 ° – when one of the spouses, minor, had not obtained a dispensation;

4 ° – when there is a family relationship between the spouses or alliance prohibiting marriage;

5 ° – when the husband could no longer contract a new union in because of the provisions of Article 50 or when one of the spouses were in the ties of a previous union not dissolved;

6 ° – when the marriage has not been celebrated by an officer of the state civil or when it has been done by an incompetent registrar.

However, the incompetence of the registrar will not result in nullity only if this irregularity was of a fraudulent nature.

Article 83: Action for nullity based on the provisions of article precedent can be exercised:

– by the public prosecutor;

– by the spouses themselves;

– by any person who has an interest in it.

However, parents who have expressly or tacitly authorized the marriage are not justified in claiming nullity for lack of age required.

It is imprescriptible.

If the action is based on the existence of a previous marriage, one of the spouse or his successors in title invoke the nullity of this present union, it will be ruled beforehand on the validity or nullity of this marriage, after questioning of the other spouse of the said union of his successors-cause.

When one of the spouses was not of the required age, the nullity cannot be invoked after he has reached that age or when the woman has conceived.

In any other case, the invalidity cannot be covered.

Article 84: The nullity of marriage can be pronounced:

1 ° – for defective consent of one of the spouses, if his agreement has been obtained by violence or given as a result of an error;

2 ° – for lack of family authorization, when the law so provides.

Article 85: The action for nullity belongs to:

1 ° – to that of the spouses whose consent has been requested;

2 ° – in the event of lack of family authorization, to the person whose authorization was required.

Article 86: However, the action for nullity ceases to be admissible:

1 ° – for defect of consent, when there has been cohabitation during six (06) months, since the husband acquired his full freedom or that by him the error was recognized;

2 ° – for lack of family authorization, when the marriage was expressly or tacitly approved by the person whose authorization was required, or when it, before the majority of the husband, allowed a year to pass without exercising the action, while he had knowledge of the marriage