Rape and Domestic Violence: Rape, including spousal rape, is a criminal offense. Penalties for rape and sexual violence vary between one and 15 years’ imprisonment, depending on the degree of violence and humiliation of the victim, and between 10 years’ and lifetime imprisonment if the victim is killed. The government effectively prosecuted individuals accused of such crimes.
The law prohibits all forms of domestic violence and provides for restraining orders against violent family members. Police may prohibit an abuser from returning to the site. According to the law, however, victims who migrated to Liechtenstein and who have been married to a citizen for less than five years are required to prove their victim status or sufficient integration into Liechtenstein society in order not to lose their marriage-based residence permits. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) noted that the country’s only women’s shelter, Frauenhaus, was not allowed to accept undocumented women fleeing domestic violence.
There were reports of violence against women, including spousal abuse. In 2017 Frauenhaus assisted 27 women and 36 children. The shelter observed a decrease in restraining orders issued by authorities and stated their care for victims had become more complex and time-intensive due to victims suffering increased psychological trauma.
On June 8, a man physically beat his wife unconscious after the couple, with their seven-month-old child, returned from visiting friends. The case received widespread media attention. Police arrested the husband and placed him in pretrial detention, where he remained awaiting trial as of October. The Department for Social Services took the child into protective custody.
The Department for Equal Opportunity within the Department for Social Services collaborated with various NGOs, including Frauenhaus and Infra, a women’s information and counseling organization, on a media campaign to publish regular articles in the Sunday newspaper Liewo in order to raise awareness of the issue of domestic violence.
Sexual Harassment: Sexual harassment is illegal and punishable by up to six months in prison or a fine, and the government effectively enforced these prohibitions. Stalking is a criminal offense. The government also considers “mobbing”--pressure, harassment, or blackmail tactics--in the workplace to be a crime. In 2017 the national police recorded eight cases of sexual harassment, and Infra assisted in four cases of sexual harassment.
Coercion in Population Control: There were no reports of coerced abortion or involuntary sterilization.
Discrimination: Women enjoy the same legal rights as men. The government’s enforcement of the labor contract law and equal opportunity law was not entirely effective according to the LHRA and the Women’s Network (an umbrella organization of women’s NGOs), which stated that a lack of human and financial resources within the Department for Equal Opportunity prevented it from effectively enforcing the law.