Rape and Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment in the public sector is prohibited under laws that impose disciplinary or corrective measures. In some jurisdictions (for instance, in the city of Buenos Aires), sexual harassment may lead to the abuser's dismissal from work, whereas in other areas (such as Santa Fe Province), the maximum penalty is five days in prison. No federal law expressly prohibits sexual harassment in the private sector. Lugar de Mujer (Spanish for "Place for Women"), a woman's rights NGO, reported that it received approximately 70 complaints of sexual harassment per month. A survey carried out by the Government Administration Workers Union estimated that 47.4 percent of the women interviewed had been sexually harassed.
Rape, including spousal rape, is a felony in Argentina; but the need for proof, either in the form of clear physical injury or the testimony of a witness, has often presented difficulties in prosecuting such crimes. According to the National Office for Criminal Policy, law enforcement agencies received 3,154 complaints of rape during 2005. The penalties for rape may reach up to 20 years' imprisonment, and there were no reports of police or judicial reluctance to act on rape cases; however, women's rights advocates claimed that police, hospital, and court attitudes toward sexual violence victims often re-victimized the individual. A Rape Victims Association report estimated that during the year, there were approximately 1,500 rapes in the city of Buenos Aires and its suburbs, of which only one-third of which were reported. According to the National Prosecutor General's Office, 90 percent of rape or sexual assault cases did not result in convictions.
Read more about this topic: Women In Argentina