Legal Definitions in the EU Member States

Any act of sexual penetration, regardless of its nature and by whatever means, committed against a non-consenting person, represents a crime of rape. Consent is not considered to have been given, if the crime is committed by violence, coercion or deceit, or is made possible by the infirmity or physical or mental impairment of the victim.

"Sexual harassment at work" is defined as any unwanted conduct related to the sex of a person of any form of unwanted verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct with a sexual connotation with the purpose or effect that the dignity of the person is being violated, especially when a threatening, hostile, insulting, humiliating or offensive situation is being created.

In Bulgaria, intimate partner violence is included under "domestic violence": any act of physical, mental, sexual, emotional or economic violence and any attempted such violence, as well as the forcible restriction of individual freedom and rights and of private life, carried out against individuals who have kinship ties, who have or have had family relation or are or were cohabiting partners. In addition any act of domestic violence in presence of a child is considered mental and emotional violence against him/her.

Molestation is an act with the purpose of arousing or satisfying a sexual desire without copulation regarding a person who has accomplished 14 years of age, by using force or threat, availing himself of his/her helpless status or by bringing him to such a status or by taking advantage of dependency or control.

In Bulgaria, stalking is a term used to describe a particular kind of harassment, namely "any unwanted conduct on the discrimination grounds, expressed in a physical, verbal or any other manner, which has the purpose or effect of violating the person’s dignity or creating a hostile, degrading, humiliating or intimidating environment, attitude or practice."