Panama is Third Country in LATAM to Pass the Olimpia Law

Panama approved the Olimpia Law on October 9, becoming the third country in Latin America to punish digital sexual violence. The General Assembly of Panama approved the Olimpia Law, which makes it a crime to distribute digital sexual content without consent, with 47 votes in favor and zero against. With this, article 166 of Law 61, which regulates cybercrimes, will be modified to recognize digital sexual violence. The reform was promoted by Mexican activist Olimpia Coral Melo, who has fought for years for the recognition of digital sexual violence after she was a victim of the crime in Puebla, Mexico. When her partner disclosed a private video with sexual content, it went viral throughout Mexico. In response, Coral Melo founded the Mujeres Contra la Violencia de Género in Puebla and later pushed for a bill to make digital violence punishable by law in Mexico. In a post on Instagram, Coral celebrated the win, writing: 

“The Olimpia Panama Law is the result of the love and resistance of dozens of women. There is a story behind this vote and in every second of it there is a dignified rage.”

The initiative was promoted in Panama with the support of Representative Yarelis Rodríguez, who worked with legislators to recognize violation of sexual privacy as a crime for the first time in the Panamanian legislature. Before being approved, the law was discussed in three debates and approved unanimously. The Olimpia Law now makes offenses like recording audio or video, photographing, or creating real or simulated videos of intimate sexual content of a person without their consent a punishable crime.

“Thanks to those who made it possible. A special recognition to Olimpia Coral Melo, the brave Mexican activist who inspired this law. Her personal struggle became a movement that today protects thousands in Latin America,” Rep. Rodríguez wrote in an Instagram post. “Olimpia showed us that one voice can generate an echo that changes laws and lives.”

Before the legislative approval of the Olimpia Law, sharing and distributing images of nudity of intimate sexual content without consent was not a punishable crime in Panama except in the case of minors. Mexico was the first country to pass the Olimpia Law in 2018. In 2023, Argentina approved the Belén Law in memory of Belén San Román, a police officer who ended up taking her life after she was a victim of digital sexual violence.