Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1996, published 85th ILC session (1997)

In its previous comments, the Committee noted that under section 198 of the Penal Code, a person able to work may be directed to employment by the police if, as a result of habitual idleness which may be regarded as his own fault, he becomes a charge on the public, or neglects his responsibility to maintain another person who is consequently in need, or fails to pay an allowance due to his wife or child; if, within one year, such person, because of idleness by his own fault, is again found in any of these situations, he shall be punished for vagrancy. Under section 199, a person living in idleness in such circumstances that there is reason to assume that he does not seek to maintain himself by lawful means, shall be instructed by the police to try to find lawful employment within a specified reasonable period and, as far as possible, shall be directed to such employment, under the menace of penal sanctions. The Government has indicated that although the sections concerned are still in force, the Danish Criminal Code Committee, in its report on penalties and release on parole, had stated that these provisions are never applied in actual practice and had proposed that both sections be repealed:

In its latest report, the Government indicates that sections 198 and 199 of the Danish Penal Code are still in force but are never applied in actual practice. The Government adds that the Ministry of Justice has consulted the Director of Public Prosecutions, all the assistant public prosecutors, the Commissioner of the Copenhagen Police and the Association of Police Commissioners in Denmark, and none of the parties consulted had any objections to the abolition of sections 198 and 199 of the Danish Penal Code. In reply to a written request from a member of the Danish Parliament concerning sections 198 and 199 of the Danish Penal Code, the Minister of Justice indicated on 12 June 1996 his positive attitude to the abolition of these provisions.

The Committee takes due note of these indications and hopes that the Government will soon be able to report that sections 198 and 199 of the Danish Penal Code have been repealed.