La inconstitucionalidad del inciso 4 del artículo 159 del código orgánico integral penal.

Abstract

The Código Orgánico Integral Penal (COIP), punishes offenses according to the protected legal property, its severity and type of sanction. The COIP, among its articles that deal with contraventions, punishes the person who, by any means, uses insults, expressions of discredit or dishonor against women or members of the family, in cases that do not constitute an autonomous crime, with fifty to one hundred hours of community work and provides for psychological treatment for the aggressor and the victims, as well as comprehensive reparation measures. In this regard, it is found that the same law establishes as a fourthclass contravention, and punishes the person who, by any means, utters expressions in discredit or dishonor against another, with a prison sentence of fifteen to thirty days and a fine of twenty-five percent of a unified basic salary of the worker in general. To sum up, a violation of the Principle of Equality and Non-Discrimination is evident, since paragraph 4 of article 159 punishes the infraction committed against women or members of the family nucleus, with less rigorousness than that established in the article that punishes the same conduct committed against any person. In other words, the differentiation made by the legislator causes discrimination against a vulnerable group of the population.