Criminal Code Amendment 2025: Key Changes from Cannabis to Child Certificate
The Chamber of Deputies currently debates a government bill (parliamentary document 861/0) that represents one of the most significant reforms of Czech criminal law in recent years. Furthermore, this major Criminal Code Amendment 2025 will take effect on January 1, 2026. The amendment aims to modernize the punishment system and respond to new social and technological threats. Additionally, it seeks to reduce criminal repression for less serious offenses. The explanatory memorandum emphasizes the need to "reassess certain parameters of the current criminal law regulation, which lead courts to impose imprisonment even on convicts whose unlawful conduct need not necessarily require deprivation of liberty."
This article provides an overview of the most important changes, from the anticipated decriminalization of cannabis and penalties for deepfake, through stricter punishments for hate crimes, to the highly controversial introduction of the so-called child certificate.
Cannabis Decriminalization: New Limits for Possession and Cultivation
One of the most publicized changes that the Criminal Code Amendment 2025 brings involves adjusting penalties for minor drug offenses, especially concerning cannabis. As the explanatory memorandum states, the goal focuses punishment on organized crime and large-scale distribution, not on ordinary users. Consequently, the amendment modifies provisions § 284 and § 285 of the Criminal Code and the related Narcotic Substances Act (No. 167/1998 Coll.).
Moreover, the amendment replaces the current vague term "quantity larger than small" with specific limits. These limits clearly separate legal conduct, misdemeanour, and criminal offense.
New proposed limits:
- Legal conduct (for persons over 21 years): The Narcotic Substances Act (§ 5 para. 13) newly proposes that permission for handling is not required for cultivation of up to 3 cannabis plants for personal use.
- The criminal offense of unauthorized cultivation of cannabis plants (§ 285 para. 1) now requires cultivating more than 5 plants. Similarly, possession for personal use becomes criminal (§ 285 para. 2) only when the quantity exceeds 100 g in a dwelling or 50 g outside a dwelling. However, authorities will assess conduct below these limits as a misdemeanor.
This change represents significant liberalization and a shift from repression to rational drug policy that distinguishes between users and organized groups.
New Criminal Offenses: Punishment of Deepfake Pornography and Activities for Foreign Powers
The amendment responds to modern technological and geopolitical threats by introducing two completely new factual circumstances.
a) Identity Abuse for Pornography Production (§ 191a of the Criminal Code)
This is a direct response to the phenomenon of so-called deepfake and other forms of non-consensually distributed pornography. The new paragraph explicitly punishes the production and distribution of pornographic work that "depicts or otherwise uses a person, knowing that such person did not consent to such depiction or use." As the explanatory memorandum states, the goal remedies the deficit in legal regulation. Currently, punishment through the criminal offense of defamation proves insufficient. Importantly, unlike some foreign regulations, the law does not require causing serious harm. Instead, the mere creation and distribution of such material without consent constitutes a criminal act.
b) Activity for Foreign Power (§ 318a of the Criminal Code)
This new factual circumstance is intended to strengthen protection of the constitutional order and state security against hybrid threats. It punishes conduct performed for a foreign power, which need not necessarily include disclosure of classified information, but may consist, for example, of disinformation campaigns, surveillance of persons by intelligence means, or other influence operations with the intent to harm the interests of the Czech Republic.
Hate Crimes: Expanded Protection and Stricter Punishment
The Criminal Code Amendment 2025 systematically expands protection for vulnerable groups. Into the general aggravating circumstance in § 42 letter b) and into a series of qualified factual circumstances throughout the code, the following are explicitly added as hate motives:
- age,
- gender,
- sexual orientation,
- disability,
- membership in a social group.
The explanatory memorandum states that the goal is to "ensure equivalent criminal law protection for victims who are attacked or against whom a criminal offense is committed" for these prejudicial reasons, as the current regulation did not protect them sufficiently. This is a significant step toward harmonizing criminal law with international human rights protection standards.
Controversial "Child Certificate": Child Protection or Hidden Punishment?
The most discussed part of the amendment has become the amendment proposal to introduce the so-called child certificate, which takes the form of a new registry of facts important for working with children. The goal is to create a tool that would prevent perpetrators of the most serious violent and sexual criminal acts from working with children, even after their conviction has been expunged.
Although the goal is commendable, the proposed solution has provoked sharp criticism from the professional public, including the Czech Bar Association. In its statement, it points out several fundamental constitutional problems:
Hidden Punishment in Violation of the Charter
The Bar Association argues that the proposed registry, which effectively makes it impossible to practice a profession, is actually a new criminal sanction. "The direct consequence of the record in the registry [...] is the inability to perform certain employment, profession, function or activity [...]. In the opinion of the Czech Bar Association, this is not a 'subsidiary court ruling', but a typical punishment of prohibition of activity." Since such punishment is not defined in the Criminal Code, its introduction violates Article 39 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, which states that only law can determine what punishment can be imposed for conduct.
Problem of Retroactivity
The proposal includes automatic and retroactive registration of persons lawfully convicted since 2005. This also concerns perpetrators whose conviction has already been expunged and are considered as if they had not been convicted. According to the Bar Association, such procedure is in stark contradiction to the prohibition of retroactivity (Art. 40 para. 6 of the Charter), as it imposes new punishment for an act committed in the past, thus disrupting the principle of legal certainty.
Other Key Changes in Brief
More Flexible Monetary Penalties (§ 67 and § 68)
The amendment abolishes current restrictions and allows imposing monetary penalties for any criminal offense. The amount (number of daily rates) will newly be derived from the upper limit of the imprisonment sentence, allowing courts to respond more flexibly and punish perpetrators through property even for more serious criminal acts where it makes sense.
Strengthening Restorative Justice (§ 309 of the Criminal Procedure Code)
The institute of settlement is simplified. For its approval, it will newly be sufficient for the perpetrator to pay at least 30% of the damage and conclude an agreement with the victim for installment payments on the remainder. The goal is to motivate perpetrators to actively compensate for damage and strengthen the position of victims.
Abolition of Criminality for Non-Payment of Alimony (§ 196)
A fundamental change occurs. Ordinary non-payment of alimony will no longer be a criminal offense. Only conduct where the perpetrator "exposes the entitled person to danger of distress" will remain criminally punishable. This change reflects the fact that criminal repression in this area missed its effect and rather increased alimony debts.
Conclusion: Summary of the Criminal Code Amendment Impact
The Criminal Code Amendment 2025 is an ambitious attempt to modernize criminal law. On one hand, it brings welcome liberalization in the approach to cannabis and strengthens alternative punishments. On the other hand, it tightens punishments for hate crimes and responds to new threats such as deepfake. The biggest question marks, however, remain over the practical impacts and especially the constitutionality of the so-called child certificate, which may become subject to review by the Constitutional Court. Only practice in the following years will show how these complex changes will manifest in the operation of justice and in society's life.
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