Spain’s Supreme Court has determined that kissing someone’s hand without their permission amounts to sexual assault, a classification that goes further than street harassment under Spanish law.
The decision, dated March 5 and obtained by AFP on Monday, stems from a 2023 incident at a bus stop in Alcobendas, near Madrid, where a man kissed a woman’s hand without her consent and signaled for her to follow him while offering money. The court upheld his original conviction and the fine of more than 1,500 euros attached to it.
Attorneys for the convicted man had argued the act should be downgraded to street harassment, a lesser offense. The court rejected that argument, drawing a clear legal line: any physical contact of a sexual nature falls outside that category entirely.
In its ruling, the court stated the man had “acted with the intention of violating her sexual integrity.” It further held that “there was therefore an act of sexual assault, insofar as the action describes contact of a sexual nature and tone that the victim had no obligation to endure, with clearly sexual content and an infringement upon the victim by reducing her to an object.”
The decision adds to a body of case law developing under Spain’s 2022 reforms to its sexual violence legislation, which made explicit consent a legal requirement for sexual acts — a change long sought by survivors’ advocates and women’s rights organizations.
The ruling arrives after a prominent case tested similar legal boundaries: in 2025, Luis Rubiales, former president of the Spanish Football Federation, was convicted of sexual assault and fined 10,800 euros for kissing forward Jenni Hermoso on the lips without her consent at the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Sydney.
