French lawmakers voted to add consent to the legal definition of sexual assault and rape on Wednesday, capping a yearslong battle by women’s rights advocates who said that France had fallen behind other nations in strengthening protection for victims. Out of the 342 senators present, 327 voted in favor; the remaining 15 abstained.
The push for changing the law gained momentum in the aftermath of a trial that ended in the convictions of dozens of men for raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was unconscious, having been severely drugged by her husband.
The trial shocked the country and raised questions about the pervasiveness of sexual violence and the use of pharmaceuticals to abuse women, which in France is known as “chemical submission.”
“Beyond this law, we need to bring about a cultural change, and we need to do it collectively,” Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, a deputy interior minister, told senators ahead of the vote on Wednesday. “Rape culture, this insidious poison that permeates our societies, must be fought by each and every one of us. Today, we can take a decisive step toward a true culture of consent.”
French law had not required consent to be given before sex. The French criminal code had defined rape as any form of sexual penetration committed on another person by violence, constraint, threat or surprise.
Now any nonconsensual sexual act legally constitutes sexual assault. The law adds that if the sexual act is committed through violence, constraint, threat or surprise, there is no consent.
The law also specifies that consent must be “free and informed, specific, prior and revocable,” and that it is assessed “in light of the circumstances.”
“It cannot be inferred solely from the victim’s silence or lack of response,” the law states.
The bill, presented last year by two lawmakers, went back and forth between the two houses of Parliament since the National Assembly adopted a first version in April.
Unlike the vote to enshrine abortion rights in France’s Constitution, which received almost unanimous support, the change in the legal definition of rape was contentious, raising concerns and objections from lawmakers, feminists and lawyers.
Some critics worried that the new legislation would make ruling over sexual violence harder for victims because they would have to prove that they did not consent, instead of focusing on the actions of the perpetrators. Others argued that the new law presented an insufficient fix to the wider social issue of sexual violence, which they said demanded much deeper changes.
“Without tackling the root of the problem, this debate would be futile,” Silvana Silvani, a communist senator, told her counterparts on Wednesday, adding that the government should spend an extra 2.6 billion euros — about $3 billion — per year to address the issue.
Lawmakers behind the act argued that the change was necessary because they thought sexual crimes have not been adequately punished.
“We rely on existing law, we clarify it, we strengthen it, so that the justice system has a better understanding of sexual violence,” Marie-Charlotte Garin, one of the two lawmakers who proposed the bill, told the National Assembly last week.
According to a Senate report, at least 230,000 acts of sexual violence occur in France each year. Of those, fewer than half result in complaints to the police and only about 8,000 result in a conviction.
“When it’s no, it’s no; when it’s not no, it doesn’t mean yes, and it’s better to check,” Ms. Garin said. “And when it’s yes, it must be a real yes, a yes that is not afraid. Giving in will never again be consenting.”
France’s new legislation aligns with Canada, where the definition of rape has included affirmative consent since 1983, and with more than a dozen European countries that incorporated consent in their laws in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
Ségolène Le Stradic is a reporter and researcher covering France.
The post France Adds Consent to Its Rape Law After Yearslong Fight appeared first on New York Times.
