Oct. 30 (UPI) — France changed its rape and sexual assault laws to include a lack of consent, ending a battle women’s rights activists have fought for years.
In the past, rape or sexual abuse in France was defined as “any form of sexual penetration committed with the use of violence, coercion, threat or surprise.” Now the law will add that sexual acts done to another without consent constitute rape.
The new law will say that if the sexual act is committed through violence, constraint, threat or surprise, then there is no consent. Consent must be “free and informed, specific, prior and revocable,” and that it is determined “in light of the circumstances.”
The momentum for the change came in light of the case of Gisele Pelicot, whose husband was sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugging her, raping her and inviting other men to rape her while she was unconscious. There were 50 men found guilty in the case, and authorities believe there were likely about 70 of them involved.
Pelicot had the option to remain anonymous but decided to go public to break the stigma of being a sexual assault survivor.
“I have never regretted that decision,” she said after the trial. “I have confidence in our ability to collectively grasp a future in which everyone, women and men alike, can live in harmony, with mutual respect and understanding.”
The bill to create the law was written last year and has sparked debate among lawmakers and the public. Some said the law was insufficient to prevent sexual violence.
“Without tackling the root of the problem, this debate would be futile,” Silvana Silvani, a communist senator, said in the senate on Wednesday. She said the government should spend an extra $3 billion per year to address rape culture, The New York Times reported.
Those in support of the bill said the law will help the courts punish those who commit sexual crimes.
“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, The Times said.
The French senate released a report that said that at least 230,000 acts of sexual violence are committed each year in the country. Fewer than half are reported to police, and only about 8,000 end in conviction.
In March, France’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, said the new law would “clearly express … that sexual assaults infringe upon the fundamental principle of everyone’s personal and sexual freedom.”
“When it’s no, it’s no; when it’s not no, it doesn’t mean yes, and it’s better to check,” 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.”
