\n<\/p>\n
The French parliament has voted to add consent to the country\u2019s rape law in a historic move sparked by the mass rape of Gis\u00e8le Pelicot.<\/p>\n
The change, which will still need to be signed off by President Emmanuel Macron, will bring French legislation in line with many other European countries.<\/p>\n
French criminal law currently defines rape as any kind of sexual penetration committed using \u201cviolence, coercion, threat or surprise\u201d. It does not specifically mention consent.<\/p>\n
But after the change the criminal code will define rape or sexual assault as \u201cany non-consensual act\u201d. It states consent must be \u201cinformed, specific, prior and revocable\u201d and \u201ccannot be inferred solely from the silence or lack of reaction of the victim\u201d.<\/p>\n
It also includes the previous definition, stating: \u201cThere is no consent if the sexual act is committed with violence, coercion, threat or surprise, regardless of their nature\u201d and encompasses oral and anal acts of penetration not currently explicitly stated in legislation but enshrined in jurisprudence.<\/p>\n
The bill had already been approved last week by the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, by a large majority. Only members of the far right opposed the change. It was approved by the upper house, the Senate, on Wednesday. Senators voted 327-0 in favour of the bill, with 15 abstentions.<\/p>\n
After the vote, Marie-Charlotte Garin, a green MP, who had pushed for the law change in parliament, said: \u201cWhen it\u2019s no, it\u2019s no. When it\u2019s not no, that doesn\u2019t mean yes. And when it\u2019s yes, it must be a real yes \u2026 Giving in will never be consenting again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The push to include consent in the law was driven by last year\u2019s trial of Pelicot\u2019s former husband and 50 other men convicted of raping or sexually abusing her. Over almost a decade, Dominique Pelicot had drugged his wife to a near comatose state and invited strangers he met on an internet chatroom to rape and abuse her in the couple\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
All those accused were convicted \u2013 and one who had appealed against the ruling had his conviction upheld earlier this month. But the case threw a spotlight on a grey area of the law. Many of the accused argued they were not guilty of rape because they had believed Gis\u00e8le Pelicot was asleep and they were taking part in some sort of game.<\/p>\n
Catherine Le Magueresse, a legal expert and supporter of the new law, said the bill would encourage young men and women to consider the \u201creciprocity of desire\u201d.<\/p>\n
Many in France have argued the question of consent is a false flag and that rape is best understood not as a consensual or non-consensual sexual act, but a predatory one. They have argued focusing on consent places the victim at the centre of an investigation and not the alleged rapist.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsent is the wrong issue. It places the emphasis once more on the victim, not the rapist,\u201d Anne-C\u00e9cile Mailfert, founder of the Fondation des Femmes, said during the Pelicot trial last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are calling for a comprehensive law against sexual violence that would address the impunity allowed by our institutions, including a \u00adsystematic investigation of rape complaints, a ban on investigations into the victim\u2019s sexual past \u2026 a law that would provide a framework and the means to act and protect [rape victims].\u201d<\/p>\n
Gis\u00e8le Pelicot\u2019s lawyer, Antoine Camus, was also dubious about changing the law to include consent, fearing it would \u201cbackfire\u201d on victims. \u201cWhat exactly is consent in sexual matters? To any sexual act, or to one in particular?\u201d he said last year. \u201cOur definition of rape is not perfect today, but it has the merit of not falling into this trap.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The French parliament has voted to add consent to the country\u2019s rape law in a historic move sparked by the mass rape of Gis\u00e8le Pelicot. The change, which will still need to be signed off by President Emmanuel Macron, will bring French legislation in line with many other European countries. French criminal law currently defines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1137,1844,5623,2918,1609,3821,175,1321,3822,358,840],"class_list":{"0":"post-31362","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-add","9":"tag-case","10":"tag-consent","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-french","13":"tag-gisele","14":"tag-law","15":"tag-parliament","16":"tag-pelicot","17":"tag-rape","18":"tag-votes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}