France definitively integrates the notion of non-consent into the legal definition of rape and sexual assault | EUROtoday

“A major breakthrough” to construct a “culture of consent”. Parliament ratified on Wednesday October 29 a significant modification of the penal code by integrating the notion of consent into the definition of rape, the results of an extended transpartisan legislative course of.

“Any non-consensual sexual act constitutes sexual assault. » This is how the law will be written in a few days, when the President of the Republic will have promulgated the text of deputies Marie-Charlotte Garin (Ecologist) and Véronique Riotton (Renaissance).

Their bill was definitively adopted on Wednesday by a final vote in the Senate, with 327 votes in favor and 15 abstentions. The deputies also voted mainly for the week of October 20 to 26.

“We have just achieved a historic victory”reacted the 2 parliamentarians on the origin of the textual content in a joint press launch, welcoming “a major step forward in the fight against sexual violence”.

A couple of months after the resounding Mazan rape trial, throughout which consent took a central place, legal legislation will due to this fact be clarified by together with, in black and white, this notion, already omnipresent in case legislation.

“Prior and revocable” consent

France thus joins the nations which have already modified their laws on this route, together with Canada, Sweden, Spain, and even Norway since spring 2025.

“We have lived in rape culture for centuries. Let’s start building the culture of consent »argued environmentalist senator Mélanie Vogel: “When you don’t say yes, it’s no. When you say yes because you’re afraid, it’s no (…). The only valid yes is a free yes. »

This modification of the penal code has been within the works for nearly a yr, the results of an extended data mission on this problem which till just lately encountered important resistance, together with from sure feminist associations.

Main fears: the chance of a reversal of the burden of proof which might pressure the complainants to show that they don’t consent, or the potential contractualization of sexual relations induced by the textual content.

But the overwhelming majority of elected officers have been reassured all through the parliamentary work, notably when an opinion from the Council of State delivered in the beginning of March legally solidified the proposed modification.

Thus, consent might be clearly outlined by the longer term penal code as being “free and informed, specific, prior and revocable”. “It is appreciated in view of the circumstances. It cannot be deduced from the sole silence or lack of reaction of the victim”specifies the textual content. “There is no consent if the act of a sexual nature is committed with violence, coercion, threat or surprise, whatever their nature”he lastly provides, taking over right here the factors which till now constituted the legal definition of sexual assault.

The invoice was additionally strengthened by the federal government: the Keeper of the Seals, Gérald Darmanin, just like the Minister for Women’s Rights, Aurore Bergé, each defended it forcefully, regardless of their absence, Wednesday, within the Senate for the ultimate vote.

What results?

Only the far proper opposes the textual content in Parliament: “Lawyers will now have to dissect not the violence of the culprit, but the gestures, the words, the silence of the person who declares themselves a victim”in keeping with RN deputy Sophie Blanc.

Several senators additionally abstained, just like the socialist Laurence Rossignol, who regrets the selection of the phrase ” consent “a mirrored image in keeping with her of a “archaic vision of sexuality in which women give in or refuse”. “Consenting is not wanting”she alerted on X.

Faced with these doubts, some parliamentarians have promised to quickly measure the results of this penal improvement on the repression of sexual violence.

The National Federation of Information Centers on the Rights of Women and Families has warned of the necessity to accompany this legislation with a “true education in emotional, relational and sexual life”and coaching for magistrates and cops and gendarmes.

“The adoption of this law will play a crucial role in changing attitudes towards rape, but it does not act as a magic wand either” For “put an end to impunity regarding gender-based and sexual violence”reacted Lola Schulmann, advocacy officer at Amnesty International France.