France is explicitly incorporating consent for sexual actions into its criminal code. The measure was approved by the French Senate on Wednesday evening. Previously, the National Assembly, as the second chamber of Parliament, had already approved a corresponding law. The text has thus been adopted.
Specifically, the law changes the definition of sexual offenses. A sexual assault is now defined as “any non-consensual sexual act.” Consent must be, among other things, freely given, explicit, and revocable. “It cannot be inferred solely from the victim’s silence or from a lack of reaction.”
For some time there had been debates in France about such a legal change. The case involving Gisèle Pelicot’s repeated rape by her then-husband and dozens of other men had rekindled the debate.
Pelicot’s ex-husband had for nearly ten years repeatedly drugged and abused his wife and offered her to strangers for rape. 51 men were convicted in southern France, mostly for aggravated rape, with sentences ranging from 3 to 20 years in prison.
