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French parliament considers adding consent to rape law in penal code
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Apr 1, 2025
Here in France, a proposal to change the wording of France's laws in regard to rapre goes to a commision of MPs starting today. Hotely debated, the next bill would add the notion of consent to the France's penal code. Solange Mougin breaks down for us what French law currently says and how adding the wording of consent, or non-consent is a contentious issue. France24’s 51 per cent host Annette Young joins us.
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0:00
Also in France, the National Assembly will begin debating whether to change French law books in regard to rape
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A new bill aims to add the words non-consent to its definition of rape in the penal code
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yet the move is a controversial one among feminist and law groups, as our Solange Mougin explains
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As these activists know well, the legal definition of a rape can make all the difference before a court of law
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In France, there is a debate about adding the terms non-consent to France's definition of rape
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For some, it's long overdue, while others argue that adding these two words, non-consent, is a fake good idea
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But it could actually hurt victims by putting a further burden of proof on them in the courts
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With the new wording having passed the committee review and been greenlit by the Council of State
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MPs are now debating the issue in the National Assembly. Currently in the French Penal Code
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rape is defined as all acts of sexual penetration of any nature done to another with violence, constraint, threat or surprise
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All acts of sexual penetration, be it oral, or vaginal, are encompassed in this definition
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as is how the rape is committed with a penis, finger or object. That definition has changed over the years
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Legally speaking, rape has been a crime in France since 1791 with a punishment of six years
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Today, the average prison term for rape is 11 years. But then, like now, too few of these crimes actually end up at trial
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Quantifying exactly how many rapes and sexual assaults occur in France every year is difficult
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There are the police report numbers. In 2024, the data showed over 122,000 victims came forward following sexual violence
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That's a 7% jump from the year before, with 43% of cases being rape or attempted rape
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Some 85 of the victims were women and over half were minors But those figures are still far from the actual number of sexual assaults A recent public survey by the government found that 270 women
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said they'd been subjected to physical sexual assault. 1.1 million said that they'd experienced sexual harassment in 2022
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Like the landmark Giselle Halimi trial of 1972 in Bobigny, the Giselle Pellico trial moved the societal needle
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in regard to the notions of what rape is. with many now saying that France's laws must also be modernized
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We're going to talk more about this now with Annette Young, the host of the 51% France 24 show about women's issues
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Annette, thanks for coming on the show. Tell us a bit more about why not everyone is supportive of adding consent to this law
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particularly feminists. Indeed. And first of all, let's just take a step back and just remind our viewers about the Gisele Pellico case
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which is perhaps one of the most unprecedented stories to emerge from France in recent decades
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And that, of course, this horrific tale of a grandmother, now 72 years old, who over a period of a decade was sexually assaulted while drugged unconscious by her husband by dozens of strangers that he recruited online
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Now, can you imagine, Jeannie, if Giselle Pellico had decided to remain anonymous, what would have happened
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The fact is, you and I would not be talking today about introducing the notion of consent
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In fact, one of the most telling moments of the trial was when her lawyers went to speak to the reporters
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This was just after the details were first published or effectively released in court
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And the comment that her lawyers said that so many of these men who were accused went by the defence that they thought she was in on the game, that it was part of a sex game as such
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and the reality is that the fact that these men and many of them from a variety of backgrounds and different professions and so on still had no concept of consent which means we got a long way to go now
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which is why we are here today with the French Parliament voting on adding the notion of consent to the rape laws
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Now, interestingly, last year France opposed an effort to make non-consensual sex a criminal offence across the EU
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However, it's what is even more interesting. By contrast, President Macron last month as part of the International Women's Day said while he opposed legislating at a European level on the issue, he did favour new legislation in the EU
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And he certainly spoke in favour of adding the notion of consent to the law
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A recent report by a parliamentary committee on women's rights argued that the law needed urgent reform
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and the MPs said that there was a climate of impunity in this country
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when it came to sexual violence. We've seen that now with more and more cases coming forward
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such as obviously Girard Depardieu. But what is interesting, I think, for us
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particularly those who are not French or for feminist groups outside of France
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is the fact there is still a group of feminist organisations who oppose the idea of adding consent to the law
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they say that the law will fail to address situations where consent is coerced or manipulated
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and they argue by adding consent there will be additional and unnecessary emphasis on the victim
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having to prove that they did consent at the expense of placing onus on the perpetrator
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Right now another consequence of this Pellico case is that in schools French students are going
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to have to start learning about things like sex, gender stereotypes and consent and that is due to
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start this September. But the crazy thing here is that sex education was actually made mandatory in France decades ago Indeed 25 years ago the French government passed a law mandating but never actually
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effectively putting into place sex education for every student. But what it has done is finally
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approved and developed a curriculum for sex education classes. It also includes a plan for
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teacher training and course materials. And the lack of enforcement of this sex education program
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So basically schools could argue we don't have enough resources or we'll do it at this point but not at that stage of their courses
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Well basically this is now going to make sure that every student has access to that education
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The lack of enforcement however did result in a lawsuit by the Family Planning Association and other groups
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Having said that this lawsuit has yet to be resolved but the government has gone ahead regardless and published a curriculum of its own
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which will now come into effect in September when the new school year begins
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So it is a very interesting move. There is, however, not surprisingly, this is France
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pushback with MPs from the Conservative Party, their Republican, signing an op-ed published by Le Figaro last week
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opposing the program's woke ideology and demanding that all mentions of gender identity be removed
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But the bottom line is teachers unions and others do understand and acknowledge the impact the Pelico case has had on French society and the fact that there's still a lot of concern and confusion about the notion of consent
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and in addition this comes as that incredible Netflix TV series Adolescence has gone viral
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which of course is a harrowing UK drama about teen boys accessing misogynist and pornographic
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websites and the impact it has on their behaviour. Indeed and toxic masculinity as well and thank you
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so much for that Annette Young the host of The 51%
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