The French penal code currently defines rape as “any act of sexual penetration, of any nature, or any oral-genital act committed (…) by means of violence, coercion, threat or surprise”, a definition that does not include the consent of the victim.
Emmanuel Macron has committed to integrating the concept of consent into laws that criminalize sexual abuse, after being excluded from the first common rules agreed in the European Union against gender-based violence.
“I will register it in French law,” said Macron, in a conversation with representatives of the women’s rights association Choosing Women’s Cause, published on social media by the organization itself.
The French president stated that he “did not want to enter into a definition of European crime”, but admitted progress at national level. “I fully understand that it is integrated into French legislation, that consent can be registered,” he commented.
The French penal code currently defines rape as “any act of sexual penetration, of any nature, or any oral-genital act committed (…) by means of violence, coercion, threat or surprise”, a definition that does not include the consent of the victim.
When questioned by the France-Presse AFP agency, Eliseu declined to comment on the matter.
In the absence of final approval by the plenary of the European Parliament and the European Council, negotiators from the two sides reached an agreement in early February that included female circumcision, forced marriages, cyberstalking and the non-consensual disclosure of intimate images, but it left out the criminalization of non-consensual sex as a form of rape, due to the reservations of several governments.
The Council’s legal services warned, in a report sent to capitals, that the reform being negotiated does not provide the necessary legal basis to address rape, as it would have to be transformed into a European crime, which is not currently the case and would require a parallel unanimous decision.
The shock wave of the metoo movement against sexual harassment has led many voices in France to urge authorities to incorporate the concept of consent into their legislation, similar to other European countries.
In autumn, a bill to this effect was presented by an environmentalist senator and the topic is the subject of a parliamentary inquiry mission.
Macron’s announcement “is good news for women’s rights,” MEP Marie-Charlotte Garin, the mission’s co-rapporteur, told AFP.
The French MEP (Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance) highlighted that the idea is not to “eliminate the other four criteria of threat, violence, coercion or surprise, but rather to complete the definition”.
If Macron’s commitment comes to fruition, France will join other European countries that have made the absence of consent a legal criterion for rape.
Emmanuel Macron’s desire to enshrine consent in French legislation also breaks with the reservations of his Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, who warned in mid-February of the risk of a “slide towards a contractualization of sexual relations”, calling prudence on the matter.
Between 2017 and 2021, the Ministry of the Interior estimates that the number of rapes or attempted rapes recorded in France doubled, from 16,900 to 34,300.
