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France’s Senate is expected to give final approval on Wednesday to a bill redefining rape and sexual assault as any non-consensual sexual act.
This important legislation emerges directly from the historic drugging and rape trial that deeply shook France, making Gisele Pellicot a global icon.
The bill was introduced in January, just weeks after the conviction of 51 people The rape and abuse of Ms. Pellicott, a case that shocked the nation Reflecting on France’s rape culture.
Marie-Charlotte Garin and Véronique Raiton, MPs greens and president Emmanuel Macronrespectively, the centrist party, which supported the bill, wrote, “It is time to take action and take a new step forward in the fight against sexual violence.”
The bill states that “any non-consensual sexual act shall constitute sexual assault.”
Consent is defined as “freely given, informed, specific, prior and revocable” and evaluated “in the light of the circumstances”. The text states that “this cannot be inferred from the victim’s silence or lack of reaction alone.”
The bill also specifies that there is no consent if the sexual act is performed with “violence, coercion, threat or surprise”.
Last week, it was widely approved by lawmakers at almost all levels National AssemblyThe lower house of the Parliament of France. The far right voted against it.
The Senate is expected to give it final approval on Wednesday, the last step before the bill becomes law through official publication.
Once approved, France will join several other European countries that have similar consent-based laws on rape, including neighboring Germany, Belgium and Spain.
In December, Pellicott’s ex-husband and 50 other men were convicted of sexually assaulting her between 2011 and 2020 while she was under chemical subservience.
Dominic Pellicott was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while the sentences for the other defendants ranged from three to 15 years in prison. An appeals court earlier this month sentenced the only man to challenge his conviction to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment.
The harrowing and unprecedented trial in France exposed how pornography, chatrooms and men’s disdain or blurred understanding of consent are fueling rape culture.
Gisele Pellicot has since become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence.