The Minister of Justice, Didier Migaud, spoke on Friday September 27 on France Inter about the idea of changing the definition of rape in French law. Asked whether he was in favor, like the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, of the inclusion of consent in French law, Mr. Migaud replied: « Oui. »
The debate on the redefinition of rape in the penal code to take into account the absence of consent resurfaced in France during the Mazan rape trial, where around fifty men were tried for the rape of Gisèle Pelicot, drugged without her knowledge by her husband and unconscious at the time of the events.
Currently, article 222-23 of the penal code defines rape as “any act of sexual penetration, of whatever nature, or any oral-genital act committed on the person of another or on the person of the perpetrator by violence, coercion, threat or surprise”. Rape is “punished with fifteen years of criminal imprisonment”specifies the article.
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Several European countries have changed the definition of rape
The notion of consent, which resurfaced in the 2010s with the #metoo shockwave, is not explicitly mentioned.
In March, Emmanuel Macron said he was in favor of changing the definition of rape. The Head of State subsequently hoped that a proposed text could see the light of day “by the end of the year” ; a prospect that became uncertain with the surprise announcement of the dissolution of the National Assembly in June, which put an end to ongoing work on this subject.
Several European countries have changed their definition of rape in recent years as sexual assault without explicit consent.
In Sweden, for example, a law on sexual consent, which considers any sexual act without explicit agreement to be rape, even in the absence of threat or violence, has been in force since 2018. In Spain, a law has been introduced since October 2022 the obligation of explicit sexual consent. Same development in Greece and Denmark.
