This Tuesday, October 21, deputies and senators reached an agreement to integrate the notion of lack of consent into the criminal offense of rape, paving the way for the definitive adoption of this substantial modification of the law, BFMTV learned from a parliamentary source.
A meeting of deputies and senators in a joint committee (CMP) resulted in a compromise text on this highly symbolic law, which comes several months after Mazan’s high-profile rape trial, during which consent took center stage.
From now on, all sexual assaults in the penal code will be defined as “any non-consensual sexual act.”
Not one, but “surrounding circumstances”
“Consent is free and informed, specific, prior and revocable” and “cannot be deduced from the mere silence or lack of reaction of the victim,” this is how the text common to the National Assembly and the Senate establishes.
The bill approved by deputies Véronique Riotton (Renaissance) and Marie-Charlotte Garin (ecologists) and supported by the Minister of Equality between Women and Men, Aurore Bergé, will be able to come into force after a final vote on the compromise text in the two hemicycles, starting on Thursday morning in the Assembly and then in the Senate, probably next week.
Its final adoption is beyond any doubt because the majorities are large in both parliamentary chambers. On Tuesday, only the two elected members of the National Assembly (RN), out of a total of 14 elected members, voted against the compromise text contained in the CMP, according to several participants. The deputies and senators did not have much difficulty reaching an agreement because their two editorial teams were close.
The only slight disagreement at the beginning was that the Senate preferred to establish in the penal code that non-consent would be “appreciated” by judges based on the “context”, and not on the “surrounding circumstances”, the formula used in the Assembly. An “unsatisfactory” notion of context for Marie-Charlotte Garin.
“We could assume an interpretation of the context only at the time of the act, rather than a truly broader context that can take into account vulnerability, what happened before and after,” he explains to AFP. Finally, parliamentarians reached a compromise on the notion of “circumstances” in plural, which allows “expanding the body of evidence.”
3919: the telephone number for women victims of violence
“3919”, “Violence Femmes Info”, is the national reference number for women victims of violence (domestic, sexual, psychological, forced marriages, sexual mutilation, harassment, etc.). It’s free and anonymous. Offers listening, informs and guides towards support and support systems. This number is managed by the National Women’s Solidarity Federation (FNSF).
Source: BFM TV
