“Moving from rape culture to consent culture”: the National Assembly voted overwhelmingly this Thursday, October 23, in favor of a compromise text that integrates the notion of lack of consent into the criminal definition of rape, before its final adoption scheduled in the Senate next week.
155 votes in favor
After several very emotional speeches by deputies on the platform, the National Assembly approved the bill, the result of a compromise with senators, by 155 votes to 31, with only far-right elected officials opposing it.
“When no is no, it does not mean that it is yes”, and “when it is yes, it must be a true yes, (…) giving in will never again be consent”, celebrated the deputy Marie-Charlotte Garin (ecologist), who brought the text together with the Renaissance deputy Véronique Riotton.
This is the culmination of “two years of parliamentary work,” stressed Marie-Charlotte Garin, who had already led an information mission on the subject.
A Senate vote for final adoption
The Senate must rule on the text on Wednesday, during a vote that will constitute its final adoption. All sexual assaults in the Penal Code will then be defined as “any non-consensual sexual act.”
“Consent is free and informed, specific, prior and revocable. It is assessed in light of the circumstances. It cannot be deduced from the victim’s silence or lack of reaction alone,” the text specifies.
“There is no consent if the act of a sexual nature is committed with violence, coercion, threat or surprise, whatever its nature,” he adds finally, returning to criteria already present in the Penal Code.
The highly symbolic bill comes several months after Mazan’s high-profile rape trial, during which consent took center stage.
Supported by the Minister of Equality between Women and Men, Aurore Bergé, the text “sends a signal to our society. We are collectively moving from the culture of rape to the culture of consent,” declared Véronique Riotton.
The RN denounces “a moral drift”
The National Group denounced “an unprecedented moral and legal drift”, with a notion of consent “subjective, changing, difficult to understand.”
“Lawyers will now have to analyze not the violence of the culprit, but the gestures, the words, the silence of the person who declares himself a victim,” launched RN deputy Sophie Blanc.
On the contrary, “the alleged aggressor will now have to present evidence showing that he asked about the victim’s consent,” argued Emilie Bonnivard (Les Républicains).
The president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, hailed a “collective victory” on Thursday: “What pride today!”
The Women’s Foundation told AFP that it had taken note of this vote: “The time has come to address more generally the reasons for impunity in matters of rape,” it said, citing in particular “the absence of prevention of sexual violence” and “the absence of means to achieve justice.”
Source: BFM TV
