Consent-based rape law is adopted by France

France’s Senate gave its final approval on Wednesday to a bill defining rape and other sexual assault as any non-consensual sexual act, a move that comes after the landmark drugging and rape trial that shook France and turned Giséle Pelicot into a global icon.

- By SyLviz CORBET

Senators voted 327-0 in favor of the bill, with 15 abstentions.

‘The bill was presented in January following the conviction of 51 men for the rape and abuse of Giséle Pelicot ina case that spurred a national reckoning over rape culture in France.

Marie-Charlotte Garin and Véronique Riotton, lawmakers for the Greens and President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party, respectively, who championed the bill, wrote: “It’s 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 constitutes sexual assault.”