“We will ask the perpetrator” of the rape to explain himself and not the victim to demonstrate it

Emmanuel Macron finally declared himself in favor of this development in French law at the beginning of March. A legal change which would be far from being anecdotal.

Last month, France was one of a dozen EU member states to oppose on legal grounds a European definition of rape based on lack of consent. On March 8, during the ceremony of sealing in the Constitution the “guaranteed freedom” to resort to abortionit was therefore to everyone’s surprise that Emmanuel Macron informed the feminist association Choosing the cause of women its intention to include this same notion in French law.

This is more than just a change in vocabulary, as rape is currently defined solely by the behavior of the perpetrator. According to article 222-23 of the penal code, rape corresponds to “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”. “The difficulty, explains Audrey Darsonville, professor of criminal law at Paris-Nanterreis that if we cannot demonstrate one of these four modes of operation, rape cannot be demonstrated.

A concept already adopted in several European countries

The introduction of the term “consent” would therefore make it possible to reverse the approach to the investigation to be carried out. “That it is not an investigation in which we will ask the victim to demonstrate that the author used the four models [violence, contrainte, menace ou surprise]. We will ask the author: was he interested in the consent of the partner? she specifies.

Several European countries (Spain, Germany) have already adopted this definition of rape, as a “non-consensual sexual intercourse”. In France, a parliamentary mission is currently studying the issue. Two bills have already been tabled in the National Assembly (by La France insoumise MP Sarah Legrain) and in the Senate (by environmentalist senator Mélanie Vogel).

The executive has until now been very cautious. The Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti pointed out, during a hearing in the Senate on February 1, a risk of “contractualization of sexual relations”.
Emmanuel Macron has therefore evolved on the subject, but without setting a timetable. Hence the caution of the Choisir la cause des femmes association. On franceinfo on March 13, its general secretary Maria Cornaz Bassoli said “hope”that it will be more than a publicity effect.”