This could be the first law in the European Union against violence against women. The European Parliament must vote this Wednesday on legislation which plans to criminalize at European level female genital mutilation, forced marriage, non-consensual sharing of intimate images, and even cyberharassment.
The text, which thus opens the way to harmonized sanctions within the 27 EU countries, also aims to give victims better access to justice and health. On the other hand, it excludes the question of rape, due to lack of agreement between member states on a common definition.
According to Lola Schulmann, responsible for women’s rights at Amnesty International, the text presented to the vote of MEPs is “an important first step”: “in states which do not currently have strong ambitions regarding violence against women , this can allow civil society to maintain pressure on these States. »
But the law is also a “missed opportunity”, she believes, “both because we do not include consent in the definition of rape and because the people most targeted by violence based on gender, whether undocumented women, sex workers, lesbian women, are not clearly identified as particularly vulnerable.”
France opposed to the inclusion of rape
The text was the subject of intense discussions for months, in particular on the question of the legal definition of rape, which differs depending on the country. The project, as presented in March 2022 by the European Commission, provided in Article 5 for a definition of rape based on the absence of consent. The European Parliament and countries like Belgium, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg and Sweden were on the same line.
But a dozen member states, notably France, Germany and Hungary, were opposed to the inclusion of rape in the legislation, believing that the EU has no competence in the matter and that the text risked to be rejected by European justice in the event of an appeal. During a debate on Tuesday in the European Parliament, the co-rapporteur of the text, the Swede Evin Incir (S & D, left) regretted “that because of President Macron, because of the liberal President Orbán, we have not succeeded to go further than that.”
Our file on violence against women
During the same debate, Frenchwoman Manon Aubry, co-president of the La Gauche group, expressed her “anger” at the French blockage on the European definition of rape. Stressing that a revision of the directive is only planned in five years, Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé, member of the EPP (right, first group in the European Parliament) judges, “that we cannot wait five years to make a move about this question “. She also deplored the position of the French president: “a directive on violence against women without talking about rape seems incredible to me. »