Currently, the Penal Code defines rape as “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.”
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Emmanuel Macron expressed his intention to include the notion of consent in the criminal definition of rape, during an exchange filmed on Friday March 8 with the feminist association Choisir la cause des femmes. “I will enshrine it in French law”, declared the Head of State when questioned on this question by Violaine Lucas, the president of the association founded by Gisèle Halimi, on the sidelines of International Women’s Rights Day. “That we integrate it into French law, that consent can be registered, I completely understand that”, he added, in this exchange broadcast on Instagram, the entirety of which AFP was able to see and was able to confirm the authenticity on Wednesday. When questioned, the Elysée did not wish to comment.
Currently, article 222-23 of the Penal Code defines rape as “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 notion of consent, which resurfaced in the 2010s with the #MeToo shockwave, is not explicitly mentioned and voices have been raised for several months to review this definition.
“If he does, it’s good news.”reacted to AFP Violaine Lucas. “This will allow us to deepen what Gisèle Halimi began to do in 1978 during the Aix-en-Provence trial”in reference to the emblematic trial which helped to have rape recognized by law as a crime.
