The secretary general of Council of Europe, Alain Berseturged European countries this Monday to update their legislation to adopt the notion of consent as the central axis in the definition of rapein accordance with the provisions of the Istanbul Conventionwhich in 2024 will celebrate a decade since its entry into force.
During his statement, Berset emphasized that this international treaty, designed to combat gender violence, establishes that the definition of rape must focus on the underlined, “as opposed to traditional definitions of rape based on the use of force.” According to the secretary general, this difference is crucial to recognize the experiences of women and girls who suffer sexual violence.
In recent years, countries such as Finland, Denmark, Belgium and Spain They have reformed their laws to align them with the treaty, introducing modifications that eliminate the need to prove physical coercion.
However, other nations, such as Francethey continue to define rape as an “act of sexual penetration, of any nature, or any oral-genital act, committed with violence, pressure, threat or surprise.”
In 2019, the Group of Experts on the Fight against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Grevio) expressed its rejection of this definition, regretting that “the definition of sexual assault and rape is not based on the lack of free consent but requires recourse to violence, pressure, threat or surprise.”
The debate on the notion of consent becomes even more relevant in the context of the judicial process against 51 men accused of raping Gisele Pelicotwho was drugged with anxiolytics by her husband between 2011 and 2020 in their home in southeastern France.
At the trial, the Prosecutor’s Office stressed this Monday that Pelicot was reduced to “an object” by the aggressors. “Consent was not present before or during the act”declared the prosecutor Jean-François Mayet in his opening statement before the Avignon Criminal Court.
Mayet insisted that the state of unconsciousness induced by anxiolytics given by her husband made any form of consent impossible on the part of the victim.
The French penal code, by focusing on active violence or coercion to classify rape, faces criticism for not adequately protecting victims in situations where there is no explicit physical resistance due to temporary disabilities, as in this case.
He Council of Europe had already pointed out in 2019 that this legislation is insufficient and is not in line with the international standards promoted by the Istanbul Convention.
The case of Pelicot shows how current legal definitions can leave unprotected victims of abuse committed in circumstances that make consent impossible, reinforcing the urgency of reforming the laws to guarantee justice and comprehensive protection for all survivors of sexual violence.
(With information from AFP/EFE)
