Dominique Pelicot was convicted final month together with 50 different males of repeatedly drugging and raping Gisèle Pelicot within the case that surprised France.
France should change its rape regulation to incorporate consent, a cross-party group of lawmakers mentioned within the wake of Gisèle Pelicot’s mass rape trial that shocked the nation.
A consent-based definition of rape needs to be urgently added to present regulation, which defines rape as an act dedicated on somebody utilizing “violence, coercion, risk or shock” – with out a clear point out of consent – MPs mentioned in a report offered to Parliament on Tuesday.
“Almost 10 years after the start of the MeToo motion and as simply illustrated by the (Pelicot) trial, the battle in opposition to rape tradition should be a precedence, it wants a regulation that’s clearer,” the report states.
“The new definition should state that consent is restricted, should be given freely and will be revoked at any time.”
The panel was chaired by Véronique Riotton of President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance celebration and Marie-Charlotte Garin of the Ecologists celebration. Their report says France ought to replace its rape regulation to affix 14 different EU states – together with Germany, Sweden and Spain – who’ve included the notion of consent of their laws.
The investigation was launched in 2023, earlier than the most important rape trial in French historical past started.
Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband Dominique was sentenced final month to twenty years in jail for drugging and recruiting males to rape her with out her data for greater than a decade. The court docket within the Provençal village of Mazan additionally discovered 50 different males responsible of rape, tried rape and sexual assault for having participated in Dominique Pelicot’s plan.
The trial spurred a nationwide depending on the scourge of rape tradition, with Gisèle Pelicot’s braveness all through the proceedings inspiring demonstrations throughout France, galvanizing campaigners in opposition to sexual violence and spurring requires more durable measures in opposition to rape.
The parliamentary report says French stereotypes about supposedly “good victims” and “actual rape” persist and highlights {that a} “local weather of impunity” persists.
Macron and his Justice Minister Didier Migaud final yr mentioned they supported updating the nation’s rape regulation to incorporate a definition based mostly on consent.
However, some authorized specialists and ladies’s rights activists say they oppose the change as a result of it dangers inserting victims, moderately than accused, in management.
In France, solely 14% of rape stories lead to a proper investigation, in line with a research performed final yr by the Institute of Public Policy. Prosecutors are sometimes unable to seek out adequate proof that the perpetrator used violence, threats, coercion, or shock.
