Overview

• Activists in Paris, wearing masks depicting President Emmanuel Macron, have called on France to endorse a proposed European Union law that would define rape as sex without consent across all 27 member countries.
• The European Commission proposed the legislation last year to harmonize consent-based rape laws and introduce a common set of penalties across the bloc.
• While other aspects of the directive, such as proposals for the criminalization of female genital mutilation and cyberbullying, have garnered consensus, the consent-based definition of rape is contentious.
• Currently, only 13 EU member states use consent-based definitions to criminalize rape, with many others requiring the use of force or threat to mete out punishment.
• Human Rights Watch has urged France to agree to the consent-based definition and take a leading role in negotiations, noting that France currently lags behind countries like Spain, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, and Greece in amending its criminal law.