The French Parliament adopted a major amendment to the penal code on October 29, 2025, integrating non-consent into the definitions of rape and sexual assaults. This transpartisan achievement defines consent as free, informed, specific, prior, and revocable. It aims to clarify criminal law following intense debates and initial hesitations.
On October 29, 2025, the Senate definitively adopted, with 327 votes in favor and 15 abstentions, the bill proposed by deputies Marie-Charlotte Garin (Ecologist, Rhône) and Véronique Riotton (Renaissance, Haute-Savoie). The National Assembly had approved it by a majority the week of October 20-26. “We have just achieved a historic victory,” the two parliamentarians reacted in a joint statement, hailing “a major advance in the fight against sexual violence”.
This reform follows closely the Mazan rape trial, where consent was central. It explicitly states: “Any non-consensual sexual act constitutes a sexual assault.” Consent is defined as “free and informed, specific, prior, and revocable,” assessed based on circumstances, without inferring from silence or lack of reaction. It does not exist in cases of violence, constraint, threat, or surprise.
France thus joins Canada, Sweden, Spain, and Norway (since spring 2025). The process, underway for nearly a year, overcame hesitations, particularly on reversing the burden of proof, thanks to a favorable Council of State opinion in March. The government, through Gérald Darmanin and Aurore Bergé, supported the bill.
The far right opposes it: Deputy Sophie Blanc (RN) fears dissecting the victim's gestures rather than the perpetrator's violence. Senator Laurence Rossignol (PS) abstained, regretting the term “consent” for its “archaic” view of sexuality. Ecologist Senator Mélanie Vogel pleaded: “We have lived for centuries in a rape culture. Let us begin to build a consent culture. When you do not say yes, it is no.”
Associations call for affective education and training for judges and law enforcement. Lola Schulmann of Amnesty International France notes that the law will play a crucial role in shifting mentalities, without being a magic solution to impunity.