PARIS (AP) – The French government wants to set the age of sexual consent at 15 and facilitate the punishment of child sexual abuse for a long time, amid growing public pressure and a wave of online witnesses on rapes and other sexual violence by parents and authority figures.
Describing this treatment of children as “intolerable,” the justice ministry said in a statement that “the government is determined to act quickly to implement the changes our society expects.”
“An act of sexual penetration by an adult against a child under the age of 15 will be considered a rape,” Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti told France-2 television on Tuesday. Consent can no longer be cited to lower the charges, but exceptions will be made for teens who have consensual sex, he said.
The change should still be enshrined in law, but the announcement is an important step after years of efforts to strengthen the French protection of children victims of rape and sexual violence.
An impetus to establish France’s first consent age three years ago as a result of the global #MeToo movement failed amid legal complications. But the effort has picked up new momentum since allegations of incestuous sexual abuse surfaced last month with a prominent French political expert, Olivier Duhamel. This triggered an online #MeTooInceste movement in France that resulted in hundreds of similar testimonials.
The Ministry of Justice says it is in talks with groups of victims about the toughening of punishment for incest and the extension or abolition of the prescription of child sexual abuse, which has prevented prosecution in several cases. of great renown in France in recent years.
He also says he wants to “ensure that victims of the same perpetrator do not receive different legal treatment,” which could extend the scope of prosecuting people accused of abusing several people for decades.
In the Duhamel case, the Paris prosecutor opened an investigation into alleged “sexual rape and abuse by a person exercising authority” over a child following public accusations his stepdaughter made in a book that he abused his twin brother in the 1980s, when the brothers were 13 years old.
Duhamel said he was “the target of personal attacks” and left his numerous professional positions, including as a respected television commentator and head of the National Political Science Foundation. The foundation manages the prestigious Sciences Po University in Paris, whose director Frederic Mion resigned this week amid the aftermath of the allegations.