EU lawmakers agree to make non-consensual sex a criminal offense
European Union lawmakers on Wednesday agreed on a push to make non-consensual sex a criminal offense across the bloc, heralding a clash in future negotiations with EU governments, which rejected the plan.
Several forms of cyberviolence like revenge porn, AI-generated porn deepfakes and online harassment could also become criminal offenses after a majority of lawmakers in the committees on civil liberties and for women's rights adopted their version of a first-ever EU law to protect women from abuse.
"We are facing a crisis of violence in Europe. Women are increasingly the target," said European Parliament President Roberta Metsola. "It’s not only about best practices or recommendations that will deal with it but legislation that can be enforced.”
The directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence garnered the support of lawmakers on a 71-5 vote. Seven lawmakers abstained. The vote will have to be confirmed in a Parliament plenary session in July.
The law wants to set minimum EU standards for criminal offences ranging from female genital mutilation to cyberstalking as well as bolstering efforts to support victims and gathering more data.
It also sought to compel EU countries to codify non-consensual sex as rape punishable with a maximum penalty of at least eight years in prison. But governments in the Council of the EU decided earlier this month to remove the provision, arguing there was no legal basis.
"No European woman will be understanding of their government not tackling rape via a lack of consent at the highest levels, because they know what a horrific crime rape is," said lead Irish center-right (EPP) lawmaker Frances Fitzgerald. EU governments "should be aware that the inclusion of rape is a red line for the European Parliament," she said. A first meeting to start negotiations with the Council is expected on July 13.
The bloc is currently divided almost in half, with 14 countries — including France and Poland — requiring victims to prove the use of force or threat in the case of rape, and 13 others —including Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, and Greece — basing their criminal definition of rape on consent.
Lawmakers were closer to EU governments' agreement to criminalize some online violence with a maximum penalty of at least one or two years in prison. Such crimes could include the non-consensual sharing of intimate material even when the images and videos are fake and manipulated and cyberstalking. Sharing someone's data like an address to incite violence —known as doxxing — could become criminal.
In a bid to toughen the draft law, EU lawmakers also want to criminalize sending someone online unsolicited images and videos of genitals aimed to "cause psychological harm." They also voted to go beyond punishing cyber incitement to abuse women to include violence against the LGBTQ+ community.
They also proposed to make forcing "any medically unnecessary surgery" or hormonal treatment on intersex women and children without their informed consent a criminal offense, with a maximum penalty of at least 5 years of imprisonment.
Yet, according to an email from Metsola, dated June 16 and seen by POLITICO, the president decided not to take disciplinary action against three lawmakers — Anders Vistisen, Isabella Adinolfi and Cristian Terheș — who were accused of sexist, racist and transphobic hate speech during a parliamentary debate on ratifying the Istanbul Convention on combating violence against women last month.
Metsola said in an email to other lawmakers who had complained about the remarks that they were “inappropriate.” But she also said that the Parliament’s rules against offensive language had to be “held against” the requirement to permit freedom of expression.
Malin Björk, one of the lawmakers who had written to Metsola to complain, told POLITICO, "I am disappointed. I don’t think it should be up to a few women MEPs to always counteract hateful speech in the plenary. I think we need to collectively, as a house, think further. We should also have a code of conduct for the MEPs chairing these debates, where we know there will be problems."
Source: POLITICO Europe
