France Parliament’s lower house has approved a bill that is striving to define the age of sexual consent as 15 years. The bill is expected to be passed in the upper house in April this year. It is structured n the wake of a chain of sexual abuse scandals in the past. The proposed law identifies sexual act between an adult and a minor under 15 as rape.
As per the present French laws, children are adjudged capable of consenting to sex legally. Hence, criminals accused of having sexual intercourse with children under 15 are not considered rapists and in turn face less severe punishments. The current law and statutes of limitations have been blamed since long for obstructing the prosecution of sexual abuse cases.
After the proposed French law comes into effect, criminals convicted of rape of a minor will no longer be able to bring up the child’s consent as a resort to reduce their punishment. The act would be punishable by up to 20 years of imprisonment.
However certain exemptions are taken into consideration. One such exemption comes under the “Romeo and Juliet” clause, which permits sexual relationships between a minor under 15 and up to 5 years older adult. In regard to this Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti said, “I do not want to put a kid aged 18 on trial because he had a consenting relationship with a girl of 14-and-a-half”.