French lawmakers approve fines for sex harassment on streets, ban on "upskirting"
PARIS — French lawmakers gave final passage Wednesday to a bill that expands the criminal definition of child rape and outlaws sex harassment on the street — measures the government described as a signal of deep social change.
The legislation approved in the lower house of the French parliament classifies relations between an adult and a child under age 15 as rape resulting from an "abuse of vulnerability," if the victim lacked the ability to consent. It would be up to a judge to determine whether or not a child was capable of giving sexual consent.
French President Emmanuel Macron's government pushed for the changes in the legislation in the wake of the #MeToo movement and said they would take effect in September.
The revision followed recent cases that provoked public outrage. In both cases, French courts ruled men who had sex with 11-year-old girls could not be prosecuted for rape because authorities could not prove there was coercion.
The bill also extends the statute of limitations for sex crimes, allowing prosecution for 30 years instead of 20 after a purported victim turns 18 years old.
The new law also allows for fines of 90-750 euros — $105-$876 — for gender-based harassment on streets and public transportation. It bans sexual or sexist comments and behavior that is degrading, humiliating, intimidating hostile or offensive.
Junior minister for gender equality Marlene Schiappa said she is convinced the measure will act as a "deterrent."
BBC News reports that the initiative for on-the-spot fines for harassment has resonated among women in France as the #MeToo movement and the French equivalent #BalanceTonPorc — "rat on your pig" — have gathered steam.
This week, a video coinciding with the push for fines went viral in France. The video shows a man striking a woman after she responded to obscene sounds he made as she passed by him.
The woman, Marie Laguerre, told French radio she was going home last week in Paris when the man made obscene and degrading comments, as well as "noises with sexual connotations," the BBC reported.
"It wasn't the first time that day, that week, or that month. It had been building up," she reportedly told French TV. "I got angry and said 'shut up.' I didn't think he would hear, but he did."
The man became angry and threw an ashtray, she said. The two then exchanged insults and the man walked toward her. That was when he hit her in the face.
By Wednesday, video of the incident, which Laguerre shared online, was viewed more than five million times on YouTube.
The Paris prosecutor opened an investigation, but the man seen in the CCTV video has not been arrested.
The bill that was just passed also steps up sanctions for cyberstalking and outlaws taking pictures or videos under someone's clothes without consent. The practice, known as "upskirting," will be punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros, or $17,533.
