Eight EU members continue to include force or violence in their definitions in national criminal codes
The European parliament has called on the EU to draw up a standardised consent-based definition of rape, in what legislators described as a crucial step towards addressing the patchwork of laws, some of them insufficient, that now exist across the bloc.
On Tuesday, 447 of the parliament’s 720 MEPs voted to approve a report calling for a common definition of rape, centred on “only yes means yes”, prompting a loud round of applause in the chamber in Strasbourg.
“Silence, lack of resistance, the absence of a ‘no’, previous consent, past sexual conduct or any current or previous relationship must not be interpreted as consent,” the parliament said in a statement following the vote.
A common definition would force member states that continue to include force or violence in their laws to align with international standards, said Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, a Polish MEP who was one of the main drivers of the initiative.
