Madrid: In a historic move, Spain’s parliament has approved legislation that seeks to make it easier for victims of sexual violence to prosecute their attackers by emphasising the importance of consent. According to a report by BBC, with the passing of the Guarantee of Sexual Freedom law, any sexual act without consent will be liable to be deemed assault. Popularly known as the “only yes means yes” law, the reform means that victims will no longer have to prove that they suffered violence or intimidation, or that they physically resisted, in order to show that they have suffered a sexual assault. “It will only be understood that there is consent when… the will of the person is clearly expressed,” reads the text of the bill.
The bill was approved by a clear margin, and how it must be approved by the Senate before coming into effect, according to the BBC report.
“Sexual freedom will finally be a right in our country,” said Irene Montero, Spain’s minister for equality, who was instrumental in creating the new law. “We’re going to swap violence for freedom and we’re going to swap fear for desire. From today, Spain is a freer, safer country for all women,” she added.
What is the ‘Only Yes Means Yes’ Law?
The initiative was driven by the legal and social fallout from a notorious gang rape case six years ago. The bill seeks to tackle the nebulous definition of consent in Spanish law. In the absence of a codified definition, the law had long relied on evidence of violence, resistance or intimidation to decide whether a criminal sexual act occurred.
According to a report by Associated Press, the new bill defines consent as an explicit expression of a person’s will, making it clear that silence or passivity do not equal consent. The bill defines rape as sex without clear consent, mirroring pioneering legislation which came into force in Sweden in 2018. Non-consensual sex can be considered aggression and subject to prison terms of up to 15 years.
The legislation also includes a raft of other measures, from obliging minors who commit sexual crimes to undergo sex education and gender equality training to creating a network of 24-hour crisis centres for sexual assault victims and their family members.
According to a report by Agence France-Presse (AFP), it also proposes jail penalties for work-related sexual harassment and makes catcalling — sexually harassing a stranger in the street — a criminal offence for the first time, and qualifies forced marriage and genital mutilation as criminal offences and stiffens laws against pimping.
What is the background for this law?
According to the AP report, the legislation traces its roots to the furor sparked by a gang-rape case during the San Fermin bull-running festival in Pamplona in 2016.
Initially, the five accused in the case were found guilty of sexual abuse but not rape, as the victim wasn’t deemed to have objected to what was happening. The sentences prompted widespread protests across the country and calls for Spain to join the dozen other countries in Europe that define rape as sex without consent, according to a 2020 analysis by Amnesty International.
Spain’s Supreme Court later overruled two lower courts and sentenced the five men to 15 years in prison on a rape conviction.
The ruling highlighted how under Spain’s existing criminal code, rape must involve violence and intimidation, and it led to noisy demonstrations across the country to demand reform, the AFP report said.
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