France is set to overhaul its sexual assault laws, redefining consent in rape cases after the Gisèle Pelicot trial, a reform that echoes India’s response to the 2012 Delhi gang rape, when outrage spurred legal changes.

On Wednesday, the Senate is expected to give final approval to a bill defining rape and sexual assault as any non-consensual sexual act.

The move follows the drugging and rape trial of Gisèle Pelicot that shook the nation and turned her into a symbol of resistance against sexual violence.

A woman walks past a banner which reads "Angry feminists" hanging on the gate of the courthouse, in support of French woman Gisele Pelicot, who was the victim of a mass rape orchestrated by her then-husband Dominique Pelicot at their home in the southern French town of Mazan, during a hearing in the appeal trial of Husamettin D., one of the 51 people convicted in her rape trial, in Nimes, France, October 8, 2025. (Reuters)

The bill, introduced in January, came after a court on December 19, 2024, convicted 51 men of raping and abusing Pelicot over nearly a decade, between 2011 and 2020.

The bill states that “any non-consensual sexual act constitutes sexual assault,” while consent is defined as “freely given, informed, specific, prior and revocable,” and must be assessed “in the light of the circumstances.”

The legislation also specifies that there is no consent if a sexual act is committed through “violence, coercion, threat or surprise.”

Silence or lack of reaction, the bill clarifies, cannot be interpreted as consent.

Until now, French law defined rape narrowly as penetration or oral sex involving “violence, coercion, threat or surprise.”

It was approved by the National Assembly last week, with support from across party lines except the far right, and will become law upon formal publication after the Senate’s expected nod.

Once enacted, France will join several European countries, including Germany, Belgium and Spain, that have adopted consent-based definitions of rape.

Her case sparked a nationwide reckoning over rape culture in France, echoing the outrage and legal reforms that followed the 2012 Delhi gang rape.

The French reckoning bears parallels to India’s experience after the 2012 Delhi gang rape, in which a 23-year-old physiotherapist was assaulted by six men, including a minor, on a moving bus.

The victim and her friend were thrown out on a roadside after the attack. As her injuries came to light, India witnessed one of the largest urban protests in its history, demanding justice, accountability and systemic change.

In response, India passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 — often called the Nirbhaya Act — which brought sweeping reforms to sexual crime laws.

The definition of rape was expanded beyond penile penetration to include any non-consensual sexual act involving other body parts, objects or oral contact.

The age of consent was raised to 18, and punishments for rape were made more stringent, with longer prison terms and harsher penalties in cases causing death or permanent disability.

The Act also introduced new offences such as acid attacks, stalking, sexual harassment and voyeurism, making them specifically punishable.

Police negligence and denial of medical treatment to survivors were criminalised.

Public outrage over the minor offender in the Nirbhaya case later led to an amendment in the Juvenile Justice Act, allowing juveniles aged 16 to 18 to be tried as adults for heinous crimes, subject to an assessment by the Juvenile Justice Board.

In the Pelicot case, her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while other defendants received between three and 15 years.

An appeals court earlier this month handed a harsher 10-year sentence to the only man who challenged his conviction.

In the Nirbhaya case, four adult convicts were sentenced to death by a trial court in 2013. They were hanged in 2020, in the capital's high-security Tihar prison.

One of them was found dead in jail in March 2013.

Another, who was 17 at the time of the attack, was released in 2015 after serving three years in a reform facility.