PARIS (AP) – The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said Thursday with three women that they were raped at ages 13, 14 and 16, arguing that French authorities did not do enough to protect them.
The ruling could spark debate on legal consent for sex crimes that tempted France’s drug and rape trials last year. France has taken steps to strengthen punishment for rape and sexual misconduct, including 15 as age of consent, but the concept of consent has not yet introduced a legal definition of rape.
In all three cases of the ECHR examination, the applicant believes that age and vulnerability at that time should be better considered.
The ECHR ruled that the people responsible for investigating the alleged crime and the actions of the French courts were not sufficient to protect the women they had been raped. In two of the cases, the court said the criminal proceedings were not handled promptly or appropriately with caution.
The court condemned France’s violation of the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights that prohibits torture and inhuman or tainted treatment, and women’s right to respect private life.
“The courts believe that domestic courts have not properly assessed the impact of all circumstances surrounding the incident; they do not consider sufficiently enough about the particular vulnerability they find, especially the viewpoint of age, when assessing whether the applicants can understand and give consent.”
The court also pointed out that in two of the three cases, two of the two cases “a lack of speed and diligence in criminal proceedings.”
The first to worry about a teenager, complaining that she was raped in 2009 by two 21-year-old men who were firefighters stationed in a barracks near her home. The girl described herself as being psychologically vulnerable and being bullied at school, which led to her taking medication multiple times and being hospitalized in a child psychiatric ward.
She said she had sex with a firefighter several times. She added that her contact information was subsequently “distributed” among other firefighters at several fire stations who contacted her via text or Facebook.
The second plaintiff reported that she was raped by two men aged 21 and 29 when she was 14. A third woman reported that an 18-year-old man was raped at the age of 16 after the party.
Regarding the girl who said she was attacked by firefighters, the court also found that French authorities failed to “protect the dignity of the applicant, thereby spreading gender stereotypes and being able to undermine the victim’s confidence in the judicial system” by allowing the use of moralized and guilty statements.
The court said there was no request to rule that the person accused of committing the crime was guilty and that in their respective cases, its findings could not be considered as a view of the defendant’s guilt.
In Europe, the way rape is defined and prosecuted in criminal law remains large. Although some countries use a consent-based definition, many others still need to use force or threat to punish them. French law believes that rape can be considered to occur when “a person who performs sexual penetration or oral reproductive behavior on someone, with violence, coercion, threatening or surprise.” ”
