By 
29-01-2025
Érica Moreira
Women’s Rights Researcher,
Global Human Rights Defence.
On January 23rd, 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in favour of a French woman whose husband had divorced her because she had stopped having sexual relations with him, changing the legal basis of their divorce. This landmark decision will now require France to amend its legislation, a move hailed as “historic” by women’s rights activists (Le Monde with AFP, 2025).
According to the ECHR, France violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which concerns the right to respect for private and family life, mainly by disregarding the vitality of “consent” (ECHR, 2025). The unanimous ruling comes as France debates the concept of consent and its legal implications after the high-level ruling of Dominique Pelicot, sentenced to 20 years in jail over “committing and orchestrating the mass rapes targeting her with dozens of strangers he recruited online” (RFI, 2024).
The ECHR concluded that the enforcement of a marital obligation to have sexual relations contradicts the principles of sexual freedom and bodily autonomy (ECHR, 2025). Women’s rights groups view this conclusion as a crucial step in strengthening legal protections against marital rape and redefining marital rights.
Sources and further readings :
Le Monde with AFP. (2025, January 23). European court backs Frenchwoman divorced for refusing sex. Le Monde. Accessed 29 January 2025. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/police-and-justice/article/2025/01/23/european-court-backs-frenchwoman-divorced-for-refusing-sex_6737356_105.html
H.W. c. FRANCE, 13805/21 (2025). Accessed 29 January 2025. https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/#{%22itemid%22:[%22001-240199%22]}
RFI. (2024, December 19). Dominique Pelicot found guilty, jailed for 20 years in historic French rape trial. RFI. Accessed 29 January 2025. https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20241219-dominique-pelicot-found-guilty-on-all-charges-in-historic-french-rape-trial
Robert-Diard, P., & Seckel, H. (2024, December 20). Pelicot rape trial: A fair and independent verdict. Le Monde. Accessed 29 January 2025. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/12/20/pelicot-rape-trial-a-fair-and-independent-verdict_6736290_7.html
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