French parliament adopts controversial sexual harassment initiative
Secretary of State in charge of Gender Equality in France Marlene Schiappa | Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
France’s National Assembly has voted in favor of a legislative proposal that will make unwanted advances on women in the public space a punishable offense.
Members of the Assembly late Wednesday voted 115 to 29 in favor of the proposal, with 25 abstentions, French media
reported.
The proposal, spearheaded by French Minister for Gender Equality Marlène Schiappa, establishes a minimum penalty of €90 for sexual harassment and acts of sexism in the public space.
Punishable offenses would include unwanted gestures or comments on another person’s physical appearance, whistling, and following a person from a distance, among other behaviors. The proposal requires a police officer to witness acts of harassment first-hand in order to issue a fine.
The idea behind the initiative is “to establish a fine, as well as a process … [which could] be imposed on the street harassers,” Schiappa, a member of Emmanuel Macron’s La République en Marche,
told POLITICO last year.
The proposal, she acknowledged at the time, would be hard to enforce but would have a powerful dissuasive effect on men whose come-ons in the public space make women feel unsafe. “It’s important that French law spells out black on white that it’s forbidden to intimidate women in public,” she said.
The proposed legislation is “a worldwide novelty, and will be part of police’s daily duties,” Schiappa said Wednesday, noting that “eight women in 10 are afraid to go out into the streets alone at night.”
Under the proposal, sentences for sexual crimes committed toward minors would also increase to 30 years, up from 20.
https://www.google.com.sg/amp/s/www...itiative-metoo-sexism-punishable-offense/amp/
