French launches €14m 'only yes means yes' campaign on sexual consent
France's higher education ministry has launched a €14 million campaign around sexual consent, teaching students to seek explicit consent for any sexual encounter under the slogan 'sans oui, c'est interdit' (without a yes, it's forbidden).
The campaign is hoping to teach students to: "Ask explicitly and look for an enthusiastic yes; Get into the habit of posing simple questions like 'Do you want to?' 'Can I?' 'What do you like?' and 'What do you want us to experience together?'; Listen to the other person; Respect his or her desires and own limits; and finally, Accept No."
Other prevention actions for the 2022 school year will include training sessions for dedicated anti-assault units in most of France's universities. So far, over 900 teachers, students, and staff across the country have been trained.
Ahead of week-ends d’intégration - or welcome weekends at the start of the school year, which are known for festivities and higher consumption of alcohol amongst the student body - posters with the new slogan "Without a 'yes,' it's off limits" (Sans oui, c’est interdit) appeared across campuses in France to help educate students about consent.
Pour lutter contre les violences sexuelles et sexistes, nous devons développer une culture du consentement.
Le ministère @sup_recherche et l’association Sexe & Consentement lancent aujourd’hui une campagne de sensibilisation en ce sens : #SansOuiCestInterdit 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/T8l0Fi6nsJ
— Sylvie Retailleau (@sretailleau) October 9, 2022
Sylvie Retailleau, the Minister for Higher Education, stressed the importance of such actions in an interview with daily Le Parisien.
The minister explained that about "149,000 students in France are affected by sexual assault or attempted assault" each year.
According to Retailleau, that number represents approximately four percent of the total student body (for higher education) in France.
With the annual budget doubling from €1.7 to €3.5 million per year, Retailleau intends for associations, such as the "National Association for Student Athletics" (Anestaps) to receive more grant money to help sexual assault prevention.
The consent awareness campaign will also partner with websites like Konbini to reach students online. Informative videos with advice and testimonies from students, as well as a consent quiz (consentest) will be posted across social media to help educate young people across the country.
Additionally, Anestaps will set up "safe spaces" during onboarding festivities and welcome weekends, to ensure that students who have been harassed or feel unsafe have a place to go to and a secure person to speak with.
The organisation will also use the 'angel shots' system during school events. Students who feel unsafe can order a fake drink at the bar and trust that the person behind the counter will understand it as code for needing help.
Schools will also set up investigation units, which will be free, confidential, and available to victims. The goal will be to encourage victims to file complaints, as well as to collect testimonies and reports. The units will offer students with legal, medical and psychological assistance.
Despite previous actions by the State to combat sexual assault in France's universities, the problem has persisted. As a result, in 2021, the Ministry of Higher Education launched the multi-year plan (running until 2025).
The program was given a total budget of €7 million, which has now been doubled to €14 million.
The plan includes 21 measures, several of which were already taken up this past year. The steps are structured around four primary areas: widespread training of staff and students to respond to sexual assault, the reinforcement of reporting mechanisms, communication campaigns to spread awareness about consent and reporting mechanisms, and finally the promotion of student and staff commitment to combat sexual assault and gender-based violence on campuses.
In June, the public prosecutor's office for Evry (Essonne) told AFP that it had opened several investigations for rape in the four major French universities of the area, including the renowned establishments of Polytechnique and Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), after receiving "several complaints" of sexual assault.
Sexual assault in France is defined as "any forced sexual contact" and it is punishable by 5 years of imprisonment and a €75,000 fine (Article 222-27 of the Penal Code)"
Neighbouring Spain has recently passed a ground-breaking 'only yes means yes' law on sexual consent, meaning that consent must be affirmative and cannot be assumed to have been given by default, or by silence.
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The campaign is hoping to teach students to: "Ask explicitly and look for an enthusiastic yes; Get into the habit of posing simple questions like 'Do you want to?' 'Can I?' 'What do you like?' and 'What do you want us to experience together?'; Listen to the other person; Respect his or her desires and own limits; and finally, Accept No."
Other prevention actions for the 2022 school year will include training sessions for dedicated anti-assault units in most of France's universities. So far, over 900 teachers, students, and staff across the country have been trained.
Ahead of week-ends d’intégration - or welcome weekends at the start of the school year, which are known for festivities and higher consumption of alcohol amongst the student body - posters with the new slogan "Without a 'yes,' it's off limits" (Sans oui, c’est interdit) appeared across campuses in France to help educate students about consent.
Pour lutter contre les violences sexuelles et sexistes, nous devons développer une culture du consentement.
— Sylvie Retailleau (@sretailleau) October 9, 2022
Le ministère @sup_recherche et l’association Sexe & Consentement lancent aujourd’hui une campagne de sensibilisation en ce sens : #SansOuiCestInterdit 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/T8l0Fi6nsJ
Sylvie Retailleau, the Minister for Higher Education, stressed the importance of such actions in an interview with daily Le Parisien.
The minister explained that about "149,000 students in France are affected by sexual assault or attempted assault" each year.
According to Retailleau, that number represents approximately four percent of the total student body (for higher education) in France.
With the annual budget doubling from €1.7 to €3.5 million per year, Retailleau intends for associations, such as the "National Association for Student Athletics" (Anestaps) to receive more grant money to help sexual assault prevention.
The consent awareness campaign will also partner with websites like Konbini to reach students online. Informative videos with advice and testimonies from students, as well as a consent quiz (consentest) will be posted across social media to help educate young people across the country.
Additionally, Anestaps will set up "safe spaces" during onboarding festivities and welcome weekends, to ensure that students who have been harassed or feel unsafe have a place to go to and a secure person to speak with.
The organisation will also use the 'angel shots' system during school events. Students who feel unsafe can order a fake drink at the bar and trust that the person behind the counter will understand it as code for needing help.
Schools will also set up investigation units, which will be free, confidential, and available to victims. The goal will be to encourage victims to file complaints, as well as to collect testimonies and reports. The units will offer students with legal, medical and psychological assistance.
Despite previous actions by the State to combat sexual assault in France's universities, the problem has persisted. As a result, in 2021, the Ministry of Higher Education launched the multi-year plan (running until 2025).
The program was given a total budget of €7 million, which has now been doubled to €14 million.
The plan includes 21 measures, several of which were already taken up this past year. The steps are structured around four primary areas: widespread training of staff and students to respond to sexual assault, the reinforcement of reporting mechanisms, communication campaigns to spread awareness about consent and reporting mechanisms, and finally the promotion of student and staff commitment to combat sexual assault and gender-based violence on campuses.
In June, the public prosecutor's office for Evry (Essonne) told AFP that it had opened several investigations for rape in the four major French universities of the area, including the renowned establishments of Polytechnique and Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), after receiving "several complaints" of sexual assault.
Sexual assault in France is defined as "any forced sexual contact" and it is punishable by 5 years of imprisonment and a €75,000 fine (Article 222-27 of the Penal Code)"
Neighbouring Spain has recently passed a ground-breaking 'only yes means yes' law on sexual consent, meaning that consent must be affirmative and cannot be assumed to have been given by default, or by silence.
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