It has been a year since Emmanuel Macron swept into the Elysée Palace on a pro-EU mandate. Yet 12 months on, he and his LREM (La République En Marche) party are in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The French had high expectations of their new president. Not least because he appeared mindful of the changing global landscape that has seen high profile women speaking out about the gross sexual misconduct and violence they experienced at the hands of men; usually in positions of power. Macron therefore set about reforming the country’s sexual offences laws. On the cards are: on-the-spot fines for public sexual harassment and criminalising cat-calling. Offenders can expect to pay anywhere from $110-$920; with this rising to $1,800 in cases of aggravating circumstances and peaking at $3,500 for repeat offenders. Which may or may not be putting a very literal price on sexual harassment. It remains unclear how women would ‘prove’ intimidation or worse in the absence of witness statements. Nevertheless, progress has been made on extending the deadline for reporting rape, increasing this from 20 to 30 years. All of which represents part of Macron’s well-thought out plan to ensure women feel safe in the public sphere. Yet as the bill went to Parliament this week, the president and his government were in for a rude awakening. MPs from his own party want to see no less than 240 amendments. So, where did it all go wrong? France is in the unusual position of being one of the few European countries that does not recognise a minimum age of consent. Article 2 of the new legislation sets this at 15 years. Yet under French law, “rape” is defined as “any act of sexual penetration, of any nature, committed on someone with violence, coercion, threat or surprise”. Article 2 does not do away with such conditions to proving rape when it comes to minors. All it provides is that the aforementioned may be “characterised by the abuse of the victim’s vulnerability, who doesn’t have the necessary discernment to consent”. In short, the proposed new legislation fails to recognise that a minor by definition is unable to consent to sexual relations. This is a major set-back for the rights of the child. For it places on the latter the responsibility to prove rape; and even then, this would be open to interpretation by a sitting judge in the event that such cases go to trial. To be sure, as things currently stand, France risks strengthening the hands of predators who could be charged with the lesser crime of sexual offence. What is therefore needed is an automatic conviction of rape when it comes to any kind of relations with a minor. This is something that the French citizenry, for the most part, are urging. More than 250 professionals from the fields of psychology, law, academia, social rights, feminism and science have signed a letter demanding that Article 2 be scrapped. Indeed, some 100,000 individuals have signed a petition calling for the same. Parliament has granted them their wish. Yet it is the French child who loses out on all counts. * Published in Daily Times, May 18th 2018.