The highest court of Europe supports a woman who divorced her husband because he stopped having sex with him

The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday ruled against a 69-year-old French woman who divorced her husband on the grounds that he had stopped having sex with her.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in France that a woman who refuses to have sex with her husband should not be considered “guilty” by the courts when it comes to divorce.

Court based in Strasbourg France has violated Article 8 European Convention on Human Rights regarding the right to respect for private and family life.

Any conception of marital duty must take into account the “consent” that is the basis of sexual intercourse, he said.

In his opinion, the court said, “In the view of the court, a marriage agreement cannot imply an agreement for future sexual relations.” News release. “Such an interpretation is tantamount to denying that marital rape is inherently reprehensible. On the contrary, consent should have reflected a free will to engage in sexual intercourse in specific moments and circumstances.”

The verdict came from a panel of seven judges from seven different countries: Spain, France, Armenia, Monaco, San Marino, the Czech Republic and Ukraine.

The mother of four, who wished to remain anonymous, applauded the decision.

“I hope this decision will make a big difference in the fight for women’s rights in France,” she said in a statement. “This is a victory for all women, like me, who, like me, are facing a biased and unfair court decision that calls into question their physical integrity and right to privacy.”

The ruling comes as French society debates the concept of consent.

Women’s rights activists say the concept of “consent” should be added to French rape laws.

The woman did not complain about the divorce, she wanted it, but it was on the grounds that it was allowed, the court.

“Marriage is no longer sex slavery.”

The court identified her only as HW, saying she lived in Le Chesnay in the western suburbs of Paris.

The Court concluded that the existence of such a marital obligation was contrary to the right to sexual freedom (and) bodily autonomy. press release He said from the court.

“Any non-consensual act of a sexual nature constitutes sexual assault,” the statement added.

The Strasbourg-based tribunal said French courts had not struck a “fair balance between the competing interests at stake”.

The court said, “The petitioner’s husband could have filed for divorce, citing the irretrievable dissolution of marriage as the main reason, and not as he did, as an alternative reason.”

The woman and JC got married in 1984 and had four children, including the role taken by the mother of a disabled daughter who needed the constant presence of a parent.

When their first child was born, the relationship between husband and wife worsened. The woman started having health problems in 1992.

In the year In 2002, her husband began physically and verbally abusing her, the court heard.

She stopped having sex with him in 2004 and filed for divorce in 2012.

In the year In 2019, the Court of Appeal in Versailles sided with her husband by rejecting the woman’s complaint, while the Court of Appeal rejected the appeal without giving a specific reason.

In 2021, she turned to the ECHR, which serves as the court of last resort where all domestic legal avenues have been exhausted.

“I couldn’t accept him and leave him alone,” said the woman.

“The Court of Appeal has condemned me as unfit for civilized society because it denied me the right to consent to sexual intercourse and denied me the freedom to make decisions about my body,” she said.

“It strengthened the right of my husband and all married couples to press their needs.”

Her case was supported by two activist groups, the Fondation des Femmes (Women’s Foundation) and the Collective Feministe Contre le Viol (Women’s Rape Against Rape).

Emmanuel Pitt, head of the Women Against Rape Group, praised the court’s decision.

“Mrs. W has spent fifteen years fighting this battle, and it has ended in victory, bravo,” she said. He told Reuters news agency.. When you are forced to have sex within a marriage, it is rape.

Although French criminal justice abolished the obligation to marry in 1990, “civil judges continue to be burdened with an ancient vision of marriage,” he said.

“Marriage is no longer sex servitude,” said Delphine Zoeby, a member of the women’s defense group. “This decision is all the more fundamental because almost one in two rapes is committed by a spouse or partner.”

The ECHR is part of the 46-member Council of Europe. It enforces the European Convention on Human Rights and its judgments are legally binding, not advisory.