The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that a 69-year-old French woman was not “at fault” in her divorce because she stopped having sex.
A woman who was considered “at fault” by the French judicial system for her divorce because she stopped having sex with her husband has won an appeal at Europe’s highest human rights court.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday ruled in favour of a 69-year-old French woman, saying that courts in France had violated her right to respect for private and family life.
The case concerned a fault-based divorce in France in which blame was attributed solely to the woman — identified only by the initials HW — on the grounds that she had ceased to have sexual relations with her husband, according to the ECHR’s ruling.
The woman did not contest the divorce, which she had sought in 2012, but rather complained about the grounds on which it had been granted by a French court.
After several judicial hearings over many years, a French appeals court in 2019 granted the divorce and said that the woman’s “continued failure” to have sex with her husband constituted a “serious and repeated breach of marital duties and obligations”.
“The Court concluded that the very existence of such a marital obligation ran counter to sexual freedom, [and] the right to bodily autonomy, ” the ECHR said in its ruling.
The lawyer for HW, Lilia Mhissen, said the ruling could mark a turning point for women’s rights in France and put an end to women being blamed for divorces in future rulings.
“Courts will finally stop interpreting French law through the lens of canon law and imposing on women the obligation to have sexual relations within marriage,” she said.
The French government has not publicly commented on the ECHR’s ruling.
‘Marriage is not sexual servitude’
The woman and her husband married in 1984 and had four children. One of the couple’s children was disabled, which required H.W. to give her constant care and put additional stress on the marriage, according to the judgment.
The woman said she had stopped having sex from 2004 onwards because of health issues and abuse from her husband.
After exhausting all legal avenues in France, HW took her case to the ECHR in 2021.
The two women’s rights groups who supported her case, Fondation des Femmes (Women’s Foundation) and Collectif Féministe Contre le Viol (Feminist Collective Against Rape), said in a joint 2021 statement: “Marriage is not and must not be sexual servitude”.
The ECHR’s ruling comes a month after the high-profile mass rape trial involving Gisèle Pelicot, whose now ex-husband Dominique was sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugging and recruiting men to rape her without her knowledge for more than a decade.
The trial — which also saw 50 other men sentenced for rape, attempted rape and sexual assault for participating in Dominique Pelicot’s scheme — spurred a national reckoning about the blight of rape culture in France and spurred calls for tougher measures.
ADVERTISEMENTA cross-party panel of French lawmakers this week said the country must change its rape law to include consent. The existing law defines rape as an act committed on someone using “violence, coercion, threat or surprise”, with no clear mention of consent.
