Europe’s top human rights court has slammed France, saying a woman who refuses to have sex with her husband should not be found to be “at fault” in court in a divorce.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday sided with a 69-year-old French woman who was granted a divorce from her husband on the grounds that she was solely responsible for him not having sexual relations with her.
The ECHR unanimously ruled that there had been a violation of women’s right to respect for their private and family life, as part of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The court ruled against France, saying a woman who refuses to have sex with her husband should not be considered “at fault” by the court in a divorce.
The court heard the woman was identified only by her initials HW and said she lived in Le Chesnay, on the western outskirts of Paris. The woman had also sought a divorce, but did not object to the divorce, but rather complained about the basis on which the French court granted the divorce.
The Strasbourg-based ECHR said any concept of marital obligation must take into account “consent” as the basis for sexual relations.
“The court concludes that the very existence of such a marital obligation violates the rights to sexual freedom and bodily autonomy,” the court statement said. “The applicant’s husband could have filed for divorce on the basis of the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage, rather than as an alternative ground, as he did.”
The ECHR held that the national court had not struck a fair balance between the competing interests at issue.
This woman and her husband, JC, got married in 1984 and had four children, one of whom was a disabled daughter who needed to be accompanied by her parents at all times, with her mother taking on that role. was in charge.
When their first child was born, their relationship deteriorated. The woman began having health problems in 1992.
The court heard her husband began physically and verbally abusing her in 2002. In 2004 she stopped having sex with him and filed for divorce in 2012.
In 2019, the Court of Appeal in Versailles rejected the woman’s case and sided with her husband, while the Court of Cassation rejected the woman’s attempt to appeal without providing specific reasons.
She filed this case with the ECHR in 2021.
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Her case is supported by two French women’s rights groups, the Fondation des Femmes (Women’s Foundation) and the Collectif féministe contre le viol (Feminists Against Rape).
In a joint statement when the lawsuit was filed in 2021, the two organizations said, “Marriage is not and should not be sexual slavery.”
French judges continue to impose their “archaic view of marriage,” even though French law no longer mandates a “duty of marriage” and there is no law mandating sexual relations between spouses. , they said.
The group said it was important that French judges do not impose an obligation on women to have sexual relations, directly or indirectly. They believe that if judges let go of the idea that there is some form of “conjugal obligation” in society, this could mean sexual assault within a relationship, when in reality marital rape is a crime in France. He said it could be used as a means of intimidation against criminals and rapists.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
