Top European Court of Rights rules over woman’s refusal to have sex and no fault in divorce case

PARIS (AP) – The European Court of Human Rights (ECCH) on Thursday sidestepped a French woman who stopped having sex with her husband, saying she should not have been considered at fault for these reasons for divorce.

The decision involved a defects-based case in which blame was assigned solely to the plaintiff. In 2019, a French appeals court ruled that her refusal to have sex was a violation of a marital obligation and granted the couple a divorce to her detriment.

But the ECHR ruled that the French court was wrong, condemning France for a violation of a woman’s right to respect for private and family life.

“The Court considered that the reaffirmation of the principle of marital duties and the fact that the divorce had been granted on the grounds that the applicant had ceased all sexual relations with her husband constituted interference with her right to respect for private life, his sexual freedom and his right to bodily autonomy,” the court said in a press release.

The applicant, identified as HW, is a French national born in 1955. She had commenced divorce proceedings against her husband for misconduct, alleging that he had prioritized his career over family life and that he had been bad. moody, violent and abusive. They had four children together.

The husband countersued, arguing that the divorce should be granted on the plaintiff’s fault alone.

He claimed that she had failed to fulfill her marital duties for several years and that she had violated the duty of mutual respect between spouses by making defamatory allegations.

After the Versailles Court of Appeal granted the divorce and assigned blame solely to her, the plaintiff referred the case to the ECHR in 2021.

“In the Court’s opinion, consent to marriage could not imply consent to future sexual relations,” insisted the Strasbourg-based Court. “Such an interpretation would amount to denying that marital rape was reprehensible in nature. Rather, consent must have reflected a free will to engage in sexual relations at a particular time and in the specific circumstances. »

The decision came a month later 51 men convicted in France in drug and rape trial This riveted France and stimulated debates about adding the notion of consent to French rape laws.