France votes on sexual violence bill

Home France To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Cover image: © France 24 04:33 Issued on: 13/10/2026 - 16:29 France’s National Assembly is set to vote on a comprehensive bill to tackle sexual and gender-based violence. The proposed legislation would create specialised police units to investigate sexual crimes, broaden the definition of incest, and introduce penalties for stalking and sending unsolicited explicit images. It also includes school interviews aimed at detecting abuse and violence. If adopted, the law would come into force in 2032. While the bill has broad political support, some NGOs have expressed disappointment with the final draft, arguing that key measures have been weakened or removed, as Luke Shrago explains from the National Assembly. Keywords for this article