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SCHOOLS

French launches €14m ‘only yes means yes’ campaign on sexual consent

France's higher education ministry has launched a €14 million campaign around sexual consent, teaching students to seek explicit consent for any sexual encounter under the slogan 'sans oui, c'est interdit' (without a yes, it's forbidden).

Published: 10 October 2022 11:43 CEST
French launches €14m 'only yes means yes' campaign on sexual consent
A protester raises her fist in front of a poster reading 'There is a taste of rape when I'm studying at the university' during a demonstration on March 6, 2021. (Photo by Bertrand GUAY / AFP)

The campaign is hoping to teach students to: “Ask explicitly and look for an enthusiastic yes; Get into the habit of posing simple questions like ‘Do you want to?’ ‘Can I?’ ‘What do you like?’ and ‘What do you want us to experience together?’; Listen to the other person; Respect his or her desires and own limits; and finally, Accept No.”

Other prevention actions for the 2022 school year will include training sessions for dedicated anti-assault units in most of France’s universities. So far, over 900 teachers, students, and staff across the country have been trained. 

Ahead of week-ends d’intégration – or welcome weekends at the start of the school year, which are known for festivities and higher consumption of alcohol amongst the student body – posters with the new slogan “Without a ‘yes,’ it’s off limits” (Sans oui, c’est interdit) appeared across campuses in France to help educate students about consent.

Sylvie Retailleau, the Minister for Higher Education, stressed the importance of such actions in an interview with daily Le Parisien.

The minister explained that about “149,000 students in France are affected by sexual assault or attempted assault” each year. 

According to Retailleau, that number represents approximately four percent of the total student body (for higher education) in France.

With the annual budget doubling from €1.7 to €3.5 million per year, Retailleau intends for associations, such as the “National Association for Student Athletics” (Anestaps) to receive more grant money to help sexual assault prevention.

The consent awareness campaign will also partner with websites like Konbini to reach students online. Informative videos with advice and testimonies from students, as well as a consent quiz (consentest) will be posted across social media to help educate young people across the country.

Additionally, Anestaps will set up “safe spaces” during onboarding festivities and welcome weekends, to ensure that students who have been harassed or feel unsafe have a place to go to and a secure person to speak with.

The organisation will also use the ‘angel shots’ system during school events. Students who feel unsafe can order a fake drink at the bar and trust that the person behind the counter will understand it as code for needing help.

Schools will also set up investigation units, which will be free, confidential, and available to victims. The goal will be to encourage victims to file complaints, as well as to collect testimonies and reports. The units will offer students with legal, medical and psychological assistance.

Despite previous actions by the State to combat sexual assault in France’s universities, the problem has persisted. As a result, in 2021, the Ministry of Higher Education launched the multi-year plan (running until 2025).

The program was given a total budget of €7 million, which has now been doubled to €14 million.

The plan includes 21 measures, several of which were already taken up this past year. The steps are structured around four primary areas: widespread training of staff and students to respond to sexual assault, the reinforcement of reporting mechanisms, communication campaigns to spread awareness about consent and reporting mechanisms, and finally the promotion of student and staff commitment to combat sexual assault and gender-based violence on campuses.

In June, the public prosecutor’s office for Evry (Essonne) told AFP that it had opened several investigations for rape in the four major French universities of the area, including the renowned establishments of Polytechnique and Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), after receiving “several complaints” of sexual assault.

Sexual assault in France is defined as “any forced sexual contact” and it is punishable by 5 years of imprisonment and a €75,000 fine (Article 222-27 of the Penal Code)”

Neighbouring Spain has recently passed a ground-breaking ‘only yes means yes’ law on sexual consent, meaning that consent must be affirmative and cannot be assumed to have been given by default, or by silence. 

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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

Factcheck: Is France really trying to ban speaking English at the Paris Olympics?

A resolution by a group of French MPs to 'say non to English at the Paris Olympics' has generated headlines - but will athletes and visitors really be required to speak French?

Published: 3 May 2024 10:10 CEST
Factcheck: Is France really trying to ban speaking English at the Paris Olympics?

In a resolution adopted on Thursday, France’s Assemblée Nationale urged organisers of the 2024 Paris Games, as well as athletes, trainers and journalists, to use French as much as possible.

Annie Genevard, the sponsor of the resolution from the right-wing Les Républicains party, expressed alarm to fellow MPs that “the Olympic Games reflect the loss of influence of our language.”

The French MP’s resolution has garnered headlines, but does it actually mean anything?

Citing examples of English slogans in international sport, she added: “The fight for the French language … is never finished, even in the most official spheres.

“Let’s hope that ‘planche a roulettes’ replaces skateboard and ‘rouleau du cap’ point break (a surfing term), but I have my doubts.”

She’s right to doubt it – in French the skateboarding event is ‘le skateboard’, while the new addition of break-dancing is ‘le breaking‘.

But what does this actually mean?

In brief, not a lot. This is a parliamentary resolution, not a law, and is totally non-binding.

The Games are organised by the International Olympic Committee, the Paris 2024 Organising Committee and Paris City Hall – MPs do not have a role although clearly the Games must follow any French domestic laws that parliament passes.

The French parliament has got slightly involved with security issues for the Games, passing laws allowing for the use of enhanced security and surveillance measures including the use of facial recognition and drone technology that was previously outlawed in France.

So what do the Olympic organisers think of English?

The Paris 2024 organisers have shown that they have no problem using English – which is after all one of the two official languages of the Olympics. The other being French.

The head of the organising committee Tony Estanguet speaks fluent English and is happy to do so while official communications from the Games organisers – from social media posts to the ticketing website – are all available in both French and English.

Even the slogan for the Games is in both languages – Ouvrir grand les jeux/ Games wide open (although the pun only really works in French).

In fact the Games organisers have sometimes drawn criticism for their habit (common among many French people, especially younger ones) of peppering their French with English terms, from “le JO-bashing” – criticism of the Olympics – to use of the English “challenges” rather than the French “defis”.

The 45,000 Games volunteers – who are coming from dozens of countries – are required only to speak either French or English and all information for volunteers has been provided in both languages.

Paris local officials are also happy to use languages other than French and the extra signage that is going up in the city’s public transport system to help people find their way to Games venues is printed in French, English and Spanish.

Meanwhile public transport employees have been issued with an instant translation app, so that they can help visitors in multiple languages.

In short, visitors who don’t speak French shouldn’t worry too much – just remember to say bonjour.

Official language  

So why is French an official language of the Olympics? Well that’s easy – the modern Games were the invention of a Frenchman, the aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin, in the late 19th century.

Some of his views – for example that an Olympics with women would be “impractical, uninteresting (and) unaesthetic” – have thankfully been consigned to the dustbin of history, but his influence remains in the language.

The International Olympic Committee now has two official languages – English and French.

Official communications from the IOC are done in both languages and announcements and speeches at the Games (for example during medal ceremonies) are usually done in English, French and the language of the host nation, if that language is neither English nor French.

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