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The Spanish government approved a law on Tuesday to define all non-consensual sex as rape, thereby mandating explicit consent for sex acts.

Vice-President Nadia Calvino and Government Spokesperson Maria Jesus Montero confirmed the approval of the same. This law aims to toughen penalties for sexual harassment and to ban all sexual violence in the country.

The bill, popularly known as the "only yes means yes" law, still needs a parliamentary approval with a vote expected in September. 

Any non-consensual sex will be regarded as aggression under the proposal and can be punished with prison terms of up to 15 years. "Consent is recognized only when a person has freely demonstrated it through actions which, in the context of the circumstances of the case, clearly express the person’s will," the bill says.

The bill also proposes jail punishment for work-related sexual harassment and makes catcalling, sexually harassing a stranger in the street, a criminal offence that can be prosecuted on the evidence of the offended person. Gang rape will also be considered an aggravating factor entailing prison sentences of up to 15 years to deter gang crimes.

The bill also proposes for the creation of a 24-hour sexual assault helpline and specialized children's homes for underage victims.

Previous Provisions

Presently, Spanish law punishes non-consensual sex but it is not clearly codified and relies on evidence of violence or intimidation to decide both whether a criminal act has occurred and the degree of punishment. The government hopes the new bill will remove the need for victims to prove they resisted or were subjected to violence.

As reported by the media, Government spokesperson said that the proposed law is “a decisive step forward” in the protection of women, which “makes us, without doubt, better as a society.” She added “We have to transform our sexual culture, placing women's consent at the center of how we see things.”

She further said, “What the new law does is put the victim at the center of the public response….Silence or passivity does not mean consent,” as per media reports.

Background

The measure comes in the wake of the notorious gang rape of an 18-year-old woman in 2016 during a bull-running festival in the northern city of Pamplona, Spain.

In that case, the five men responsible who called themselves “the wolf pack”, were initially convicted only of the lesser offense of sexual abuse instead of the more serious offence of sexual assault that includes rape, because the court found no proof that they had used physical violence to justify a conviction for sexual assault.

Two of the men filmed the assault, during which the woman is silent and passive, a fact the judges interpreted as consent. The men were sentenced to nine years in prison.

The verdict triggered widespread protests and the defendant's sentences were later increased to 15 years by Spain’s Supreme Court after prosecutors appealed.

This law will bring Spain into line with 11 other European countries that have changed their legal definition of rape to be sex without consent and use similar legal definitions. They include Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Sweden and the UK.