Sex not part of woman’s ‘marital duties,’ court rules in divorce case

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A Frenchwoman has won a ruling from Europe’s top human rights court, with a panel of seven judges unanimously saying she should not have been blamed in their divorce for not having sex with her husband.

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The divorce was granted in November 2019 by the Versailles Court of Appeal, with the fault attributed to the woman on the basis that not having sex with her husband constituted a “serious and repeated breach of marital duties and obligations, making it impossible to continue in a state of matrimony” the ECHR said.

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In Thursday’s ruling, a panel of judges found “the very existence of such a marital obligation ran counter to sexual freedom.”

“In the Court’s view, consent to marriage could not imply consent to future sexual relations. Such an interpretation would be tantamount to denying that marital rape was reprehensible in nature,” the court said in a statement.

It also noted “the concept of ‘marital duties’ … took no account whatsoever of consent to sexual relations.”

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“It’s not written in the French law that you must have sexual relations when you are married, but judges in France are saying this,” she said. “Now with this decision, they can’t say that anymore.”

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