Overview
- After Thursday's Bundestag debate, AfD and the conservative Union rejected the Greens' draft, the Left backed it, and committees will now examine the text.
- The bill would rewrite Paragraph 177, Germany’s rape and sexual assault statute, to make any sexual act without a person’s consent a crime, stating that silence or passivity is not consent and allowing consent to be shown by words or clear gestures.
- A new offense of negligent sexual assault would cover cases where a person claims they believed there was consent but failed to check, aiming to address ambiguous situations.
- Critics from the CDU/CSU and AfD argue the change would not resolve frequent he‑said‑she‑said cases in court and could risk a de facto shift in the burden of proof.
- Supporters cite the large gap in justice, noting BKA findings that about 94% of sexual offenses go unreported and that only about one in ten reported cases ends in conviction, alongside rising public support and a petition with more than 130,000 signatures.