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Because in the last week, Iceland's parliament unanimously passed new legislation placing the burden of proof for sexual consent on the accused; having sexual relations with any woman is now illegal without definitive proof of their explicit consent. Under the new law, consent must be clearly and voluntarily expressed– rather than the court focusing on whether the victim said ‘no’ or tried to fight back, the accused will now have to prove that the woman consented willingly.

The landmark bill states that:

Any person who has sexual intercourse or other sexual relations with a person without his or her consent shall be guilty of rape and shall be imprisoned for a minimum of one year and a maximum of 16 years.

Consent is considered present if it is expressed by free will. Consent is not considered present if violence, threats, or other unlawful coercion is used. ‘Violence’ here refers to the deprivation of independence by means of confinement, drugs, or other comparable means.

It is also considered rape and shall result in the same punishment as specified in the first paragraph of this Article to employ false pretences or utilize a persons‘s lack of understanding concerning circumstances, or exploit a person’s psychiatric disorder or other mental handicap in order to have sexual intercourse or other sexual relations with him or her, or the fact that, for other reasons, he or she is not in a condition to be able to resist the action or to understand its significance.

Sweden is also radically changing its laws around consent, with the introduction of two new offences, ‘negligent rape’ and ‘negligent sexual abuse’, with a maximum prison sentence of four years, set to be enforced in July; stating that, “It sends out the message that everyone is entitled to control their own sexual engagement and no one can be entitled to have sex with another person under any circumstances without her consent expressed by free will.”

What do you think of this?