[Applause]
Swedish law and rape is about to be
changed so what that’s happened before
even in recent years anything special
this time or is it just another cosmetic
adjustment no this time is special most
of us have heard the expression no means
no well the present Swedish law on rape
doesn’t even state that a no is enough
only if special means threat or violence
or a particularly vulnerable situation
can be shown a sexual assault
constitutes a rape but victims are often
in a stage of frozen fright so no
violence or threat is needed out of some
6000 reports of sexual assault a year
only about 200 lead to conviction this
new law relies on the revolutionary idea
that sex should be consensual yes means
yes if you will the idea that consent in
words or deeds is required when you want
to have sex with somebody this sounds to
me and I think to most people as a
perfectly adequate demand that should be
spelled out in law I have called for a
change to a concept based law for many
years now together with many others in
recent years with a fabulous young
people of the Fatah organization until
now these efforts have met opposition by
politicians and not least by lawyers
with our humans that have been served by
ax stand illogical that as an old
I’m genuinely happy to live to see this
happen the die-hard resistance hasn’t
only surprised me but it has also
convinced me that the law on rape has to
be reshaped sexual integrity needs legal
protection based on current knowledge
not on yesterday’s ideas of our men and
remember when Neil Armstrong stepped out
of the lunar module that day in July
1969 and stepped onto the moon a small
step for a man a giant leap for mankind
Armstrong said well a giant leap for
mankind at least for the part of it here
in Sweden it will mean when we change
our rape law to a consent based law a
law stating that sex without consent
constitutes a criminal offense
now isn’t that exaggerating it a little
no not at all it’s a rethinking of the
whole issue of sexual behavior it will I
am convinced have a strong impact on
attitudes as had the law forbidding use
the use of violence in the upbringing of
children in the late 1970s I think I
understand now why it’s been so
difficult to reform our sex law the
conceptions of how men and women act
when it comes to sex and what
responsibilities men and women have in
that area are deeply anchored in most of
us men and women young and old our
present law mirrors these conceptions
as did previous Swedish laws and the
same goes for other countries to propose
a law that goes against those kinds of
conceptions is bound to fail according
to all logic we tend to just know how
things are we don’t have any doubts and
we don’t really care what research much
show or what real-life much might reveal
you don’t have to go back to the Bible
where Eve took a bite of the Apple and
thus led Adam and mankind into sin going
back to the time of our
great-grandparents we’ll do some time
ago I watched a TV program about a
Swedish actress who got professional
help to find her ancestors one of the
women that was found in old documents
was a maid who had worked served on a
farm where the employer had made her
pregnant
she gave birth alone in a cabin in the
woods
and she cut off the umbilical cord and
she choked the baby with her Brown under
scratch she was caught by the police
found guilty of infanticide and
sentenced to two years of hard labor she
served it in solitary confinement in a
prison full of women convicted of the
same crime what about the man he who we
must assume had used the woman for his
own pleasure
he who seemingly took no responsibility
for the consequences of his actions
no shadow fell upon him nor did any
shadow fall upon any of the other men
who had destroyed the lives of her
fellow prisoners they went on with their
lives and nobody even thought of making
them responsible for what they had done
innocence the outlook that has guided
mankind is this the woman is responsible
for what happens during and as a
consequence of sex the rule that will be
enforced in Sweden means a radical
change of this basic notion the simple
but revolutionary new impact of the law
is this every adult individual bears the
full responsibility for what he or she
does when it comes to sex
it means a fundamental switch from a
legal position that in fact accepted the
superiority of the physically stronger
over the physically weaker may the we
we live in a century that in many
respects has reached far from the stage
of primitivity well we do have terrible
conflicts going on in many parts of the
world but we claim to have realized and
we have stated in numerous documents
that all human beings are of the same
value regardless of ethnic background
etc apart head in South Africa was
globally and successfully fought but
women are to this day a suppressed
category in many parts of the world they
are treated as second-class citizens we
do not combat that suppression with
sanctions as we and many other countries
did the poor tight and in Sweden known
as one of the world’s most gender equal
countries there has been this hard
resistance against letting the lack of
consent constitute a rape well it can
seem that there is much to lose for men
with such a law the right to exert their
sexual circle needs at their own
pleasure
the right not to have to take
responsibility the right to display
their maleness without regard to
individuals incapable of resisting them
physically the right to disregard the
possibility to cause a pregnancy the
right to disregard the consequences of
that to let the woman subject herself to
an abortion that is if she lives in a
country such as Sweden where abortions
are legal and not in many of the other
countries where she would have to commit
a crime and be said punished in short
the right for a man to have a woman bear
the consequences of his unprotected
just like that maid had to bear the
consequences of her employer’s abuse of
power she who killed a baby in despair
and was sentenced to hard labor but a
consent based law will I am convinced be
for the better for all it will guide
young people to sex without misuse of
power help them not to cause harm
show them how sex can give their lives
new deep dimensions and make them
responsible and loving parents to
children that are the result of love
of course laws can be violated of course
there will be cases of sexual assault in
Sweden even with the consent based law
of course there’ll be cases where the
perpetrator is acquitted due to lack of
evidence but without such a law it’s
often not even possible to take action
against the perpetrator without such a
law the state in practice acknowledges
the right of the physically stronger so
to all men who until now have not
accepted such limits and to the vast
majority of men who themselves have
never committed sexual abuse and to
women who might have been inclined to
blame the victim and excuse the
perpetrator I say this it’s time to
climb out of the lunar module and show
your approval of this statement of the
fundamental right of sexual integrity
this is no small step we all take a
giant leap into a new better world thank
you
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music] you