Spain's 'only yes is yes' consent law approved by parliament

On 25 August 2022, Spain's Congress of Deputies gave final approval to the Organic Law on the comprehensive guarantee of sexual freedom, widely known as the "only yes is yes" law. It took effect in October 2022 after publication in the official gazette.

The reform, driven by the Equality Ministry under Irene Montero, made the absence of freely given consent the core of the definition of sexual assault. It removed the legal distinction between "abuse" and "assault", which had depended on proof of violence or intimidation. The change followed public anger over the La Manada case, in which five men who assaulted a woman at the 2016 San Fermín festival in Pamplona were first convicted only of the lesser offence of sexual abuse. Mass protests followed, and the Supreme Court later upheld convictions for rape.

The law also introduced measures such as support centres for victims. It later became controversial, because some sentence reductions were applied to convicted offenders under the new penalty ranges. Parliament amended the law in 2023 to address this.