Senators approved changes to France’s rape law on Wednesday to include consent, bringing the legislation more into line with more than a dozen other European countries in a move that was given new impetus by the Gisele Pelicot mass rape trial.

French criminal law has until now defined rape as a penetrative act or oral sex act committed on someone using “violence, coercion, threat or surprise”. It did not make clear mention of the need for consent and prosecutors had to prove the intention to rape to secure a guilty verdict.

Last December, Gisele Pelicot’s husband admitted to a court in southern France that he had repeatedly drugged his wife and recruited dozens of men online to rape her while she was unconscious.

At least 35 of Dominique Pelicot’s co-accused denied the rape charges, arguing before the court that they were taking part in a sex game or that Gisele Pelicot was feigning sleep. All were found guilty but their attempts to evade justice shone a spotlight on a grey zone in the law.

The new law, which requires President Emmanuel Macron’s signature before taking effect, states that consent must be “freely given and informed … and able to be withdrawn”.

Consent must be assessed “in light of the surrounding circumstances” and “cannot be presumed from mere silence or the absence of resistance on the part of the victim”, the new law says.