German Justice Minister Hubig backs extending statute of limitations for rape to 20 years

Hubig's intervention comes as the federal government has already agreed to introduce the principle of "Only Yes means Yes" for juveniles in sexual criminal law, a position she announced a few days earlier in Luxembourg. She also said she sees good reasons to extend such a regulation to adults. Under the proposed reform, sexual acts would only be punishable if all participants have expressly consented, shifting the legal standard away from the existing "No means No" rule.

Pushing for "Only Yes means Yes"

Hamburg's Justice Senator Anna Gallina echoed that position at the conference. "Wir wollen das Sexualstrafrecht konsequent weiterentwickeln," she said, adding: "Viele Taten werden auch erst nach längerer Zeit bekannt." Gallina and North Rhine-Westphalia's Justice Minister Benjamin Limbach (Greens) jointly drafted the proposal for the "Nur Ja heißt Ja" rule.

Lower Saxony's Justice Minister Kathrin Wahlmann (SPD) also backs the consent-based approach, seeking to ensure that sexual acts are only considered consensual when all participants have expressly agreed. The principle that "only an explicit 'Yes' consistently protects sexual self-determination," Hubig has argued, is the only way to capture situations in which a victim may be unable to articulate refusal, for example due to shock. "Womöglich aber könnten Betroffene im Zustand beispielsweise einer Schockstarre kein 'Nein' artikulieren," she said.

The 2016 overhaul of Germany's sexual criminal law, prompted by the mass sexual assaults in Cologne on New Year's Eve 2015/2016, enshrined the "Nein heißt Nein" standard. Hubig acknowledged that step as an important first move but said it does not go far enough. "So schütze nur das Prinzip 'Ja heißt Ja' die sexuelle Selbstbestimmung konsequent," she told the RND.

The Wuttke case and reopened investigations

The Hubig-led debate has been amplified by the case of Claudia Wuttke, who has said she was the victim of rape, sexual coercion and sexual assault 67 times over a period of 16 years, most recently in 2021. In November 2025, prosecutors brought charges in only two of the cases, shelving 65 proceedings. Wuttke has personally reviewed each of the 67 files to identify herself and assess what she remembers. She has drawn comparisons to Gisèle Pelicot, calling the French woman a pioneer while saying she does not see herself as a "German Gisèle Pelicot." Investigators have since reopened the 65 discontinued cases, and prosecutors are examining whether further charges can be brought.

Thursday's conference program in Hamburg includes the question of statutes of limitations for rape alongside reforms targeting organized crime. With more than 60 agenda items overall, ministers have submitted roughly 60 draft resolutions in advance. Other topics on the table include personal rights on the internet, simplified inheritance proceedings, the strengthening of the independent bar and the recruitment of young professionals in the judiciary.

Guardians protest on the sidelines

The conference was preceded on Thursday morning by a protest in front of the venue at the Speicherstadt, where around 100 guardians from the Federal Association of Professional Guardians (Bundesverband der Berufsbetreuer*innen) gathered with noise-makers and chants under the motto "Jetzt handeln, sonst bricht Betreuung weg." The association, which represents about 8,000 professional guardians supporting people in need of care, handed Gallina a catalogue of demands before she officially opened the meeting at the former Kaffeebörse. It also plans to deliver a petition signed by 120,000 people calling for the abolition of prison sentences for riding trains without a ticket, a practice that sends roughly 9,000 people to prison each year in Germany.

Hubig's push to lengthen the limitations period would bring rape into line with other grave crimes, which carry a 20-year window. Her argument that many survivors only come forward years after an assault has gained resonance as cases like Wuttke's have shown how mass offending can go unprosecuted under the current rules. Whether the federal and state ministers can reach agreement on the reforms during the two-day Hamburg meeting remains to be seen.