Three months after her appointment to the government of Elisabeth Borne, Charlotte Caubel, Secretary of State for Children to the Prime Minister, announced on Wednesday 21 September several measures intended to fight against incest and sexual violence against minors, which affects 160,000 children each year.
The first consists of the implementation of a major national campaign to combat this violence, which will be launched at the beginning of 2023, according to the entourage of the Secretary of State. The opportunity both to make known to the general public “Manifestations and Consequences” of this violence on the victims, as well as “mobilize the witnesses”. With the objective of breaking the silence that surrounds these situations, which very often take place behind closed doors.
Another announcement: the creation of an advice and support unit for professionals who are recipients of children’s revelations, in order to ” to lean on “ and of “direct them to the system best suited to handle their report”. She will start her work ” as quickly as possible “ideally in early 2023.
Another provision, which will require a modification of the law, is in parallel brought by the Ministry of Justice. This is to provide for the withdrawal in principle of the exercise of parental authority in the event of a conviction of a parent for incestuous sexual violence against his child, “unless otherwise specified by the trial court by special motivation”. At present, this sanction is not systematic. This change has long been demanded by associations that help victims of incest.
A long-term traumatic impact
The accompaniment of the child during the criminal procedure, by associations of assistance to the victims and “with the intervention of an ad hoc administrator, in the event of parental failure”, is also planned. It remains to be seen which legislative vehicle will allow them to come into force.
These measures, the first announced by the new government in terms of sexual violence against minors, are largely inspired by the proposals made by the Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children (Ciivise), set up by Emmanuel Macron. in January 2021. The body, created after the publication of the big family, by Camille Kouchner, who recounts the incest suffered by his brother as a child, has the mission of guiding public policies in the response to be given to this violence.
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