French President Emmanuel Macron during a speech on January 13.POOL / Reuters
Emmanuel Macron also breaks the silence on sexual abuse of minors in the family.
One week after the launch of #
MeTooInceste
,
the initiative on Twitter that has caused thousands of people to speak for the first time in France about the sexual abuse they suffered as minors in the family, the French president has published on the same social network a video in which he assures these victims that "they will never be alone again."
In addition, it has announced a series of social and legislative measures to prevent and combat this scourge, according to a recent Ipsos survey, 6.7 million people in France have suffered, 10% of the population.
“Currently, the word is released everywhere in France.
In social networks, in books, in the press, the silence built by criminals and successive cowardice finally explode, ”says Macron in a two-minute video in which he evokes the trigger for the end of this
omerta
: the book
La large family
of Camille Kouchner published at the beginning of the year and where the lawyer, daughter of the renowned former minister Bernard Kouchner, recounts the sexual abuse suffered by her twin brother as a teenager by her stepfather, the political scientist Olivier Duhamel, who until the appearance of the The work was an influential figure in the intellectual and political environment of the country.
"No one can continue to ignore those testimonies, those words, those sometimes screams (...) Today we have to act," adds the president in his message of just over two minutes.
Des vies brisées dans le sanctuaire d'une chambre d'enfant.
Des enfances volées lors de vacances en famille, ou de moments qui auraient du être innocents et ont conduit au pire.
Aujourd'hui, the parole is released.
Grace au courage.
pic.twitter.com/etHFUU4eRh
- Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) January 23, 2021
It's not just words of support.
The French president has also announced through the social network a series of initiatives that seek to better punish this crime - which is already punished in France, although according to many experts with too many loopholes, starting with the lack of a minimum age of consent - and also with prevention policies, a key demand from victims' associations and specialists.
As Macron has advanced, primary and secondary students must attend, within the framework of compulsory medical visits for all these students, to two appointments, one in each cycle, for "diagnosis and prevention of sexual violence against minors."
In addition, the president has announced that the State will be in charge of "accompanying the reconstruction" of the victims, assuming the expenses of child psychologists for victims of sexual violence against minors.
On the legal level, Macron has confirmed that he has commissioned his Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, and the Secretary of State for Children, Adrien Taquet, to initiate a round of consultations to “better adapt our right to better protect child victims of incest and sexual violence ”.
Dupont-Moretti himself had evoked it this week in a parliamentary appearance, indicating that his intention was to meet, starting next week, with associations involved in the issue of incest and the release of the word on these abuses to consult above all, the question of the age of consent.
Some are, however, already on the parliamentary agenda and are a sample of the obstacles and disagreements that continue to exist in the matter, especially around the issue of consent, which has already been outlawed due to multiple disagreements to set a minimum age when, in 2018, new legislation against sexist and sexual violence was passed, even though that point was highlighted in the original text.
A new Me Too breaks the taboo of sexual abuse in the family in France
Last Thursday, the Senate unanimously approved a bill that criminalizes any type of sexual penetration of a minor under 13 years of age, although the initiative still has a long and unsafe parliamentary journey.
In fact, in the National Assembly, the macronist deputy Alexandra Louis, who is also leading a proposal to group crimes and sexual crimes against minors and establish incest as a crime of its own - currently it is an aggravating factor - has also announced her intention to present a initiative to set the age of consent at 15 years.
In any case, Macron, although he acknowledges that it is a "complex issue", says he expects proposals "quickly."
The president has also announced two new presidents for the special commission created in December to study the issue of incest and other sexual violence against minors.
The brand-new institution has been one of the collateral victims of the impact of the book
The Big Family:
its president, the former socialist Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou, resigned last week in the face of growing social pressures that emerged since it was revealed that she was a close friend of Duhamel , although she has always denied that she knew anything about the alleged abuse against her stepson.
The commission will now be chaired by two people, the judge for minors Édouard Durand and the director of an association specialized in sexual violence against minors, Nathalie Mathieu.
“Shame changes the field today.
And to you, those who have freed yourself from a burden that you carried for too long, to you who at some point have doubted, I just want to say: we are here.
We listen to you.
We believe you.
And you will never be alone again ”, promises Macron.
