Sexual consent: "Before 15 years, it's no", the call of 164 personalities

It is a legal loophole that has become incomprehensible.

Today, in cases of rape of a minor, child crime or incest, lawyers must provide proof that the child was not consenting.

An aberration denounced for years by associations for the protection of children.

The Matzneff and Duhamel cases revealed to the general public the difficulty for victims to be heard.

And the elected officials finally seized the subject.

Several bills have been examined since the start of the year.

A first, which sets the age of non-consent at 13, was voted in the Senate on January 21.

The National Assembly must vote on February 18 on another law that would set it at 15 years.

On February 9, the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, made a promise: a minor under the age of 15 can no longer be considered as consenting.

Without mentioning the issue of incest, however.

"All of this is going in the right direction, but we must remain vigilant," said Pascal Cussigh, lawyer and secretary of the Children's Collective.

In a forum initiated by Tristane Banon, more than 160 personalities request an additional effort from elected officials: protect children up to 15 years old, and 18 years old in the event of incest.

The call of 164 personalities to defend children

“On January 21, 2021, the Senate adopted the draft bill Billon which aims to set the threshold for the child's sexual non-consent at the age of 13.

In other words, the Senate decided that the act of sexual penetration of any kind between a minor under the age of 13 and an adult would be de facto considered a crime, with no possibility for the adult to defend himself against him. '' an apparent consent, implied or claimed by the child.

This is good, but it is insufficient.

It's good, but it's dangerous.

After having read "La Familia Grande", where Camille Kouchner tells how her 14-year-old twin brother suffered incest from her stepfather, the famous constitutional expert Olivier Duhamel;

after having read "the Consent", by Vanessa Springora, where the young woman tells how she fell at the age of 14 (still) under the influence of the pedophile writer Gabriel Matzneff;

after having read Christine Angot, after having read Catherine Allégret, after having read the tens of thousands of anonymous testimonies which found expression under the now famous hashtag # MeTooInceste…

After victims find the strength and courage to open the eyes of society wide, you who make the laws cannot be the only ones to keep them partially closed.

Obviously, the establishment of a threshold of non-consent set at 13 years is progress, but it is small and incomplete.

Your progress leaves the possibility for a pedophile who rapes a child between 13 and 15 years old, to claim that the child was consenting.

With the possibility of consent, it is the requalification of the act and the reduction of the penalty that follows.

Your progress is meaningless because it does not align the threshold of non-consent with the ban at 15 years imposed by the Schiappa law.

Your progress creates a murky area for crimes against minors 13 to 15 years old, and that murky area, if you can be happy with it, we cannot admit it.

Your progress is absurd because it does not view incest victims as children of their parents, siblings in the grip, and those well beyond your 13-year threshold that would make them fit to consent.

Who can say that he did not remain the child of his legal ascendant until at least 18 years old?

It is only by aligning the threshold for non-consent with the ban at 15 years old established by the Schiappa law that your progress will be real.

It is only by recognizing the impossibility of consenting to incest before age 18 that your progress will be remarkable.

Ladies and gentlemen who make the laws, our hopes were high, your progress is very small.

You brandish in shield the couple that would form this adult of 18 years with a child of 14 years and a half, we want to remind you here that the laws must be made to protect the greatest number and not for phantasmagorical marginal situations.

You cry out that there are legal blocks that would make a 15-year threshold unconstitutional, we want to tell you that it is your job to unblock things.

Ladies and gentlemen who make the laws, Mr. President Emmanuel Macron, Mr. Secretary of State Adrien Taquet,

We former children, us parents, us brothers, us sisters, us family, us friends, us French, us associations, us caregivers, us lawyers, us voters, us… citizens!

We who see the figures: 10% of French people who have suffered incest, six million people;

a minor child raped every hour in France;

one in six or five French people who have suffered an act of pedocriminality, ten million people, ten million French people, it is mass crime we are talking about;

We who want strong laws to deter these unacceptable acts,

All of us, who are signing this petition today, ask you that this non-consent threshold be set at 15 years, 18 in the event of incest.

We cannot be satisfied with your small progress, our expectations are far too high for that.

Tristane Banon, on behalf of the Children's Collective ”

They signed the appeal:

Lionel Abelanski, Sylviane Agacinski, Sophia Aram, Pascale Arbillot, Laurence Arné, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Lisa Azuelos, Maurice Barthélemy, Valérie Bègue, François Berléand, Marilou Berry, Louis Bertignac, Andréa Bescond, Philippe Besson , Juliette Binoche, Serge Blanco, Laurence Boccolini, Sidonie Bonnec, Claire Borotra, Amandine Bourgeois, Anaïs Bouton, Patrick Braoudé, David Brécourt, Zabou Breitman, Carla Bruni, François Busnel, Ivan Calbérac, Isabelle Carré, Clémentine Célarié, Emmanuel Chain, Karima Charni, Anne Charrier, Jérôme Commandeur, Clovis Cornillac, Olivia Côte, Gérémy Crédeville, Michel Cymes, Audrey Dana, Géraldine Danon, Dany Boon, Julie de Bona, Hélène de Fougerolles, Delphine de Vigan, Vincent Delerm, Philippe Delerm, Emilie Dequenne, Didier Deschamps, Claude Deschamps, Alice Dufour, Marc Dugain, Anny Duperey, Thomas Dutronc, Valérie Expert, Nadia Farès, Isabelle Farrugia, Dominique Farrugia, Cyril Féraud, Laurence Ferrari, David Foenkinos, Li lou Fogli, Elodie Fontan, Maud Fontenoy, Sara Forestier, Guy Forget, Déborah François, Guillaume Gallienne, Christophe Galtier, Rudi Garcia, Julie Gayet, Florian Gazan, Arnaud Gidoin, Sara Giraudeau, Bruno Guillon, Guillermo Guiz, Linda Hardy, Jeanne Herry , Clotilde Hesme, Agnès Hurstel, Donel Jack'sman, Catherine Jacob, Jérémie Janot, Jean-Michel Jarre, Jarry, Marlène Jobert, Joyce Jonathan, Arthur Jugnot, Leïla Kaddour-Boudadi, Keren Ann, Tina Kieffer, Richard Kolinka, Françoise Laborde , Philippe Lacheau, Jonathan Lambert, Alexandra Lamy, Chantal Lauby, Benjamin Lavernhe, Jean Le Cam, Anne Le Nen, Baptiste Lecaplain, Patrice Leconte, Philippe Lelièvre, Claude Lelouch, Jean-Luc Lemoine, Pierre Lescure, Manu Levy, Bixente Lizarazu, Camille Lou, Elise Lucet, Olivier Marchal, Anne Marivin, Pierre-François Martin-Laval, Hervé Mathoux, Mathilda May, Radu Mihaileanu, Olivier Minne, Miou-Miou, Clara Morgane, Daniel Morin, Vincent Moscato, Xavier de Moulins, Nagui, Yael Naim, Mélanie Page, Fl orent Pagny, Tanguy Pastureau, Raphaël Personnaz, Laurent Petit-Guillaume, Florent Peyre, Alix Poisson, Alice Pol, Barbara Pravi, Caroline Proust, Yann Queffélec, Cristiana Reali, Ali Rebeihi, Jean-Luc Reichmann, Line Renaud, Jérémie Renier, Muriel Robin, Karole Rocher, Sonia Rolland, Gaëtan Roussel, Aurélie Saada, Ludivine Sagnier, Etienne Saldès, Céline Sallette, Fabrice Santoro, Frah (Shaka Ponk), Sam (Shaka Ponk), Bruno Solo, Claudia Tagbo, Sylvie Testud, Mélissa Theuriau, Laury Thillemann, Philippe Torreton, Mali (Tryo), Daniel (Tryo), Guizmo (Tryo), Manu (Tryo), Vianney, Caroline Vigneaux, Tom Villa, François Vincentelli, Michaël Youn.