How to better protect children? Three months after the shock of the Sauvé report on acts of child crime in the church, the issue of child violence should again come back to the table. The organization #WeToo, whose objective is to fight against the mistreatment committed against the youngest, is organizing a "crisis meeting" in the National Assembly on January 11, in order to mobilize the various actors concerned, announced on Saturday its founder, Hannah Dam-Stockholm. This NGO, based in Paris, but also in Switzerland, has the ambition to fight against child abuse at a global level.
"According to Unicef, 55 million children are victims of abuse in Europe, or 1 in 5, and a billion are in the world, or 1 in 2. In France, 160,000 children are victims of assault. sexual and only 8-10% of them who have spoken are protected each year.
This is unacceptable, ”notes the founder.
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For this Danish-born, it is absolutely necessary "to react together: NGOs, police, gendarmerie, magistrates, education, etc."
”And obtain“ a commitment from the State ”.
The purpose of the January 11 meeting is to forge partnerships between the various stakeholders, after the shock of the Sauvé report on acts of child crime in the church (Ciase), but also the first opinion of the Independent Commission against incest (Ciivise), on October 27th.
The CIASE and CIIVISE reports of October 2021 established that 160,000 children are victims of sexual abuse each year in France alone!
1/3 # wetoo #wetoostopchildabuse #stopchildabuse #timeisup #protectiondelenfance pic.twitter.com/g28Hf7qQ8f
- #WeToo (@ wetoostopchild1) December 8, 2021
"Our project is to bring together the greatest experts, to introduce another culture of protection and to develop new standards of legal procedures and investigation on these facts for which children are not believed", insists Hannah Dam-Stockholm .
A "delay" on these questions in France
She points out that many studies have found that only “1 to 5% of children lie”.
For her, “the denigration and trivialization of children's words” further “reinforce the trauma resulting from the violence”.
The founder of #WeToo believes that in France “there is a delay in addressing the situation”.
How to explain it?
She attributes it to three "historical" factors: "the delay in the development of gender equality", "the liberation of morals in the years 1970-1980 which allowed intellectuals to justify pedophilia in public" and "The Outreau affair" where during his hearing before the parliamentary commission of inquiry, "Dr. Paul Bensussan delivered a long plea against the word of the child".
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“It is often said that the truth comes out of the mouths of children.
But in court, this truth is not very popular in France.
Today systems are designed to protect the abuser, to ignore crimes like sexual abuse.
Unfortunately by this process, the child victims are abandoned ”, she continues.