A packed room.
A majority of women but also young men, adolescents, dozens and dozens of former victims of sexual violence.
This Thursday, at the Palais de la Femme (Paris XI), on the occasion of the first Parisian public meeting of the Ciivise (Independent Commission on incest and sexual violence against children) created in January 2021 after the wave of shock of "La Familia Grande", Camille Kouchner's book, more than 200 people still traveled, after Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), Bordeaux (Gironde), Lille (North) or even Avignon (Vaucluse) to testify, again and again, sexual violence and rape suffered, their need to speak and the need to act to better protect children.
For more than two hours, as at every meeting, many people spoke, publicly confiding, sometimes in tears, before the members of the Commission co-chaired by the judge for children Édouard Durand and the director of the medico-social establishment Nathalie Matthew.
“Once again, the victims have spoken.
It is both beautiful and terrible.
These speeches are always moments of solidarity”, reports Arnaud Gallais, victim of incest and member of the commission.
160,000 child victims each year of incest in France
“In less than five months, since the installation of the commission, we have collected 10,000 testimonies, announced judge Édouard Durand before the meeting.
We wondered how these meetings were going to go, but some people sometimes travel hundreds of kilometers to come and talk to us.
According to the Ciivise, 160,000 children are victims of incest each year in France.
By 2023, the commission must establish public policy recommendations in order to develop a new law.
It will make “intermediate conclusions” within a few weeks.
It should in particular ask for the – temporary – suspension of parental authority as soon as an investigating judge is seized of a case of sexual violence against a minor, but also the systematic withdrawal in the event of a conviction.
“Currently, these decisions are too rarely made.
French society retains a heritage vision of parental authority,” said judge Édouard Durand.
Clearly, at present, some minor victims are still under the control of their attacker, for an administrative signature for example.
Among the other avenues of work: the question of prevention, care, reparations for victims and the training of professionals, judges and police.