They want a surge in the streets.
Tens of thousands of people are expected in Paris this Saturday and in other cities in France to denounce the dysfunctions of justice in the fight against gender-based and sexual violence.
Read also#MeToo: discouragement, isolation, suspicion of lying… five years later, a mixed record for the victims
Five years after the emergence of the #MeToo movement, nearly 90 associations, unions or left-wing parties are calling for a "tidal wave in the street to shout (their) anger".
Faced with sexist and sexual violence, which "finds its roots in patriarchy", "the institutions are not up to the task", denounce the organizers.
“The impunity of the aggressors”
In police stations, courts or within political parties, "the last few months have proven to what extent the voices of victims of gender violence have been called into question", they protest.
“What makes us angry is the impunity of the aggressors and the mistreatment reserved for the victims” when they file a complaint, explains to AFP Maëlle Noir, member of #NousToutes who coordinates the organization of the parades.
See you Saturday, November 19 at 2 p.m. at République in Paris (👇 the course).
The violence being at the crossroads of several oppressions, the head of the procession will be reserved for orgas and racialized, LGBTQIA+, precarious and disabled activists.
pic.twitter.com/3iuUEpNie0
— #WeAll (@WeAllOrg) November 14, 2022
“We are constantly told that justice must do its job, but what job?
We cannot blame the victim for not filing a complaint if she knows that it will lead nowhere, ”protests the activist.
Feminist associations lament the "classifications without follow-up and derisory sentences" decided by the courts and castigate the "gag trials" brought by "powerful, well-known men accused of rape", who attack their accusers for defamation in order to "reduce them to the silence ".
To fight against violence, they demand a public budget of two billion euros per year, but also a "framework law" which would notably establish "specialized brigades and courts", financial aid for the "security" of women victims, 15,000 additional dedicated accommodation places and the strengthening of education in sexual and affective life at school.
In Paris, the procession will leave at 2 p.m. from Place de la République and join Place de la Nation.
Demonstrations are also planned in Marseille, Nice, Toulouse, Lille, Strasbourg, Rennes, Nancy or Dijon, in particular.
In 2021, the mobilization - organized ahead of November 25, the world day for the fight against violence against women - had gathered 50,000 people in Paris according to the organizers, and 18,000 according to the police headquarters.
Already 100 feminicides since the beginning of the year
A year later, the exasperation of feminist organizations is still as strong, fueled by the high number of feminicides - already 100 since the beginning of the year according to an associative collective, against 122 last year according to official figures - , and by the reluctance of the political world to dismiss certain officials accused of violence against women.
Read alsoNearly four rape complaints per day in Paris
However, the facts denounced are increasingly numerous: between 2017 and 2021, the number of rapes or attempted rapes recorded by the Ministry of the Interior doubled, from 16,900 to 34,300. Victims are more likely to denounce old facts, explains the ministry, which also sees in it the sign of the "liberation of speech".
An expression that now exasperates associations, because "women have always spoken, but they are not listened to", points out Maëlle Noir.
In the world of work too, the fight against gender-based violence is progressing too slowly, pointed out the main French unions in a letter sent Thursday to the Prime Minister.
Prevention policies are still insufficient there, and when a problematic case is reported, "instead of suspending, then sanctioning the employee in question, we often continue to move, discredit, even placardize or dismiss the victim", deplore the petitioners.
