Faced with alerts from mothers, the incest commission wants to change the law

• Launched in March 2021, the Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence against Children (Ciivise) is publishing its first report on Wednesday, which makes three recommendations to "better protect children".

• The commission suggests removing parental authority from a parent when prosecuted for sexual violence against their child.

• The Ciivise also calls for "to suspend criminal proceedings for non-representation of children against a parent when an investigation is underway against the other parent for incestuous sexual violence".

To bring "a rapid response" to the distress of mothers.

Installed in March 2021, the Independent Commission on Incest (Ciivise) is publishing its very first report this Wednesday.

In this fourteen-page document consulted by

, the body makes three recommendations for the government and parliamentarians to better “protect children” and parents who file complaints for sexual violence.

According to Ciivise, a third of the 4,000 testimonies received so far on the dedicated website or the telephone platform * come from mothers who have been "suspected of manipulating their child to harm their spouse by accusing them of incest, most often. in the context of a separation ”.

An "alert" which, according to the Commission, called for a "strong reaction".

"My daughter's safety is at stake now"

To "ensure the safety of the child" as soon as he reports the violence, the Ciivise demands "the automatic suspension" of parental authority but also visitation and accommodation rights for the parent as soon as he is is prosecuted for rape or incestuous sexual assault. But the commission is also taking a stand to further protect mothers who speak out. She calls for the systematic suspension of criminal proceedings for "non-representation of children" against a parent when an investigation for acts of incest is underway against the other legal guardian. According to data from the Ministry of Justice, convictions for this type of incident concerned mothers in 80% of cases in 2019. Conversely, according to a note from the ONDRP (National Observatory on Delinquency and Criminal Responses) , on the 6.737 people accused of incestuous sexual violence between 2016 and 2018, 95% were men.

Charlotte *, 31, mother of a six-year-old girl, is now the subject of a complaint for "non-representation of children". In the winter of 2019, his “world collapsed”. Her daughter, then aged 3, described to her mother a scene of sexual assault imposed by her father. After several reports to the prosecutor by the doctor treating her daughter then by a psychologist and after a complaint filed by Charlotte, the investigation against her ex-spouse was closed after two years of investigations. "The facts were insufficiently characterized, according to the prosecution," explains Charlotte who appealed against this decision.

After this classification, the family affairs judge (JAF) orders the child to be returned to his father every other weekend and half of the school holidays.

A decision "incomprehensible" for Charlotte, who refuses to entrust her child to her ex-spouse.

“My daughter's safety is at stake now.

I am not questioning the existence of this crime of non-representation of children, but in situations where there are suspicions of sexual violence, it is unfair and it backfires against the parent who tries to protect his child. child, ”breathes the thirty-something.

70% of complaints dismissed

Like Charlotte, Agnès * went through the same situation in 2014. “A year earlier, my daughter had confided in her mistress. She had mentioned her father's inappropriate actions and the mistress had reported the facts to the prosecutor, ”she explains. A complaint from Agnes was filed in the wake and an investigation opened. Investigation which will be closed without follow-up, lack, again, of sufficiently characterized elements. In cases of incest, this outcome is particularly common, recalled Edouard Durand, president of Ciivise and children's judge in Bobigny, since such a decision is made for 70% of complaints.

Refusing to maintain the joint custody set up before the facts, Agnès was the target of a complaint for non-representation of children.

After an appearance before the criminal court in September 2014, she was sentenced to three months suspended prison sentence, 2,000 euros in damages and 1,500 euros in fines.

"In his indictment, the prosecutor said that I confused protection and stubbornness, while there was an investigation in progress," laments the young woman.

For the Ciivse, this issue of children's residence is "a particularly important source of anxiety" for the mother and places her "in the face of a dilemma: respect the court decision or protect her child, at the risk of being prosecuted" in their turn.

An automaticity that is the subject of debate

Finally, for the Ciivise, in the event of a conviction for incestuous sexual violence, it is "imperative to draw the civil consequences" from this court decision.

The commission therefore recommends a legislative change so that parental authority is "systematically withdrawn" from the perpetrator of the incest after his conviction by a court.

Today, it is difficult to know whether the majority of judges opt for the withdrawal of parental authority in the event of a conviction or not, the figure not being available from the Chancellery.

Especially since incest is, at present, only an aggravating circumstance of a sexual crime before the law, and not

a specific criminal offense.

This recommendation is however considered “problematic” by Katia Dubreuil, general secretary of the Syndicat de la magistrature: “These cases are often terribly complex for justice and I believe that we must be able to retain the possibility of operating on a case-by-case basis. The automatic nature of a penalty runs counter to the individualization of the penalty. "

According to her, to improve the penal response, it is above all necessary to work on improving the training of all the professionals involved in these procedures. Because convictions for incestuous violence remain rare in France. In 2018, 760 people were sentenced for incestuous rape of a minor or for sexual assault on a minor, recalls the Ciivise. That same year, however, 7,260 complaints of sexual violence against minors committed within the family had been registered by the police or gendarmerie. “In order for unsuccessful classifications to decrease, justice must be able to have as much evidence as possible. However, this starts from the first revelations of the child and often intermediaries not trained in sexual violence against minors intervene.This is what we must change, ”she slices.

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