Agen (AFP)

Former Socialist Minister of Justice Élisabeth Guigou took the head of an independent commission on incest and all sexual violence against children on Thursday, a much-awaited body for victims and associations for the defense of minors.

"Élisabeth Guigou is a figure of authority, she has a solid political experience and knows the institutions well", presented to AFP the Secretary of State for Children and Families, Adrien Taquet, who had announced this summer the creation of this commission to "break the last of the taboos", that of violence in the family circle.

Welcoming a personality who "got involved on the side of the victims, especially when she was Keeper of the Seals", Mr. Taquet considered that she "will know how to grasp this serious and profound subject".

Minister of Justice from 1997 to 2000 then of Labor from 2000 to 2002, Élisabeth Guigou was then a Member of Parliament.

This figure of the PS had left politics in 2017 after his defeat in Seine-Saint-Denis during the legislative elections.

She heads this commission, independent of the government, for two years, with the ambition "to engage in serious, substantive work and to reconsider all the data" on this societal taboo.

"This subject is much more widespread than one thinks and it is the subject of a great silence", declared Thursday Ms. Guigou, on the sidelines of her first trip.

With Adrien Taquet, she went to the Jean Bru Reception Center, the only institution in France for the support and care of child victims of incest, located in Agen (Lot-et-Garonne).

For nearly two hours, they were able to speak with young girls, residents or former residents of this structure, who shared their journey, their reconstruction, but also their difficulties in revealing the assaults they suffered, to be believed. and benefit from the necessary follow-up.

"Our objective must also be to organize prevention, support for victims and perpetrators, in order to finally better deal with this subject", assured Ms. Guigou.

- Call for testimonials -

Composed of around twenty professionals (magistrates, police officers, psychologists, sociologists, doctors, etc.) soon to be appointed by the president, the committee has a budget of 4 million euros for two years.

No incest victim should be among its members to "work with the necessary hindsight", according to Ms. Guigou who however wishes "to create a liaison committee with association representatives" to be able "to report to them regularly on the work of the commission and solicit them ".

Much awaited since its announcement in August, this body is modeled on the model of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE), chaired by the senior official Jean-Marc Sauvé.

It will focus on incest, which concentrates the majority of cases, but will also concern all other forms of sexual violence against children, especially in institutions (sports federations, schools, leisure centers, within social assistance to Childhood ...), underlined Mr. Taquet.

Its objective is to "break down the last taboo of intra-family sexual violence and more generally to all children", who remain "very difficult to apprehend".

"It is not a political place, it is a place of understanding and listening to the victims", he added.

One of its first actions will be to launch in the first quarter of 2021 a call for testimonies to collect the words of the victims via a dedicated telephone platform.

A first progress report should take place within a year.

Its work is also eagerly awaited because it will have to make it possible to objectify the figures of a reality still unknown and which arouses fear.

According to a recent study conducted by the association Face à inceste, it is estimated that nearly 6.7 million French people have been victims of incest, or nearly one in ten, a proportion similar to that established by other countries, especially the United States or the Netherlands.

In eight out of ten cases, these facts did not give rise to a complaint.

© 2020 AFP