France: the first recommendations of the incest commission
At the Jean Bru reception center, which offers specific care for children who have suffered from domestic sexual violence, in Agen, December 10, 2020 (illustrative image).
AFP - PHILIPPE LOPEZ
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
The Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children (Ciivise) published its report on Wednesday.
After receiving hundreds of testimonies from mothers and child victims, she calls for three strong recommendations to better protect children.
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Ernestine Ronai is president of the departmental observatory of violence against women in Seine-Saint-Denis. She is also a member of Ciivise, the
Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence against Children
. The report was based on a terrible observation, she explains: “
We have received a lot of letters from mothers who tried to protect their children from an incestuous father and who did not succeed
.
They had lodged a complaint and then nothing. Even worse, we tell them: we must hand over the child after he has made these revelations to the incestuous father, and if she does not hand him over, she risks imprisonment for non-representation of the child. So there is something deeply unfair and very serious.
"
►Also listen: Andréa Bescond: "In the event of incest, the aggressor is often a close person" of the victim
Instead of being heard by the institutions, notes the report, these women are suspected of manipulating their child to harm their spouse, most often in the context of a separation.
A finding that often discourages mothers from taking legal action.
As proof, of the 22,000 children who are victims of incest, only 1,700 mothers take legal action against the violent parent.
Suspend criminal proceedings for "
non-representation of a child
" against a parent who refuses to leave his child to the suspected parent, as soon as an investigation for incest is opened.
This is also the first recommendation of the Ciivise.
Since January, we have received hundreds of messages from mothers - whose child has revealed #SexualViolence from his father - who find themselves accused of manipulating their children.
To protect the mother is to protect the child.
👇Our 1st avishttps: //t.co/pYR7BZOA0m
- Independent Incest Commission (@CIIVISE_contact) October 27, 2021
Suspend visitation rights at the first suspicion
Then, argues Ernestine Ronai, it is necessary "to
protect the child within the framework of a principle of precaution.
That is to say that when there is an investigation in progress - and the investigation may be long -, from the first revelations, that the exercise of parental authority of the parent is automatically suspended. incestuous and that the right to visit and accommodation be suspended.
"
Finally, in the event of a conviction of a parent for rape or sexual assault on his child, or incest, the exercise of parental authority must be withdrawn automatically.
►Also listen: Incest: the law of silence
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