a report addresses 50 recommendations to better address sexual and gender-based violence within military institutions

After a series of testimonies reporting sexual and gender-based violence in the armies, Minister Sébastien Lecornu launched an inspection mission. Franceinfo exclusively attended the presentation of the report to more than 700 military executives on Tuesday.

The meeting was held by videoconference on Tuesday June 11 at 11 a.m. In a small room at the Ministry of the Armed Forces, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, Sébastien Lecornu, his closest advisors and the three “inspectors”, came to present them with the conclusions of a 154-page report drawn up in barely a month and a half . In this report, the inspectors address 50 recommendations to better take into account internal reports, support victims and prevent actions, starting with military schools.

On the other side of the screens, 700 military executives, including the first of them, General Thierry Burkhard, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces. Before giving the floor to the inspectors, the Minister of the Armed Forces insisted: “A certain number of serious facts have come to our attention, through the press and through hierarchical channels. We have nothing to hide, we owe total transparency.” Sébastien Lecornu refutes the idea of ​​systemic sexual and gender-based violence in the army, and “fears an amalgamation between individual excesses and the failings of an institution”.

In his mission letter, on April 12, the Minister of the Armed Forces hoped that this report would lead to “improving support for victims and affirming a ministerial desire to be irreproachable in the treatment of sexual and gender-based violence”.

At the end of a month and a half of work, the 154-page report, to which franceinfo had access, provides a sometimes harsh inventory of sexual and gender-based violence in the military world. “We cannot deny that there are still dysfunctions in the detection of sexual and gender-based violence, hesitations in their treatment when it is not a lack of understanding of what they cover”write the three inspectors – a general of the gendarmerie, the general surgeon of the armies at the army health service and a general armaments engineer.

In 2023, 226 reports were reported to the Thémis platform out of a population of 200,000 military personnel. “This is little”say the inspectors who point out the lack of freedom of speech among the victims, which they explain in particular by the fact that “two thirds of those questioned within the ministry think that reporting acts of sexual and gender-based violence could harm their professional career”or even by the fact that “to denounce is to betray the group”.

In 2014, systems were put in place. But, observe the inspectors, “recent denunciations of sexual and gender-based violence within the ministry, particularly in the armies, are causing confusion and raising questions [leur] efficiency. They sow doubt when they highlight testimonies that we were unable to hear, sanctions that were not up to par, victims who were not supported. They hurt when they lead to evoking a law of silence specific to the military community whose command would tolerate contempt here and there.” For the college of very senior officers, the failings relate in particular to supporting the lack of denunciation of the facts to the courts by hierarchical superiors.

“The relationship (of the hierarchy) to the judicial authority remains too distant”, we can read in the report. In 2023, in the Army, only 19 reports to the public prosecutor’s office were made (the “articles 40”). Inspectors note a significant progression in 2024 – 26 reports between January and May, while Sébastien Lecornu sent directives in March.

Questioned by executives by videoconference on Tuesday, Gendarmerie General Bruno Jockers, one of the three authors of the report, specified the cases in which reporting to the courts was not up for debate. To franceinfo after the meeting, he said it again: “When you have an incident with physical contact, by a person in authority or in a group, it is serious. And when you have a serious incident and the victim’s story is coherent, that means that you have a degree of plausibility and the two together inevitably lead you to a denunciation to the public prosecutor’s office.”

“We must tell victims ‘have confidence’adds Bruno Jockers. If there is one place in France where people have confidence in their hierarchy, it is the armies. And you have a duty to report because you are a victim but also because there may be other victims, so do it for yourself, do it for others and do it for the armies.”

In its report, the fact-finding mission is uncompromising with the disciplinary treatment of perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence within the armies, which it judges “not framed”with notably “obvious errors of assessment” like the “days off” for rape. “The presumption of innocence, in the eyes of certain leaders, continues to prevail over precautionary measures (suspension, automatic transfer, removal) which are nevertheless necessary.”

The inspectors therefore draw up a list of 50 recommendations. For the soldiers involved: suspend them as soon as credible facts are attributable to them, for example; but also at the address of their hierarchy, by sanctioning a leader who would have “demonstrated negligence in the treatment of sexual and gender-based violence”. For the inspection mission, we need better reporting of reports, and “sexual violence observation cell” which would make it possible to analyze the phenomenon. “There are very positive things being done within the Ministry of the Armed ForcesGeneral Jockers assures franceinfo, but each victim’s testimony reminds us that we must do better.”

“We must do better in terms of supporting victims, in the way we sanction perpetrators, we must show more transparency and we must be better at prevention.”

Bruno Jockers, inspector general of the armies – gendarmerie

at franceinfo

The inspectors recommend, for example, taking action against the consumption of alcohol in military areas. Particularly in schools, where the discourse must infuse. “Schools are where we train our future executives,” explains Sylvie Perez, doctor general of the armies, inspector general of the army health service and co-author of the report. “It is necessary for them to be aware of these questions. They are young generations who come from civil society, from a world where things relating to the sexual question are sometimes very liberated and at the same time they come of a world where individual freedom, respect for everyone is an imperative. These two things intersect and are sometimes very difficult to manage at an age when they are being developed. We must be particularly vigilant in terms of training, so that they do not find themselves in a situation of committing acts of which they are sometimes unaware of the seriousness.”

At franceinfo, Minister Sébastien Lecornu speaks about a report “percussive, strong, quite unique and original”. In the coming days he will send an instruction to “to establish an ambitious timetable for the immediate implementation of the main recommendations”, explains those around him. A few minutes before, to the 700 military executives who were listening to him remotely, he had concluded firmly: “The report must be followed up with effects. We are not going to spend our lives asking for reports.”