The Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children (Ciivise), launched in January 2021 for two years by Emmanuel Macron in order to better prevent sexual violence, better protect child victims and fight against impunity for perpetrators, issued its first three recommendations on Wednesday, October 27, in a report that franceinfo was able to consult. The commission received more than 5,000 testimonies following its appeal, launched on September 21.
Among these 5,000 testimonies, more than a third come from mothers whose children have revealed sexual violence at the hands of their father. “These mothers are suspected of manipulating their child to harm their spouse, accusing them of incest, most often in the context of a separation.” To respond to the alerts of these women, the Ciivise makes three recommendations in its first opinion “to protect children”, explains the report.
Suspend parental authority and visitation rights in the event of legal proceedings
The Ciivise asks in the first place to provide for the automatic suspension of the exercise of parental authority as well as the visitation and accommodation rights of the parent prosecuted for rape or incestuous sexual assault against his child. “There is no greater anguish for a mother than not knowing if, from one day to the next, our children will not be forced to return to live with their abuser”, explains one mother anonymously in this report.
The report points to what the Independent Commission on Incest and Child Sexual Violence calls the “pseudo parental alienation”, a concept born in the 1980s “which gives credence to the idea that, in most cases of conflicting marital separations, the parent with whom the child lives – the mother, most often – washes the child’s brain so that the latter refuses to see his other parent – the father, most often. “ The report continues: “Despite the lack of scientific validation, this pseudo parental alienation has spread very widely in the thinking and practices of professionals.” This has the consequence, according to the Ciivise, of contributing “to the invisibilization of sexual violence against children, just as it makes it impossible to be a protective parent, since the mother trying to protect her child victim of incest is accused of manipulating him”.
Suspend proceedings for non-representation of a child in the event of an investigation
Secondly, the Ciivise recommends suspending criminal proceedings against a parent for non-representation of a child, that is to say the fact of not returning the child to his former spouse in the context of a visit, when an investigation is underway against the other parent for incestuous sexual violence.
“The lawsuits for non-representation of children of mothers who denounce incestuous sexual violence that their son or daughter has revealed reflect the difficulty of society and professionals to take seriously the word of children and that of mothers”, points out the report.
Withdraw parental authority if the parent is sentenced
Finally, the Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children asks to provide, in law, for the systematic withdrawal of parental authority in the event of a conviction of a parent for incestuous sexual violence against his child. “Incestuous sexual violence is clearly an extremely serious transgression of parental authority. It is therefore imperative to draw the civil consequences from the criminal conviction”, estimates the report.
La Ciivise estimates that 22,000 children are victims of sexual violence at the hands of their father each year in France. In 2020, only 1,697 people were prosecuted for incestuous rape of a minor or for sexual assault of a minor. In 2018, only 760 people were convicted of any of these offenses. “These data allow us to assume that the number of fathers prosecuted for incestuous sexual violence is much lower than the number of victims”, concludes the report.