the government promises “a battle plan” at the end of November

Salima Saa, Secretary of State for Equality between Women and Men, wants to bring together experts and associations to find measures, while an average of 217,000 women are victims each year of rape, attempted rape or rape. sexual assault.

The new Secretary of State for Equality between women and men, Salima Saa, promises a “battle plan” against violence against women. “There is an emergency” on this question, she emphasizes in an interview with Parisian Thursday October 3. “In the coming days, I will launch a government emergency unit to find simple and concrete measures to act quickly”she continues, in a context marked by the murder of the young student Philippine by a suspect already convicted of rape and by the Mazan rape trial.

Salima Saa wants measures to be found for November 25, the international day against violence against women. To do this, she plans to work with parliamentarians and a panel of experts from justice, education, victims’ and feminist or family associations, as well as Spanish experts, whom she describes as “pioneers in the field”.

According to the latest figures from the National Observatory on Violence Against Women, 118 women were killed by their partner or ex-partner and 267 women were victims of attempted femicide in 2022. On average, 217,000 women are victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault every year, according to a victimization survey*. For their part, the security forces recorded in 2022 nearly 240,000 women victims of violence committed by their (ex-)partner (+14% compared to 2021) and 87,000 women victims of sexual violence (+13%) .

Feminist associations regularly urge Emmanuel Macron, who announced that the fight for gender equality and against violence against women would be “a great national cause”to strengthen existing systems and to increase the allocated budget.

In 2023, the State spent nearly 172 million euros to fight against domestic violence, compared to 126.8 million euros in 2019, and 12.7 million for the fight against sexual violence outside the couple, according to the Women’s Foundation. Budgets deemed insufficient by feminist associations, who are demanding a total budget of 2.6 billion euros per year and a “comprehensive framework law” – requests at this stage that have remained a dead letter.

* The national survey “Experienced and felt in terms of security” (VRS), conducted by the Ministerial Statistical Service for Internal Security from 2022 on a sample of around 200,000 people.

Women victims of violence can contact 3919, a free and anonymous telephone number. This listening, information and guidance platform is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This number guarantees the anonymity of people, but is not an emergency number like 17 (or 114 by SMS) which allows, in the event of immediate danger, to telephone the police or gendarmerie.