the law must be changed to protect children, according to the chairman of the Independent Incest Commission

“If the law does not change, we will remain spectators of this violence and complicit in the impunity of pedophiles.” The president of the Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence against Children (Ciivise) believes that the law must be changed in order to be able to “today protect children who are raped every day by adults they trust”.

In an interview published Sunday, December 12 by the JDD (subscribers article), Edouard Durand recalls his seventeen years of experience as a juvenile judge: “I have spent a lot of time training professionals, and I have come to believe that this is not enough.”

“Only more imperative legislation will allow real protection of children.”

Edouard Durand, President of Ciivise

to “JDD”

In October, the Ciivise issued in its first opinion three recommendations, “two of which fall under the law”. “Less than a month later, one of them has already been taken up by the executive, in a decree signed by the Prime Minister. From now on, before any prosecution for non-representation of a child, the prosecutor will have to check the allegations by the parent who denounces violence against the child committed by the other parent “, he observes.

“I am hopeful that our other recommendations will succeed, such as the suspension of the exercise of parental authority and visitation rights of the parent prosecuted for rape or sexual assault. Parliamentarians are carrying them.”, he continues. Recalling that 70% of complaints are closed and that there are only 1,000 convictions per year for 160,000 victims, the judge also wants “dissecting the dysfunctions in the chain of reports: from the social service to the school, including the hospital, the investigation, up to the judicial decision”.