Some 200 people came to take part in this meeting organized by the Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children (Ciivise), responsible for collecting testimonies and advocating prevention policies.
“The consequences of this abuse are unbearable”, confided to the microphone Valérie (1), 39, raped by her stepfather and her mother when she was between 10 and 18 years old.
“I keep apologizing for who I am, I’m afraid of breaking into tiny pieces. I can’t manage to live romantic relationships other than in domination”, continued this woman who did not resolve to file a complaint because she feels “incapable of sending (her) mother to prison”.
All ages
Sylvie, 62, was raped by her father when she was eight years old. “I had to speak in front of you at least once, to come out of the family camera, in memory of the little girl that I was,” she said in front of the attentive participants.
“I was treated like a dirty object, but enough is enough now! “, got carried away Arthur, 22, abused by his uncle at the age of 15, and who is in his “seventh therapy, and it is expensive! »
“I had to speak in front of you at least once, to come out of the family camera, in memory of the little girl that I was”
“The attendance at these public meetings shows that it was necessary, that it meets an expectation in society,” commented the children’s judge Édouard Durand, co-chairman of the commission. The organizers have planned to organize an additional meeting in Paris or in the Paris region in May.
From the very young girl to the septuagenarian, victims tell at the microphone during these public meetings how this violence can “attack the dignity of the subject even in the most intimate spheres of existence”, underlines Judge Durand.
Hundreds of testimonials
“When a victim speaks, it is never trivial, because the aggressor has asked for the secret. By speaking, she betrays a secret, she blows up a family, it’s complicated for her, ”observes Nathalie Mathieu, the other co-chair of the commission.
Judge Durand indicates that he has already received around a hundred testimonies at public meetings and some 10,000 by other means, on the website www.ciivise.fr or by telephone (0805.802.804 or 0800.100.811 for overseas) .
The Ciivise is responsible for developing public policy recommendations by 2023 to protect children, and will issue “intermediate conclusions” this year, at the end of March or the beginning of April. According to its two co-presidents, it will recommend in particular to change the law so that a parent convicted or prosecuted for assault or incestuous rape is automatically deprived of his parental authority.