LThe cases of accusations of sexual violence follow one another and the trial and error in their management remains. This text aims to clarify what could be a guideline for the fight against sexual violence in politics. It is at least the one to which I am compelled since the Baupin affair. Already, let us remove two ambiguities: the first is that the fight against sexual violence would be purely a fight of women against men. It is much more than that. It is a public health and social issue, a fight against domination.
Indeed, men are victims. They are in the minority in the statistics, but they exist. Then women are perpetrators of sexual violence, they are very much in the minority, but they also exist. The second ambiguity to be resolved consists in distinguishing between stigma on the one hand and the fight against violence on the other. The latter requires rigor and a political outlet (translation in the form of laws, public policies) but not political games (hear “politicians”).
These two ambiguities removed, here are the lines to lay down to build the bases of an effective and fair fight against sexual violence in politics.
First of all, we need a justice endowed with substantial resources. We cannot continue to systematically appeal to justice alone to resolve this violence when it is so under-resourced and the procedures are so long. When victims experience rape or violence, they want above all to move on. Imagining that the slightest procedure can last for years and that they will have to repeat and therefore relive the facts multiple times is a real obstacle to filing a complaint. Rapid procedures, equipped with means and trained personnel, are essential in order to be able to appeal more systematically to justice.
The discipline of rigor
But even if, by fortune, justice were notably more endowed than today, that would not settle everything and, in particular, not the ethics nor the responsiveness essential in politics. The main idea would be to apply to the political world what is obligatory within companies, administrations, universities, etc. and has been for several years. These organizations already have procedures and bodies established by law, such as those known as “modernizing the public service”.
The discipline to which we should subject ourselves in order to get politics out of an area of lawlessness in this area is to put rigor back at the center of the decisions taken. It is only under these conditions that we will avoid deleterious debates, because sterile, on the presumption of innocence, political instrumentalization or hallali.
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