“The merit is in the work, not in the project. » This maxim, which now guides every step of the Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children (Ciivise), is not a simple formula of style but a reminder of the absolute urgency to transform political impulse into real effectiveness.
The Commission, guarantor of the historic promise of the Head of State who affirmed to the victims on January 23, 2021 “we believe you and you will never be alone again”, today designates the gap which still separates the statistical display from the real life of minors. We are now up against the 28% wall – only 28% of the 82 recommendations issued by the Ciivise are today fully effective – and we are demanding clear decisions so that this legacy does not remain an unfinished work.
The protection of a child is a binary value that cannot be approximated; because either this child is put out of danger, or he remains exposed to his attacker.
Systemic deafness
Behind the coldness of our results and the comfort of the figure of 75% of measures implemented fully or partially committed, there exists an unbearable human reality: 160,000 children are victims of sexual violence each year in France, which represents one child attacked every three minutes. This is a reality that administrative reports are no longer able to smooth out.
Faithful to its duty of truth, the Civil Society makes a diagnosis by affirming that the effectiveness of protection is not limited solely to the means of justice, even if this remains the most fragile link in the chain. This observation questions our collective capacity to emerge from a systemic deafness which still too often prevents us from transforming known warnings into immediate protective measures, as the murder of little Lyhanna cruelly reminded us.
The system does not know how to listen because it refuses to imagine the horror, whereas believing the child is not an ideological option but the only reasonable attitude to guarantee its survival.
Out of danger in 24 hours without waiting for criminal evidence
For the Republican promise to become a tangible reality, transformation requires relying on five non-negotiable pillars. The first consists of the creation of the “child safety order”, to allow removal from danger within 24 hours on simple plausibility, without waiting for criminal evidence which is often too slow to gather.
The second pillar is based on systematic and early detection because it is no longer a question of waiting for the child to speak but of allowing him to reveal the violence by inspiring him with confidence. This involves the establishment of a compulsory annual individual interview for each child from the first year of nursery school. This exchange, conducted in a strictly confidential and secure setting, must be carried out by a professional specifically trained in identifying violence against children, whether a doctor, a school nurse, an educator or a social worker.
The interview uses tests and well-being assessment scales adapted to the age of the minor in order to unlock speech from the beginning of the violence. This meeting constitutes a reassuring benchmark and an essential prevention space where the law and the prohibition of violence are reminded to each student.
The third pillar requires full reparation by guaranteeing, through national solidarity, full financing, without any burden for families, of specialized psychotrauma care, in accordance with our recommendation number 62.
Criminal immunity for mothers in struggle
The fourth pillar aims to put an end to impunity and paradoxical injunction by assuming the imprescriptibility of sexual crimes against minors and guaranteeing the criminal immunity of mothers in the fight as well as the disciplinary immunity of reporting professionals. Too many mothers are still prosecuted for failure to represent a child when they try to take their child away from an alleged attacker, even though only 3% of sexual attackers are convicted.
Finally, the fifth pillar concerns the very future of the mission carried out by the Ciivise which can no longer depend on precarious ministerial arbitrations. From October 2026, the Ciivise will leave the exceptional regime which allowed its existence to enter common law. This development must lead to the creation of a permanent and independent heir organization, with legal personality and a clear legislative basis.
This body must have an independent right of public alert and budgetary resources commensurate with this great cause to evaluate public policies, produce epidemiological knowledge and rigorously monitor the execution of the State’s commitments.
The best interests of the child now require concrete actions before the end of the presidential term because we do not protect a child at 28%. The time for diagnosis has passed and the time for effectiveness must happen now so that each child is finally truly made safe.
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