These demonstrators responded to the call of several dozen associations this Saturday, November 16 on the Place de la Nation in the 12th arrondissement of the capital.
More than 200 people gathered in Paris on Saturday to say “stop” to violence against children and adolescents, at the call of around sixty associations and unions, noted an AFP journalist. The organizers were hoping for around 500 participants at Place de la Nation.
“I find it unacceptable that we are not with a full place this afternoon. Children are suffering, children are victims of multiple violence and discrimination and we are incapable in France of having a full Place de la Nation,” said lamented Claire Bourdille, founder of the “Enfantiste” collective.
“Society must mobilize against violence against children and adolescents,” she pleaded with AFP, insisting that the protection of children be a subject of the next presidential campaign.
Gatherings were organized in around fifteen other cities (Marseille, Bordeaux, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, etc.), according to the signatories of the appeal, including the Children's Foundation, the FSU and Solidaires unions, or the National Union of Early Childhood Professionals (SNPPE).
All these organizations campaign against “infanticide, incest, child abuse, sexual exploitation and mutilation, mistreatment, forced marriage, ordinary educational violence, intra-family and institutional violence, multiple discriminations and all forms of violence against children.
Associations are asking for more resources
“The speeches and actions in favor of the protection of children and young people are too few,” judge these organizations. However, “80% of sexual violence in France begins or takes place before the age of 18, this concerns 130,000 girls and 30,000 boys per year”.
“A child dies every five days, killed mainly by their own parents. 400,000 children are victims of parental domestic violence, 129 will be orphaned by femicide in 2022,” list the associations.
They consider it “urgent” to put in place a “real public policy” dedicated to the protection of minors and to release “substantial financial resources”.
Sandrine Bouchait, president of the National Union of Families of Feminicides (UNFF) notably requested “the creation of a status for the children of feminicides”, who are “entrusted like bundles of dirty laundry”, sometimes “to the family of the assassin.”
This status, “which would include systematic psychological support over time”, should include the care of minors as well as young adults with “support until independence”.
