Ciivise says only 28% of its child protection measures fully effective, calls to 'step up a gear'

Context of a 'mass crime'

The Ciivise was created after the 2021 publication of Camille Kouchner's book La Familia Grande, which triggered a national reckoning on incest. The independent commission gathered testimony for two years before issuing 82 recommendations in late 2023. It describes child sexual violence as a "mass crime": according to its figures, 160,000 children fall victim each year, and one child is sexually assaulted every three minutes. The evaluation released Monday comes amid public pressure heightened by the Lyhanna case, where an 11-year-old girl was murdered after years of abuse.

Implementation scorecard

Of the 82 recommendations, 62 (75 percent) are at some stage of implementation, but only 28 percent are fully effective – a rate the commission calls "unsatisfactory." Among the 17 measures it had flagged as priorities, just three are fully operational. Recommendations that remain unapplied include making incest a specific criminal offence, guaranteeing disciplinary immunity for professionals who report abuse, prohibiting an aggressor from recognising a child born of rape, and declaring sexual crimes against minors imprescriptible. The commission also notes that the cousin is still not included in the definition of incestuous sexual assault.

Justice: the 'major delay'

The report identifies a "persistent gap between child protection needs and the judicial response." Only 27 of the 41 justice-related recommendations are in force; the rest are still under discussion or simply not acted upon. The Ciivise points to the continued prosecution of the "protective parent" for non-representation of a child after separation, and the absence of a specific offence of incest in the penal code. The commission also regrets that mandatory psychological and paediatric expert assessments are not always carried out by trained and specialised practitioners.

“There is a persistent gap between child protection needs and the judicial response.”

Reaction and next steps

The Ciivise handed its evaluation to Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin and Health and Families Minister Stéphanie Rist at Place Vendôme on Monday morning. It calls on the government to "step up a gear" and provide "appropriate resources by the end of the presidential term." The commission also urges an inter-ministerial training plan for state employees to better identify intimate violence, noting that incest is rarely covered in current training. The report lands as a group of MPs prepares a draft law on the issue.