'We Believe You,' Macron Tells Family Abuse Victims

After a national outpouring, France to screen every child
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 23, 2021 4:45 PM CST
'We believe you,' Macron Tells Family Abuse Victims
A signs on a wall in Paris reads "Duhamel, and the others, you will never be in peace" referring to prominent French political expert Olivier Duhamel. His stepdaughter, Camille Kouchner, has accused him of abusing her twin brother as a child.   (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Amid a national French reckoning with sexual abuse of children by family members, President Emmanuel Macron told victims Saturday: "We believe you. You will never again be alone." The French government pledged on Thursday to toughen laws on the rape of children after an online movement saw hundreds of victims share accounts about sexual abuse within their families over the past week, the AP reports. In a video message posted on social networks Saturday, Macron promised sexual abuse screening and prevention meetings with every child, both in elementary school and middle school. He said that the state health care system would finance psychological treatment for children who are victims of sexual violence, and that more should be done to address the problem.

"Shattered lives in the sanctuary of a child's room. Stolen childhoods during family vacations, or times that should have been innocent," Macron said. "These testimonies, these words, these cries, no one can ignore them anymore. Against sexual violence against our children, it is now up to us to act." The World Health Organization says international studies show that 1 in 5 women and 1 in 13 men report having been sexually abused as a child, though experts say abuse is likely to be underestimated. The outpouring of testimonies in France under the hashtag #MeTooInceste comes in the wake of child sex abuse accusations involving a prominent political expert. That has also unleashed a wave of accounts by men revealing long-secret memories of abuse by other men under the hashtag #MeTooGay.

(More France stories.)

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