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CRIME

France targets incest for first time in national campaign

The French government launched a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of sexual violence against children on Tuesday, for the first time mentioning incest which has been a taboo subject in public debate.

France targets incest for first time in national campaign
A child listens to her teacher in France in 2019 (Photo by Martin BUREAU / AFP)

Messages and videos will be posted on social media and placed in media, billboards and movie theatres. A TV campaign will be broadcast at half-time during a France match at the ongoing Rugby World Cup.

Charlotte Caubel, junior minister in charge of child issues, said she had wanted a hard-hitting campaign similar to those on the  prevention of road deaths that would “punch our fellow citizens in the gut”.

“It’s the first time that the government uses the word ‘incest’ in a campaign, the first time it mentions sexual violence inside families,” she told AFP.

The previous government campaign against sexual violence targeting children dates back to 2002.

‘Everybody’s fight’

An estimated 160,000 children are victims of sexual abuse in France every year, while associations say that one in every 10 adults in France has experienced incest.

“This means you meet people every day who were victims of incest or who committed incest,” Caubel said.

By the end of the campaign “nobody will be able to say ‘I didn’t know'”, she said. “This must become everybody’s fight.”

Incest in France — defined as sexual relations of a person with a parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, sibling or half-sibling — is legal as long as it occurs between consenting adults.

But in case of rape or sexual abuse committed against a minor, courts typically lengthen prison terms if the assault was also incestuous.

Incest is legal in many parts of the world, including several European countries, but illegal in the United Kingdom, most US states, and Australia.

French documentary film makers, writers and actors have recently come out against what they say has been a taboo in France, where incest has often been considered a private family matter.

French actor Emmanuelle Beart was a victim of incest as a child, she said in a documentary to air later this month.

Beart, who has starred in dozens of films and TV productions over the past 50 years, does not identify her attacker in the documentary called “Such a resounding silence”, which includes the stories of four incest victims, as well as Beart’s own contribution.

‘A public problem’

A TV production called “Eyes wide shut” about incest will be broadcast on France’s biggest TV channel TF1 in October.

Also in October a movie, “Consent”, based on the book by publisher Vanessa Springora about how she was groomed by writer Gabriel Matzneff while aged 14, is set for release.

A novel by Neige Sinno, “Triste tigre” (“Sad Tiger”), about the author’s childhood rape by her stepfather, was released this year to strong reviews and picked up a coveted literary prize awarded by Le Monde newspaper.

Edouard Durand, a judge and co-president of the Ciivise association against sexual violence targeting children, called the government’s campaign “brave” and praised it for not downplaying the suffering of children.

He also said it “is crucial that in this campaign the government says that incest exists, and that’s it’s a public problem, not a private one,” he told AFP.

The government has said it will boost funding to support groups helping abused children, while French parliament has begun examining a draft law brought by Socialist lawmaker Isabelle Santiago which would strip anyone found guilty of abusing their child of their parental authority.

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POLITICS

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

New Caledonia's main international airport will reopen from Monday after being shut last month during a spate of deadly unrest, the high commission in the French Pacific territory said, adding a curfew would also be reduced.

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

The commission said Sunday that it had “decided to reopen the airport during the day” and to “push back to 8:00 pm (from 6:00 pm) the start of the curfew as of Monday”.

The measures had been introduced after violence broke out on May 13 over a controversial voting reform that would have allowed long-term residents to participate in local polls.

The archipelago’s Indigenous Kanaks feared the move would dilute their vote, putting hopes for eventually winning independence definitively out of reach.

READ ALSO: Explained: What’s behind the violence on French island of New Caledonia?

Barricades, skirmishes with the police and looting left nine dead and hundreds injured, and inflicted hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

The full resumption of flights at Tontouta airport was made possible by the reopening of an expressway linking it to the capital Noumea that had been blocked by demonstrators, the commission said.

Previously the airport was only handling a small number of flights with special exemptions.

Meanwhile, the curfew, which runs until 6:00 am, was reduced “in light of the improvement in the situation and in order to facilitate the gradual return to normal life”, the commission added.

French President Emmanuel Macron had announced on Wednesday that the voting reform that touched off the unrest would be “suspended” in light of snap parliamentary polls.

Instead he aimed to “give full voice to local dialogue and the restoration of order”, he told reporters.

Although approved by both France’s National Assembly and Senate, the reform had been waiting on a constitutional congress of both houses to become part of the basic law.

Caledonian pro-independence movements had already considered reform dead given Macron’s call for snap elections.

“This should be a time for rebuilding peace and social ties,” the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) said Wednesday before the announcement.

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