Examination of the comprehensive bill against gender-based and sexual violence in the National Assembly

A long text and less than ten days to examine it. After its adoption by the special committee at the end of September, the deputies will examine, from Thursday October 1, the bill providing a comprehensive response to gender-based and sexual violence against women and children. Inspired by the 140 proposals formulated at the end of 2024 by a coalition of associations and unions, the text proposes to reform justice, but also health, education, work, immigration or the rules governing online content.

But its adoption remains uncertain, given the timetable imposed by the presidential election: parliamentary work must end on February 28 to make way for the campaign. Hoping to add one last major reform to its record, the government has initiated the accelerated procedure on the text, which will be examined by the Assembly until October 9, before landing in the Senate. “We have to achieve something before the end of the mandate, otherwise we risk losing ten years on these questions,” says Macronist MP Christopher Weissberg, who chaired the special commission. The elected official fears in particular the possible victory of the National Rally, which abstained during the vote on the text in committee, in the presidential election and the likely legislative elections which will follow.

“Parliamentarians are waiting for the government to turn the corner”

After the Pelicot, Le Scouarnec and Lyhanna affairs, parliamentarians know that they are being closely scrutinized on the "great cause" of Macron's five-year term. In committee, everyone praised the quality of the transpartisan work carried out, allowing a consensus to emerge. The remaining disagreements will nevertheless have to be resolved in the hemicycle. “The parliamentarians involved in this subject are waiting for the government to turn the corner,” warns the elected environmentalist Marie-Charlotte Garin, one of the nine rapporteurs on the text. “In the work done upstream of the session with the executive, we really had the impression that sexist and sexual violence was not a priority,” she believes, reproaching the ministries concerned by the reform for a position of observer and not of a stakeholder in legislative work.

“We know it’s going to be a fight,” also predicted Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Women’s Foundation, during a press conference of the Feminist and Child Coalition.

“At the end of the committee, the text really comes close to our 140 requests (...) but it has also been weakened in certain places, rather by government initiatives.”

Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Women’s Foundation

at a press conference

Among the coalition's demands: the return of the obligatory annual interview of each student aimed at detecting possible violence. Hearing in committee, the Minister of Education Edouard Geffray judged the measure inapplicable, its implementation requiring, according to him, at least 7,500 additional full-time workers. The deputies therefore rewrote this flagship proposal, making the interview optional, at the request of students. "A child victim of violence is not going to ask for an interview, especially with a person who will probably not be available at that time," said Joëlle Sicamois, director of the Children's Foundation, estimating at a press conference that the rewriting of this article demonstrated "a lack of understanding of the mechanism for freeing up speech in children."

Two days before the start of the examination in the hemicycle, the socialist Céline Thiébault-Martinez, general rapporteur of the text, and the co-rapporteur on this aspect Erwan Balanant (MoDem), finally found a compromise with the associations. Their amendment, which can be studied during the debates, restores the obligatory nature of the interview but provides for a gradual entry into force until 2032, the time to train and recruit the necessary staff. Asked by franceinfo, the Ministry of Education did not make its position known on this proposal. For his part, he continues to promote the new questionnaire on school harassment which he plans to roll out to students from November, and which will include for the first time questions on sexual violence.

“Rape must be judged where it should be”

Another key point of the text: the creation of specialized courts, with correctional courts and criminal courts dedicated to sexual and intra-family violence, and specially trained judges and prosecutors, as Spain did in 2005. If this principle was not debated in committee, a question divides parliamentarians: what to do with departmental criminal courts, these courts made up of professional magistrates, competent to judge, since their controversial generalization in 2023, the majority rapes?

The deputies adopted in committee an amendment from La France insoumise reserving the trial of these crimes to the assize courts, even though they today constitute 80% of the disputes in the departmental criminal courts. “We have fought hard enough for rape to be a crime,” insisted the ecologist Clémentine Autain, asking that it “be judged where it should be”, that is to say at the assizes. Conversely, the deputies of the central bloc, like the Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin, wish to preserve the treatment of these cases by the departmental criminal courts, while a recent parliamentary report pointed out that this organization had made it possible to reduce the correctionalization of rapes. This practice, decried by victims' associations, consists of downgrading these crimes to misdemeanors to obtain a trial more quickly.

“Those who want to abolish the departmental criminal courts are in a contradictory injunction,” believes Erwan Balanant. “They say that all sexist and sexual crimes must go to court while cases are judged there by popular juries and not professional magistrates.” For ecologist Marie-Charlotte Garin, adjustments would nevertheless be possible. “The president of the Assize Court can be a specialized judge and, ultimately, the jurors will be more aware of sexist and sexual violence, because we will have established collective acculturation on these subjects.” If the deputies returned to the LFI amendment voted in committee, it would be “a serious setback in relation to the commitments of the integral law”, judges the socialist Céline Thiébault-Martinez.

“We will be very vigilant on the question of means”

Among the other probable casus belli: the strengthening of specialized units within the judicial police to deal with gender-based and sexual violence, or the ban on removal from French territory for a foreigner who has filed a complaint for sexual violence.

On the first point, the Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, said in committee that he was more in favor of a "training shock" to ensure that all police officers can take care of victims of violence, fearing that the proposed model would lead "to renouncing the essential principle of proximity, to the extent that it will not be possible to have specialized units in each police station and in each barracks". On the second subject, the minister as well as the right-wing deputies believe that "filing a complaint for sexual violence risks becoming an easy way around to avoid the issuance of a removal measure or to obtain a residence permit".

Finally, an essential question remains: what funding for the comprehensive law? In the midst of looking for savings to complete his 2027 budget, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has promised to devote nearly 1.5 billion euros, an amount equivalent to that already committed to the fight against violence against women in 2026. A disappointment for feminist and child protection associations. According to them, three billion euros would be needed each year. This amount "is a base, a starting point, it is not an arrival point", wanted to reassure Aurore Bergé, the Minister Delegate in charge of Equality between women and men, on franceinfo. Without succeeding in convincing. “We will be very vigilant on the question of resources,” promised Anne-Cécile Mailfert.

“We see that what is happening is that the government will try to unravel everything that costs a little money.”

Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Women’s Foundation

during a press conference

“Yes, the State is stingy, but given the state of public finances, it’s normal that we are close to our money,” assures Christopher Weissberg, who believes in the executive’s desire “to move forward on substantive issues.” “The budgetary question is central but it is not because we will not have the entire budget that we expect that the mountain will give birth to a mouse”, wants to believe the co-rapporteur Emilie Bonnivard (Les Républicains). “The most important measures involve a change in organization and approach which will allow a profound change in mentalities.”

“Our collective responsibility is to obtain real commitments, and civil society must help us by continuing to put pressure,” argues Marie-Charlotte Garin, while the feminist and children’s coalition is calling for a major demonstration in Paris on October 5. And to promise: “The fine words of the government in recent months will be worth nothing if there are no means on the table. We will be there to remind you of that.”