This is progress for the protection of minor victims of domestic violence. The deputies again unanimously adopted a text on Monday evening aimed at better protecting these children. “Thanks to your text, many children who were afraid will be able to find a certain serenity,” welcomed Secretary of State for Children Charlotte Caubel.
The bill from socialist Isabelle Santiago, supported by the government, provides in particular for the total withdrawal of parental authority in the event of the conviction of a parent “author, co-author or accomplice of a crime or incestuous sexual assault » on his child or “of a crime committed” on the other parent.
One side automatic
The judge will, however, retain the possibility of departing from this automaticity, but must provide reasons for his decision. A precaution intended to avoid the risk of the text being struck by unconstitutionality. “The automatic side cannot be written into law but the spirit of the text is that. If the judge does not withdraw the exercise or the authority he will have to clearly write why,” explains Isabelle Santiago to AFP.
Its text also intends to provide certain legal levers before the sentencing stage. If a parent is “pursued by the public prosecutor, indicted by the investigating judge or convicted even not definitively” for “a crime” against the other parent, for “incestuous sexual assault” or a crime against his child , this time he would see “the exercise of his parental authority” suspended, as would his visitation and accommodation rights. He would retain certain parental prerogatives such as being informed of important choices relating to the child’s life.
Return to the Senate
The text also proposes a forced delegation of parental authority if a single parent holding authority is prosecuted, indicted or convicted for a crime or incestuous sexual assault on a child. The bill was unanimously adopted in February-March in the National Assembly and then in the Senate, but the upper house reworked the text, sometimes reducing its scope. The deputies took advantage of this new reading to largely restore the initial version in committee, however retaining certain additions from the Senate.
Like an article in favor of parents who benefit from a protection order allowing them to conceal their residence: the proposed law would exempt them from the obligation to inform the other parent of a change of residence . The text must now return to the Senate. If the upper house modifies it again, it should return to the Assembly for a final reading.