Isabelle Adjani, Charlotte Arnould, Emmanuelle Béart, Juliette Binoche, Emma de Caunes, Judith Godrèche, Isild Le Besco, Muriel Robin, Leila Slimani, Christine Angot, Vanessa Springora and Philippe Torreton are among the signatories. “Who is really listening to us? »: seven years after the launch of the #Metoo movement, 147 personalities, including many actresses, are calling, in a stand published Tuesday, to a comprehensive law against sexual violence.
“There are 100 of us, but in reality, there are hundreds of thousands of us,” write the signatories of this text accompanied by a petition initiated by The Women’s Foundation#Metoomedia and actress Anna Mouglalis and published a few hours before the opening ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival.
“Despite the courage of the victims, impunity is growing”
“Our #Metoo speeches revealed a reality shrouded in denial: sexist and sexual violence is systemic, not exceptional. However (…) who really listens to us? », We can read in the article also published on the website of the daily The world.
“For seven years, we have spoken for ourselves and for all the women, men and children who cannot do so,” they write. “We are not numbers: women and men from all professional backgrounds, we come together to demand a comprehensive law against sexual and gender-based violence, ambitious and equipped with resources. Because despite the courage of the victims, impunity is growing. »
The signatories consider in particular “unacceptable” that the rate of dismissal of complaints for sexual violence “has reached the crazy rate of 94% in 2022” and warn that they no longer accept “the effects of announcements without follow-up”. “Adding just the word consent in the law will not make it possible to catch up with France’s abysmal delay in this area,” they believe, in reference to the commitment made in March by Emmanuel Macron.
Clarifying the definition of rape and consent
The signatories demand “a comprehensive law which will clarify, among other things, the definition of rape and consent, introduce that of incest, judge serial rapists for all known rapes, extend protection orders to victims of rape, to facilitate the collection of evidence, to create specialized brigades, to prohibit investigations into the sexual past of victims.
This law must also allow “immediate and free access to psycho-traumatology care, to finally provide the financial means for this public policy and the associations which implement it”, they add.
The publication of this petition comes after several months of revelations about sexual violence committed in the cinema industry, with testimonies in particular from Judith Godrèche and Isild Le Besco.
“Since 2017, not much has actually happened in the fight against sexual violence,” estimates Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Women’s Foundation. “The increase in complaints has seen a parallel increase in rankings without action, #Metoo is being sent to the trash.”
“If we do not resolve the problem of resources for investigations, for the courts, the integration of the notion of consent in the definition of rape will not change anything, we need the political will to really resolve the problem of impunity” , she adds. “But at the moment, there is no such political will.”