Placed by social assistance for childhood in a host family member of Jehovah’s Witnesses, France L. says he has been the victim of sexual abuse for thirteen years.
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The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned France on Thursday, November 3, in a case brought before it by a French national, born in 1971 and placed from her 5 years to her 20th anniversary reception in Tarn-et-Garonne.
France L. had addressed the jurisdiction of the Council of Europe for two main reasons. On the one hand, saying herself a victim of sexual abuse in her host family for thirteen years, she believed that she had not been protected by childhood assistance (ASE). On the other hand, resulting from a family of Muslim confession, it challenged the role of the services of ASE, which did not respect the requirement of religious neutrality theoretically required for foster families, the hers being a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
having failed to have the national jurisdictions recognized by national jurisdictions recognized by the state and the department, guarantors of the protection of minors entrusted in child protection, France L. finally argued that she had not disposed of an “effective appeal” allowing to examine the responsibility of the ASE, due to a poor application of the prescription rules.
of the prescribed facts
In its judgment, the ECHR returns at length to the course of the old child placed and its legal fights. At the age of 5, she was therefore entrusted to the social assistance services for childhood and placed in a foster family. She will stay there until the age of 20, from 1976 to 1991.
From her arrival at her 17th birthday, she is the victim of “sexual violence” and “modesty with modesty” perpetrated by the father of her foster family, she will denounce, filed a complaint for these reasons Years later, in 1999, with the public prosecutor of the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Créteil. Before that, she tries to alert her entourage twice at least; At the age of 14, she confided in a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and once again at the age of 23, with a congregation manager, which gives rise to a confrontation between the young woman and question, who disputes.
On the other hand, heard by the police after the filing of a complaint, he will partially recognize the facts, minimizing them. The complaint was classified without follow -up in February 2000, the facts being prescribed.
The young woman does not abandon. She reiterates by filing a new complaint a year later, with the constitution of a civil party. The father of the foster family is indicted for “rape on a minor by person having authority”, then for “sexual assault by person having authority”. But, due to the rules of prescription then in force, an order of non-place is finally pronounced, in September 2003.
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