The Senate adopted this Tuesday, March 21 at first reading a socialist text to strengthen the protection of children by expanding the mechanisms for suspending and withdrawing parental authority or its exercise, in a revised version, including part of the hemicycle regretted the scope ” restraint “.
Supported by the Keeper of the Seals Éric Dupond-Moretti, the bill of the deputy PS Isabelle Santiago had been adopted unanimously in the National Assembly. The text modified by the senators, also voted unanimously, must now return to the Bourbon palace.
The sequel after the ad
“The abusive parent is never a good parent”
Laurence Harribey (PS) hailed “a step further in the protection of children”while regretting that Article 1 was “partly emptied of its content”. “We need to be more ambitious”supported the centrist Annick Billon, hammering that “the violent parent is never a good parent”.
On the initiative of the rapporteur LR Marie Mercier, the Senate has in fact reduced the scope of article 1 of the text, relating to the extension of the mechanism for automatically suspending the exercise of parental authority and visitation and accommodation rights for persons prosecuted but not yet convicted.
The Senate accepted this extension in the event of a crime or incestuous sexual assault, but rejected it in the event of “willful violence against the other parent resulting in total incapacity for work for more than eight days, when the child witnessed the facts”. In addition, the duration of the suspension was limited.
Withdrawal of parental authority
A second part of the bill provides for the withdrawal of parental authority or its exercise in the event of a conviction for incestuous aggression, a crime against the child or against the other parent, unless the judge decides otherwise.
The sequel after the ad
The senators retained the principle, but completely rewrote the article in committee, attenuating its character of automaticity.
They also adopted “a general arrangement”requiring the criminal courts to rule on the withdrawal of criminal authority or its exercise, each time a parent is convicted of a crime or misdemeanor committed against his child or for a crime committed against the other parent .
The Senate has again adopted, with a favorable opinion from the government, an amendment by the socialist Laurence Rossignol providing that a parent beneficiary of a protection order is not required to communicate to the other parent any change of residence.
