France announced a new campaign on Monday to tackle violence against women, including raising awareness about the use of drugs to facilitate sexual abuse, as a gang rape trial shocked the country’s public Is.
Equality Minister Salima Sa unveiled a series of initiatives two days after thousands of people demonstrated in major French cities against violence targeting women, where protesters denounced government actions as “window-dressing”.
A case against 51 people in the southern city of Avignon, including a man who drugged his wife for more than a decade and dozens of others accused of accepting invitations to abuse her at their home in Mazan, southern France Has given rise to widespread anger.
“There will be one before Mazan and one after Mazan, just like there was before and after #MeToo,” Sa said during an interview with broadcaster FranceInfo.
But advocates are calling for more far-reaching measures, including a 2.6 billion euro ($2.7 billion) budget dedicated to tackling the problem and a stronger legal framework.
Marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Sa said the government will expand the network of hospitals where victims can report an incident from 236 to 377 by the end of 2025.
“A woman will be able to lodge a complaint in all hospitals having emergency departments and gynecology services,” he said.
Pay attention to medicines
He also announced an awareness campaign about the use of drugs for sexual exploitation, which he called “a new crisis”.
As part of the campaign, a helpline can “provide answers and advice and tell you which laboratory to go to, what to do with your hair, blood tests and urine tests”, Sa said.
The budget for emergency assistance to help victims of domestic violence leave their homes will increase from 13 million euros to 20 million in 2025, a measure that has benefited 33,000 people since it was introduced in late 2023.
“We have succeeded in achieving a 10 percent increase in the budget dedicated to gender equality, totaling 85.1 million euros,” Sa said.
But that number falls far short of demands coming from women’s rights unions, who are calling for 2.6 billion euros to replace existing law and a “comprehensive legal framework” that advocates say would ” “Fractured and incomplete”.
During his first term as president, Emmanuel Macron vowed to work to eliminate violence against women, a message Sa reiterated, calling it the “noble cause” of his presidency.
In 2023, police recorded more than 110,000 victims of sexual violence – 85 percent of them women.
And according to the feminist group Noustouts (We Are All Women), 122 women have been murdered since the beginning of the year.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
