France's child protection failures spark push for sweeping reform
After an 11-year-old girl's death exposed France's systemic failures on sexual violence, a landmark reform bill stalled since late 2025 is back at the center of a national debate.
After the death of an 11-year-old girl in southern France exposed systemic gaps in how sexual violence cases are handled, lawmakers and victim advocates are demanding urgent action on a landmark bill that has been sitting untouched for months. The proposed legislation is ambitious — and expensive.
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At a Glance
Following the death of Lyhanna, Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of France’s National Assembly, called on the government to fast-track a sweeping cross-party bill on sexual and gender-based violence — introduced in December 2025 by more than 100 co-signatories, it has never been debated.
The proposed law spans 79 articles covering police, courts, schools, healthcare, and the workplace, including mandatory annual welfare interviews for children starting in nursery school and the right to file complaints directly in hospitals.
Supporters estimate implementation would cost €2.7 billion (approximately $3 billion) annually — a figure they weigh against what advocates describe as a far greater social and economic toll from inaction.
A bill waiting for its moment
The death of Lyhanna — an 11-year-old girl found dead on June 4 in the Gers district of southwestern France after disappearing days earlier — set off a political shock wave. Evidence of possible institutional failures in how her case was handled quickly surfaced, including reports that prior complaints against the suspect had not been adequately followed up. The case revived a longstanding question: does France have the legal tools to prevent and effectively prosecute sexual violence against children?
For dozens of parliamentarians, the answer is no. A cross-party bill described by its authors as an “integral” overhaul of France’s approach to sexual and gender-based violence (known in French as VSS, for violences sexistes et sexuelles) was formally introduced on December 2, 2025, by Céline Thiébault-Martinez, a Socialist member of parliament, alongside more than 110 co-signatories drawn from left-wing and centrist groups. Despite backing from Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of France’s National Assembly — roughly equivalent to the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives — it has yet to be debated. Braun-Pivet publicly asked the government to schedule it for July or September, urging that France act with far greater urgency.
Gérald Darmanin, France’s Justice Minister, acknowledged the law’s broader value while arguing that none of its provisions would have directly prevented Lyhanna’s specific tragedy. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced plans to fold select measures from the bill into a separate government-backed child protection bill targeted for debate in the National Assembly in July — including tougher sentencing provisions, though the scope of what will be incorporated remains under discussion. For Guillaume Gouffier Valente, a lawmaker from President Macron’s centrist Renaissance party, this amounts to sectoral responses — a piecemeal fix to a structural problem.
A 360-degree approach
What sets this proposal apart from previous initiatives is its scope. Its 79 articles reach across every sphere where victims of sexual violence may encounter institutions: the criminal justice system, law enforcement, schools, healthcare, the workplace, higher education, and online spaces.
The bill draws on 140 recommendations issued in 2025 by France’s “feminist coalition for an integral law,” an alliance of dozens of organizations including feminist groups, child protection associations, and labor unions.
Among the most significant provisions is the creation of specialized criminal courts for sexual and gender-based violence cases — mirroring Spain’s approach, which established dedicated domestic violence courts in 2005. Marion Lacaze, a lecturer in criminal law at the University of Bordeaux, has described the Spanish model as having brought about a genuine “shift in judicial culture.” Specialized police units, which already exist in some precincts, would be deployed more systematically across the country. Audrey Darsonville, a professor of criminal law at Paris Nanterre University, highlights what is at stake: a poorly handled complaint is far more likely to be dropped without prosecution.
Article 2 of the bill would establish a mandatory baseline of investigative steps in every sexual violence case: immediate victim interviews, systematic questioning of suspects, and prompt collection of physical, digital, and forensic evidence. Darsonville describes this as codifying procedures already technically required under French criminal procedure — but rarely applied with consistent rigor.
Darsonville does, however, express reservations about specialized prosecution offices. “This isn’t an extremely complex form of criminality, because in most cases the perpetrators are in the victim’s immediate circle,” she notes. “And it’s so systemic that it would be better to train all judges and prosecutors.” Universal training, she suggests, may prove more effective than institutional specialization.
The child at the center
On prevention, the bill would introduce a mandatory annual individual welfare interview for every child, beginning in nursery school, designed to assess well-being and detect signs of abuse in a confidential, protected setting. Thiébault-Martinez, the bill’s lead author, describes this as one of the most powerful early detection tools in the entire package.
The bill would also expand and deepen training for professionals likely to encounter victims — particularly on the mechanisms of post-traumatic dissociation. Thiébault-Martinez points to a painful precedent: Shayna, a teenage girl murdered in 2019, had previously filed a rape complaint. The forensic doctor’s report noted that she was not crying and had cooperated physically — observations interpreted at the time as a sign of calm, but which specialists now describe as consistent with post-traumatic dissociation. Another proposed measure would allow victims to file criminal complaints directly in hospitals, removing one of the many procedural barriers that can turn the legal process into a second ordeal.
The price of protection
The central objection to the bill is financial. The coalition behind it estimates the annual cost of full implementation at €2.7 billion (approximately $3 billion at current exchange rates). Supporters counter that violence against women and children costs French society more than €90 billion per year, according to advocacy estimates. A 2023 report by Ciivise — France’s Independent Commission on Incest and Child Sexual Abuse (Commission indépendante sur l’inceste et les violences sexuelles faites aux enfants), a government-established body tasked with investigating and proposing reforms on child sexual violence — placed the state’s annual cost of child sexual abuse alone at nearly €10 billion.
The legislation, its supporters argue, is not an expense. It is an investment with a measurable return.
A law without funding is a promise without delivery.
The Bottom Line
Lyhanna’s death has forced France to confront what advocates have long argued: the problem is not the absence of laws, but the absence of will — political, institutional, and financial — to enforce and strengthen them. The fact that prior complaints against the suspect were reportedly not acted upon makes the case not just for tougher laws, but for a system capable of using the ones it already has. The “integral” bill represents the most comprehensive legislative attempt France has seen to address sexual violence as a systemic failure rather than a series of isolated incidents. Whether the government is prepared to pay for it may determine whether this bill ever becomes law.
Sources: France Info · RFI · France 3 régions