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France 24
41 minutes ago
- France 24
Children ‘subjected to monstrosities': Report exposes decades of abuse in French schools
French lawmakers on Wednesday accused the state of "structural dysfunctions" in handling child abuse in schools, delivering a scathing 330-page report that chronicles decades of systemic violence and silence across France's educational institutions. 'Children across France were subjected to monstrosities,' wrote the committee president, Fatiha Keloua Hachi, describing the three-month investigation as a 'deep dive into the unthinkable'. The probe, led by centrist Violette Spillebout from Macron's ruling party Renaissance, and Paul Vannier, a lawmaker with the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI), heard testimony from 140 people, including survivors. While abuse occurred in both public and private schools, the MPs said Catholic institutions were especially affected, citing 'stricter educational models' and a persistent 'law of silence'. In many cases, they said, it wasn't just the children who kept quiet but also school officials, clergy and civil servants who failed to act or actively covered up wrongdoing. Historian Claude Lelièvre traced this back to the culture of silence and obedience in religious teaching orders. "They viewed obedience as a cardinal virtue, both for themselves and for their students. Obedience at all costs. Obedience to someone who, in their eyes, was the lieutenant of God on earth," he said. Public schools, by contrast, embraced a different philosophy. "It wasn't about obeying a person," Lelièvre said, "but helping children consent to shared rules." The Bétharram case Much of the report focuses on the Bétharram Catholic boarding school in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region, where priests, teachers and staff are accused of having sexually and physically abused students from 1957 to 2004. According to the MPs, some 200 complaints have been filed since the beginning of the year. Victims described acts of 'unprecedented severity, of absolute sadism'. Lawmakers called Bétharram a "textbook example" of the state's failure to prevent and monitor abuse, warning that the same systemic flaws "are still in place today". Prime Minister François Bayrou, who was education minister from 1993 to 1997 and sent some of his children to the school, has faced growing criticism. The report stops short of directly implicating him, but Spillebout and Vannier wrote: "In the absence of action from a minister who was informed and in a position to intervene, the abuse of students at Bétharram continued for years." Bayrou's eldest daughter, Helene Perlant, accused the clergy running the school of systemic abuse, saying a priest beat her during summer camp when she was 14. She said however her father did not know about the incident. In a footnote, Vannier accused Bayrou of having "knowingly misled" the National Assembly in March, when he initially claimed to have learned about the scandal "at the same time as everyone else, in the press". He later admitted he had received information, but said he had not grasped the seriousness of the allegations. Lack of figures and oversight Beyond Bétharram, the report highlights the state's failure to monitor abusive staff. Regional background checks allowed sanctioned teachers to move between schools undetected. "The Ministry of Education," the report said, "is still incapable of ensuring that a sanctioned teacher cannot simply be transferred to another school." This kind of administrative evasion has been going on for decades. "For a long time now, there has been a culture of cover-up, of transferring problematic staff, of not reporting incidents when they occurred," Lelièvre said. The committee also pointed to a lack of national data on abuse. 'No consolidated public data is available on violence committed against pupils by members of staff,' the report stated, urging the government to commission new surveys. Where data does exist — notably on sexual violence — the gap between official data and victimisation surveys is stark. While national surveys estimate 7,000 pupils are affected annually, state school leaders reported only 280 incidents in 2023-2024. 'The Ministry is not really tracking these issues thoroughly,' Lelièvre said. "The figures are inconsistent, and there's a lack of proper monitoring and understanding of what's happening. We need much more robust oversight, including independent monitoring, not just relying on the institution itself." Urgent recommendations To address what they call a "systemic culture of impunity", the MPs called for tighter background checks and the creation of a national reporting platform that would allow whistleblowers to bypass traditional hierarchies. The new platform, called Signal Educ', would be accompanied by annual regional reports on abuse in schools. They also recommended that contracts between the state and private schools include binding provisions on abuse prevention and child safety, with clear sanctions for non-compliance. For boarding schools, they called for yearly unannounced inspections and confidential interviews with randomly selected students. Other proposals include the creation of a national compensation fund for victims and a legal review to potentially extend, or in some cases eliminate, statutes of limitation for sexual abuse of minors. Although the cross-party commission unanimously adopted the report, it remains to be seen whether lawmakers will act on its recommendations.
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
West Bank: Israeli settlers continue to harass Palestinians, reportedly burn down house
The FRANCE 24 Observers team contacted a member of the family who owned the burnt-out house. The Palestinian in his fifties described the attack: The settlers came in the middle of the night, at 1.30 am. They broke into my house. There were seven of us in the house, we were woken up by the fire, and we saw two people running away, but we couldn't see them clearly. We called the fire brigade, but they took too long to come. The fire had plenty of time to spread. This isn't the first time; a few days ago, we were attacked and some of our belongings were stolen. I had already contacted the police and filed a complaint. The police took photos and left. They didn't arrest anyone or do anything. A video posted by several Palestinian activist and journalist accounts showed the extent of the destruction caused by the fire. Residents of the village told the Observers team that they saw two men set fire to the house and then leave for one of the settler outposts. While this information is not independently verifiable, other attacks by settlers in Susya have already been documented and verified. 'The settlement is on the site of our former village' According to a local activist called Hassan, around 350 Palestinians live in the village of Susya today. The colony is on the site of Susya, our former village. They established it after we moved there in 1986. They forcibly evicted us and allowed the settlers to move into our village. Today, we are located around 300 metres from our original village and, as a result, from the colony. The presence of the settlement on the site of the old village goes hand in hand with pressure on the agricultural land used by Palestinians, as demonstrated by the recent uprooting of 200 olive trees by Israeli settlers in Susya. This pressure also extends to the control of water points. The village of Susya has historically depended on collecting water from wells and rainfall. After October 7, the settlements took control of 95% of these wells and are preventing Palestinians from using them. And the remaining 5%, which are inside the village, are also off-limits. Their herds of cows and sheep go there, and they even bring their herds to destroy our olive trees and crops. According to the Israeli NGO B'Tselem, which defends human rights by documenting violations committed in the occupied territories, the current Palestinian village of Susya has existed since at least 1917. Located in Area C of the West Bank, Susya is under exclusive Israeli military and civilian control. B'Tselem points out that, under the pretext of the lack of building permits, which are virtually impossible for Palestinians to obtain in this area, the Israeli authorities refuse to recognise the village officially, regularly destroy its homes and infrastructure, and support the expansion of neighbouring Israeli settlements, in violation of international law. Hassan said: Most of these settlers from before October 7 are now integrated into the Israeli army. With their military uniforms, they prevent Palestinians from entering their own land. Settlers and soldiers complement each other in their aggression against the Palestinians. Well-known settlers Two of the settlers occupying these outposts are well known in the Masafer Yatta region. They are Shem Tov Lusky and his father, Gadi Lusky. While there is no indication that they are linked to the house fire on June 24, activists have identified them in several attacks. According to a local activist's X account, they attacked farm workers and the owner of a poultry farm in the town of Yatta, 6 kilometres north of Susya, on June 20. They were accompanied by a uniformed settler. Six Palestinians were reportedly injured and evacuated for medical treatment. One of the two settlers was also identified by the NGO B'tselem in another attack on August 4, 2024. The report explained that three masked settlers arrived by car at Khirbet Wadi a-Rakhim, where a Palestinian community lives, a few minutes from the village of Susya. The NGO said that the residents recognised Shem Tov Luski among them. Armed with clubs, the settlers insulted a family and claimed that the land belonged to them. A voice audible in the video, speaking English and recognised as that of Shem Tov Luski, threatens to rape one of the men in the family. On June 23, Israeli settlers repeatedly targeted villages around Ramallah. These attacks degenerated into violent clashes, prompting the intervention of the Israeli army. In a village north of Ramallah, four Palestinians were killed by army fire, including a 13-year-old teenager. According to the Palestinian ministry of health, 999 people, including 202 children, have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023.
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Dalai Lama affirms future reincarnation will uphold tradition
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