The Minister of National Education, Édouard Geffray, announced on Sunday February 1 that the future defender of children’s rights would be appointed “in March-April”. “I have two names in mind” more “first, we are going to modify the regulatory texts”, he clarified. This defender of children’s rights will be attached to the Ministry of Education. “Anyone can ask him a question or report a suspicion that has not been properly addressed, whether during school or extracurricular time”detailed the minister on Wednesday January 28, adding that“there has to be a sort of one-stop shop”. Furthermore, the Minister of Education announced that the “reputability checks” put in place in 2016, to check the criminal record and registration in the file of perpetrators of sexual or violent offenses (Fijais) of new Education personnel, must be reiterated “every three or five years”reports The Parisian.
After the Bétharram affair in 2024, several cases of sexual violence have shaken Parisian extracurriculars since 2025. In a program broadcast on Thursday January 29, « Cash Investigation » also revealed serious facts in private establishments in Haut-Rhin and Vendée, Franceinfo recalls. The minister indicated that justice had been seized of “all the individual acts that were mentioned” in the investigation published by France 2 for “that there can be individual prosecutions”. In addition to the violence described, “the dimension of racism which appeared in one of the cases” was also taken into account.
A children’s rights defender leaves associations skeptical
Furthermore, the appointment of a children’s rights defender and the control of the integrity of staff provoked reactions from several associations. Thus, the child protection sector issued, on Wednesday January 28, “reserves” after these announcements. He noted that a Children’s Rights Defender already existed and called for strengthening existing resources. “We must first remember that there already exists an independent authority competent for the defense of children’s rights: the Defender of Rights, and his deputy, the Children’s Defender”reacted the National Convention of Child Protection Associations (Cnape), cited by The Cross.
Concerning the collection and processing of alerts, this federation of 180 associations managing child protection services believes that “the priority is not to create an additional circuit within theANDnational education, but to make it more reliable and improve coordination with what already exists.” Cnape specifies that many situations reported to number 119 “Allô Enfance en Danger” “already come from the school environment or national education or extracurricular professionals”. The Convention does not wish to create a new internal level, but calls for “strengthen operational coordination” between the rectorates and the cells for collecting concerning information (CRIP).
