This Tuesday, May 24 in Paris, a demonstration for the resignation of Damien Abad, the new Minister of Solidarity, brought together a few hundred feminist activists. At the maneuver: the Observatory of sexist and sexual violence in politics (OVSS), an association founded in the wake of the political #Metoo last November, which reported to the prosecution the testimony of a woman accusing Damien Abad of rape, published also in Mediapart. Since then, the minister has spoken out to contest the suspicions of attacks that affect him. “Should an innocent man resign?” after. The Paris prosecutor’s office, for its part, indicated on May 25 that it would not respond to the letter from the Observatory, “for lack of information allowing the victim of the facts denounced to be identified”.
With this decision, the public prosecutor does not however put an end to the questions surrounding the feminist collective, initially created to relay articles evoking accusations of sexist acts or attacks on the part of politicians, and thus challenge the rest of the press. Because contrary to what its name suggests, the Observatory of sexist and sexual violence in politics is not an official institution. The proximity of its members to the New People’s Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) has drawn criticism. Among the five co-founders are Alice Coffin, elected EELV to the Council of Paris, Mathilde Viot, former collaborator of elected LFI Danielle Obono and François Ruffin, or Fiona Texeire, councilor at the Paris town hall in charge of institutional relations and former -general secretary of the environmental group in the Senate.
“We can clearly see that this kind of structure, which casts opprobrium on elected officials, is not neutral. They can then have a slightly distorted vision of the problems, which is dangerous”, reproves Patrick Hetzel, LR deputy for the 7th constituency of Bas-Rhin. “These activists vigorously select the culprits they denounce and the victims they defend”, abounds Louise El Yafi, jurist and author of Letter to my generation – Youth in the face of extremes (The Observatory). “If they tweeted more than twenty times on the Abad affair, they did nothing like this during the inauguration of Taha Bouhafs, who was however already convicted of racial slur and accused of harassing his feminist colleagues to the Media,” she notes.
Auriane Dupuy, one of the members of the Observatory, defends herself from any political bias: “Most feminists are on the left, it’s true. But our fight is not partisan. A few days ago , we have for example challenged La France Insoumise on Twitter, about a deputy implicated for sexual assault“. As for Taha Bouhafs, “he was not invested in the end, unlike Damien Abad, continues the activist, also involved in the Génération.s movement. All we ask is to act once there is a report”. Blandine Sillard, head of development at the Maison des lancers d’alerte, an association that supports people who disclose information of general interest, believes that “as a general rule, whistleblowers are always attacked on their intentions, because this is part of the legal criteria that define them, and therefore protect them”.
In France, since 2016 there has been a legal definition of the whistleblower. This is “a natural person who reveals or reports, in a disinterested manner and in good faith, a crime or an offence, […] or a threat or serious harm to the general interest, of which it has personal knowledge”. This definition does not transpose well to the case of the Observatory of sexist and sexual violence, which is not a natural person, and above all, it is difficult to describe as politically disinterested. Its main leaders are in fact active in the parties that make up the Nupes, a direct opponent of the presidential majority in the legislative elections of June 12 and 19. Its status cannot be compared to that of an association like Anticor, approved by the Ministry of Justice to bring civil proceedings for cases of corruption and financial crime. This approval, renewed in 2021, is conditioned maintaining the “disinterested and independent character of the activities of the association”, as provided for in a decree of March 12, 2014. In reality, the OVSS operates more like a pressure group, that is to say, according to Larousse, a “structure which a community with similar interests or beliefs adopts to influence public authorities to its advantage”. A definition that the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) translates, in administrative language, by “representative of interests”. This category covers both professional lobbies and NGOs, such as Greenpeace or Transparency France.
“A revolutionary process”
This question of the status of the OVSS is important since the organization is demanding radical measures. On these cases, it calls as a precaution to suspend the elected officials implicated, although they are neither condemned, nor even indicted or heard by justice. “This principle is worrying, because it constitutes an internal sanction based not on a judicial decision, but on a purely political decision”, affirms Louise El Yafi. And to add: “The victims of sexual violence do not need a change in law or procedure, but a practical application of the texts, which will restore their confidence in justice. We must also improve their reception by police station and the training of police officers, so that they no longer have to endure criminal proceedings which would be a second violence for them”.
“The activists of the Observatory, who are few in number and are not judges, want to go beyond the presumption of innocence, and therefore the rule of law. It’s a revolutionary process”, points out Patrick Hetzel . The LR deputy recalls the case of Dominique Baudis, former president of the Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA), accused in 2003 of rape, murder and act of barbarism by two prostitutes. Two years later, the latter admit having lied, and will be condemned for slanderous denunciation. “Sexist and sexual violence against women is a real subject, but be careful of the ways and means used,” he says. “A whistleblower is there to express doubt about a situation where there is a danger, but then it is up to the justice system and the police to do their job”, summarizes Blandine Sillard.
“Only 1% of rapes lead to a conviction”, opposes Sophie Barre, member of the coordination of #NousToutes, a feminist collective close to the Observatory. This figure, also put forward by Marlène Schiappa in 2018, however, has several limits: the investigation for rape lasts several years, and the data is based on statements from victims, who do not always file a complaint. Nevertheless: for Sophie Barre, “if the voluntary sector replaces the State, it is because it simply does not act”. “There is not even an institutional observatory on the subject, which would make it possible to evaluate what works or not in the policies implemented”, she continues. “They say that we are not legitimate to act, but who can do it better than elected, committed women, and sometimes themselves victims of violence?” Asks Auriane Dupuy, convinced that the Observatory is “an autonomous institution necessary”. Autonomous, perhaps, but not disinterested politically.