French justice system 'overwhelmed': 'Systemic' failures tackling violence against women & children

Annette Young is pleased to welcome Laura Slimani, Director of Projects at the Women’s Foundation, a French NGO which has been very much focused on ending violence against women and girls. The killing of 11-year-old Lyhanna has ignited a wave of public anger across France, prompting demonstrations in more than 200 cities and renewed scrutiny of how the justice system handles violence against women and children. In this interview, Ms. Slimani argues that the tragedy is not simply the result of an individual failure but rather it “reveals a much broader dysfunction in the entire French justice system: she says it’s evidence of a broader systemic crisis marked by judicial delays, chronic underfunding, and a widening gap between reports of sexual violence and successful prosecutions. “We are prosecuting less rape cases today than we did 10 years ago.”