At the end of its press conference dedicated to violence against children in places supposed to protect them, UNICEF France is calling for a profound change in culture in terms of child protection.
Paris, the 28th of 2026 – Beyond the current legal proceedings, which the association does not comment on, recent cases reveal systemic dysfunctions throughout France in the fight against violence against children and question the collective capacity of society and institutions to prevent violence, hear children, support families, identify and take charge of cases and guarantee each child a truly protective environment.
UNICEF-France also reminds that child protection cannot be based solely on the reaction after the fact: it must be thought of, organized and financed as a prevention policy in its own right.
“A child must never be in danger in a place supposed to protect them. However, the French system remains more organized in a logic of reaction after the revelation of the facts rather than in a logic of systemic prevention. Beyond the necessary possible judicialization, the nature of these cases and their number call for a real start to achieve, through prevention, information and training, changes in behavior and practices at all levels, as well as in the support of children and parents. asserts Adeline Hazan, president of UNICEF France.
For UNICEF France, violence against children can no longer be considered as a succession of isolated events. They reveal structural fragilities: insufficient prevention, lack of training for adults, failures in reporting, compartmentalization between institutions, trivialization of certain educational violence and persistent difficulty in taking the child’s word seriously. These fragilities do not concern a single territory or a single sector, they cross all places where children live and receive care: family, school, after-school, sport, social assistance for children, nurseries, medico-social structures or collective care for minors.
“Protecting children does not just mean punishing the perpetrators. It means training adults, controlling institutions, hearing the voices of children, supporting families and guaranteeing that each alert is taken seriously. No violence against a child is minor. No humiliation is educational. No reporting should be lost in institutional gaps. We are facing a major societal challenge, the human, social and economic costs of which are immense and lasting. This must be a top priority,” déclare Adeline Hazan.
While sexual violence and educational violence have lasting consequences on the mental health, development, emotional security and trust of children towards adults, UNICEF France recalls that Child protection must become a central political priority. When a child is the victim of violence in a supposedly protective space, it is not only their integrity that is affected: it is also their trust in adults, in institutions and in the capacity of society to protect them.
The association calls in particular for:
- sustainably professionalize after-school professions;
- structure national and territorial governance of child protection in after-school settings;
- clarify and harmonize reporting circuits;
- better control structures welcoming minors;
- create identified spaces for collecting children’s words;
- better support parents in the prevention and identification of violence against children;
- guarantee immediate judicial and administrative support for serious situations;
- provide psychological support adapted to child victims and their families;
- develop a true culture of children’s rights in all institutions.
These measures must be part of an overall strategy: better train professionals and volunteers in contact with children, limit situations of adult-child isolation, strengthen checks on integrity, guarantee simple reporting procedures known to all, and make listening to the child’s words a central skill in all places that welcome him.
UNICEF France also emphasizes the need to better support parents, who are often helpless in these situations. Families must have clear guidelines to know who to contact, how to report, how to speak to their child and how to access appropriate support. « Abuses and violations of children’s rights are not inevitable and child protection can no longer be more than a promise: it must become a requirement, a shared culture, and a political priority.” concludes Adeline Hazan.
To explore these issues in greater depth, UNICEF France provides children, parents and professionals with adapted prevention supports online. ICI.
Note to editors : These resources aim to help adults better understand, prevent and identify violence against children, but also to offer children content adapted to their age to know their rights, identify situations of violence and know where to turn.
