Date : Monday 23 August 2004 @ 21:21:05 :: Sujet : La vie de l'Association

Presentation

 

The association "Aide aux Parents d'Enfants Victimes", otherwise known as APEV is a nation wide association of victims which helps other victims.

 

The association came into existence as a direct result of the need of parents who had lost a child, either murdered or missing, to meet and exchange with others in the same situation. Thanks to these meetings the parents realised that not everyone had the same type of feedback from those dealing with their cases. For some, information and contact was widely available and for others hardly at all. To do something about these disparities four families who had all lost a child , either still missing or murdered, created APEV in 1991.

The association aims to sensitize the administration, the ministry of justice , investigators and judges to the difficulties that the families actually face.

Today more than seventy families (all of whom have lost a child due to a criminal act) form part of the association. Created by victims APEV is run solely by victims.

 

Its president is Mr Alain Boulay.

 

Our actions

 

Help to the families

Given that direct contact with families having experienced the same loss is one of the main aims of the association A P E V enables the families to meet, talk and help each other.

APEV's objective is to advise and support the families through their ordeal and legal proceedings but not to take over.

Accompanying and supporting the families can be done in many different ways:

  • organising meetings where parents can exchange freely with each other.
  • organising meetings around a particular issue for example mourning, mourning a child, traumatism, the upcoming reform of the legal system and punishment of sexual offenders. These discussions take place in the presence of magistrates, lawyers, psychologists and journalists.
  • organising one day conferences on court proceedings in collaboration with magistrates and lawyers.
  • accompanying the families during the court hearings.
  • giving legal and administrative advice.
  • actively participating in the search for missing children (posters, internet, etc... ).
  • personal follow up of each case.

 

The victim's rights

APEV draws up legal proposals which it submits to the gouvernment and ministers concerned.

It also advises the ministry of justice in the setting up of certain laws such as the reinforcement of preventive measures and the punishment appropiate for sexual offences against children as well as the project to reform the court system.

 

Prevention

Given APEV's background it is natural that it sees prevention as being essentially the prevention of sexual offenses and kidnapping. APEV would like to underline the importance of preventing high risk situations. Every adult has an important role to play in the overall protection of children. It is also indispensible to teach the children to detect and avoid potentially dangerous situations. We should talk to them about the risks of attack just as we do for the dangers of crossing the road or any other potential domestic accident.

 

Within this framework APEV intervenes in the following ways :

  • Sets up information programmes in schools in collaboration with the directors, parent associations and external speakers.
  • Takes part in parent / teacher meetings to discuss the programmes of prevention set up in the schools at their request.
  • Offers proposals concerning the fight against sexual offenders and repetition of the same crime.
  • Publishes documents on prevention.

 

The association intervenes in specific training sessions for l'Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature and the Gendarmerie Nationale as well as participating in a number of conferences.

APEV is now an officially recognised association working in close collaboration with other associations bringing help to victims in France and abroad.

APEV has the support of the ministry of justice and local gouvernment.

 

Missing Children

 

 

 

 

 








Cet article provient de APEV, Aide aux Parents d'Enfants Victimes

L'URL pour cet article est : http://www.apev.org/article.php?sid=82