“There are crimes that we cannot tell, because we do not remember them”: a first national campaign to raise awareness of chemical submission was launched on Monday in France, with Gisèle Pelicot, who has become an international figure in the fight against sexual violence.
The rapes suffered by Gisèle Pelicot, knocked out with anxiolytics by her ex-husband Dominique who had raped her and handed her over to dozens of strangers recruited on the internet, brought these criminal practices to light. Her ex-husband was sentenced to 20 years of criminal imprisonment in December 2024, following a trial with worldwide impact.
This campaign was launched by the French association M’endors pas, founded by Caroline Darian, Ms. Pelicot’s daughter.
Gisèle Pelicot said on Monday that she was “very proud” of her daughter and “deeply grateful”. “This fight is Caroline’s, it is mine, but above all it is now that of the whole of society. The public authorities must take up this subject which is truly a scourge which affects everyone,” she declared on France Inter radio.
The objective is to raise awareness of chemical submission, this administration to a person of a psychoactive substance without their knowledge or under duress, for tort or criminal purposes.
“The message we want to send is that if you have any doubts, you have to investigate. It’s not because we have no memory that there are no traces,” Caroline Darian explained to AFP.
It will be broadcast until October 18 on television, in the press, on social networks and on billboards.
In the film, people move into a studio and are each invited to “tell what happened” with their father-in-law, partner or colleague.
None manages to answer, all show their dismay. A message then appears on the screen: “There are crimes that we cannot tell, because we do not remember them.”
In the last scene, Gisèle Pelicot appears to deliver a prevention message, inviting potential victims to contact the Reference Center for Substance-Facilitated Assault (Crafs).
