Configurations institutionnelles de la protection de l’enfance: regards croisés de l’Afrique, de l’Europe et de l’Amérique du Nord

Cet article porte sur l’analyse de trois configurations institutionnelles de la protection de l’enfance : celle en place au Burkina Faso, en Belgique et au Québec. Pour chaque configuration, le texte explore les transformations qui ont marqué le passage de la prise en charge exclusive de l’enfant par la famille vers la présence accrue de l’État et la manière dont la Convention internationale des droits de l’enfant de 1989 a influencé ce passage. Il montre, au travers d’une lecture historique, que l’implication de l’État dans la protection des enfants a connu des formes et des modalités variables selon le temps et l’espace. L’approche actuelle en matière de protection de l’enfance au Nord et au Sud, approche largement inspirée de la perspective des droits, représente un défi tant pour les intervenants que pour les familles, car son application dépend à fois des ressources disponibles pour aider les enfants et les familles en difficulté, de la capacité d’action des institutions publiques et de l’efficacité des interventions. This article deals with the analysis of three institutional configurations of child protection: those in Burkina Faso, in Belgium, and in Québec. With respect to each configuration, the text explores the changes from situations in which the family had sole control of the child to those where the State played a greater role, and the manner in which the 1989 International Convention on the Rights of the Child has affected such changes. It shows, through a reading of history, that the involvement of the State in child protection has gone through different forms and stages over time and space. The current strategies as regards child protection in the North and in the South—an approach that is largely subject to a legal perspective—represent a challenge both for intervenors and for families, since their application depends on the resources available for helping children and families in difficulty, on the ability of the public institutions to intervene, and on the efficiency of such interventions.

Temps, memoire et monstres: le monde arthurien de Culhwch et Olwen

The Arthurian world of Culhwch and Olwen initially appears as a resolutely masculine, warrior-based society with little or no place for women. As a rule, the names of the mothers of the many characters remain unmentioned, and even the young hero clearly had no idea of his family ties on his mother’s side. It comes as news to him that Arthur is his cousin. The Arthurian world is equally afflicted with a form of wilful amnesia of the existence of relatives on the distaff side, allowing the giant Ysbaddaden to victimise Custennin and his family with impunity. The hair-cutting ritual represents an intrusion of female memory and a reminder of the biological imperative of reproduction, which means that in order to survive, Arthur’s clan has to be prepared to face destruction.