Dear President Nicolas Sarkozy,

I am deeply concerned by the human rights abuses against autistics living in France.  I urge your country to take decisive action to end the basic human rights infringements observed by the international autism community. On Feb 18, 2010, France ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In its Article 4, the convention mandates signatories "(b) to take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices that constitute discrimination against persons with disabilities and (c) to take into account the protection and promotion of the human rights of persons with disabilities in all policies and programmes". In 2004, a resolution of the Council of Europe already condemned the educative segregation in France. Yet, in January 2012, a report produced by your own government shows that your government has failed to reduce the widespread situation of segregation and discrimination for autistics. Your government’s decision to declare 2012 the year of National Attention to Autism cannot hide these horrid facts.

France must put an end to the widespread discrimination and segregation faced by children and adults living in France with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

France must take actions so that autistic children are not exiled to Belgium. I am astonished by the fact that parents are forced to exile their children to Belgium, because France is unwilling or unable to provide accommodation in appropriate institutions and refuses to make evidence-based therapies available for the education of children with special needs.

France must condemn the practice of invasive care and condemn the providers. I am appalled by the fact that France continues to allow invasive care for autistics and condones Packing, a technique for wrapping children in freezing-wet clothes, despite national and international uproar. This institutional culture of ignorance and abuse must stop!

France must deinstitutionalize special needs education. I am saddened by the fact that France continues to consider institutionalization as the solution for children with special needs. Facts show that 80% of children diagnosed with ASD are not schooled regularly. This is deliberate segregation by France!

France must stop the use of psychiatric hospitals for the ASD-diagnosed. According to your government data, 60% of the patients in isolation wards in psychiatric hospitals for more than thirty days are diagnosed with ASD. Their place is not in psychiatric institutions!

France must implement international standards and internationally-based practices. I am surprised that diagnoses such as infantile psychosis continue to be used in France, despite best practices and new definitions, and that autism often is viewed by professionals as infantile psychosis (schizophrenia).  

France must invest the resources necessary to improve the life of all of its special needs citizens.

I fear for the well-being of children and adults with Autism living in France.