French parliamentary inquiry report criticizes the continued use of ‘parental alienation syndrome’ in court-ordered expert assessments
Created unanimously by the French National Assembly on January 28, 2026, chaired by MP Maud Petit and reported by MP Christian Baptiste, the commission of inquiry into the judicial handling of parental incestuous sexual violence and the situation of protective parents (particularly protective mothers) held 43 hearings between February and July 2026 — over 100 hours of exchanges with 132 people (associations, pediatricians, psychiatrists, psychologists, lawyers, magistrates, law enforcement, protective parents) and nearly two hundred written submissions. Its report, filed on July 1, 2026 and made public on July 9, sets out 49 recommendations covering criminal law, procedure and judicial organization. It specifically flags the continued use, in some court-ordered expert assessments, of the notion of ‘parental alienation syndrome’ (PAS) — despite the absence of recognized scientific consensus — with documented consequences: abusive custody removals, children returned to an abusive parent, or a ‘protective’ parent being penalized instead. This is precisely the tension this dossier has documented from the start: the risk that a concept with no scientific consensus is, in some cases, used to turn the accusation back on the parent who raises the alarm. Note: this is a French parliamentary report about French institutions and French law; it does not describe or imply an equivalent process elsewhere.