|
Tuesday, October 23, 2007, #202 (1469)
Every day, across Europe, children are being sexually abused. It is estimated that between 10% and 20% of children in Europe are sexually assaulted during their childhood. Sexual violence against children may take many forms, from incest to prostitution, pornography, date rape, peer sexual violence and institutional sexual abuse. The ever growing use of Internet has brought about new risks, and cyberspace is crawling with sexual predators “grooming” their potential victims. Interpol, with a database of more than 20,000 sexually abused children, recently launched an unprecedented global appeal which helped identify a man responsible for abusing young boys in Vietnam and Cambodia. Only days ago, 310 people suspected of having downloaded images of child pornography on the Internet were arrested in France. These are the facts. Abusers abuse, and in spite of our efforts our response is not yet adequate. Tens of thousands of children suffer as victims of their tormentors, but also as victims of secrecy and denial. The vast majority of abused children and adult survivors remain silent about the abuse they have suffered. It is time to make the invisible, visible. It is time for a wake up call and an anti-dote. A new Council of Europe Convention to protect children against sexual exploitation and abuse provides both. The convention includes specific measures to reinforce prevention, assistance to the victims, prosecution of offenders and international cooperation. It was designed to close several existing loop-holes – such as the rule of double criminality which has resulted in the creation of many safe-havens for sexual tourists across the world. The treaty sets standards on how to assist child victims in their recovery and requires governments to introduce child-friendly investigative and judicial procedures to ensure that children are not traumatised twice. Once by the ordeal they have suffered and again by the criminal justice. There are many examples and good practices of national child-friendly procedures. For example, the Icelandic Children’s House model is now followed in a number of Nordic countries. It is based on close inter-agency cooperation, and helps with investigating and collecting as much relevant information as possible, while protecting the child from repeated interviews and reviving the trauma of the abuse to which they have been subjected. The Children’s House provides for the organisation of judicial hearings, medical examinations, advice and guidance to the child, and psychiatric treatment and support. It is certainly a very good example of how the new provisions of the Convention may be implemented in practice. The Convention introduces an unequivocal and comprehensive criminalisation of all aspects of child pornography - from production to distribution, possession and knowingly obtaining access to material containing pornography involving children. Moreover, mere exposure of children to sexual abuse or sexual acts is also criminalised, when it is committed for sexual purposes. Experience shows that many child victims of sexual abuse are unable, for various reasons, to report the offences perpetrated against them before reaching the age of majority. Very often, this means that the limitation period for prosecution will have expired. The Convention therefore stipulates that the limitation procedure for sexual offences against children should only start after the victim reaches the age of majority. This will effectively close another loophole and considerably reinforce children’s protection against abuse. The Convention also includes requirements for adequate training and screening of persons who have regular contacts with children and several other preventive mechanisms, such as measures for persons who have committed sex offences against children, as well as those who fear that they might commit such offences. The treaty will be open for signature on 25 October 2007 at the Conference of European Ministers of Justice meeting on the Spanish island of Lanzarote. From that moment on, we are in a race against time. The Convention can make a real difference in the protection of children – but it must first enter into force. For this to happen, it must be ratified by five countries including, at least, three members of the Council of Europe. To be fully effective, it must be ratified by many more, both in Europe and elsewhere in the world. Needless to say, there has seldom been a more urgent or more important reason for speeding things up in the governmental and parliamentary pipelines. The Convention, once it enters into force, will make a real difference in helping the children victims of sexual abuse, and in protecting other children from suffering a similar fate. |
Europe has a new international instrument to protect children from sexual abuse