B Explanatory
memorandum by Ms Bonet Perot, rapporteur
1 Introduction
1. Sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children
is unfortunately not a new phenomenon. The vast increase in the
number of cases unveiled in Council of Europe member States at the
beginning of the 21st century is not due to the fact that children
are less respected today, but rather to a rising awareness of their rights
which enables victims to speak out.
2. The Parliamentary Assembly has welcomed this rising awareness
of the need to protect children which has resulted in firm legislation
and strong policies in many countries. However, statistics show
that there are still far too many incidences of child abuse occurring
in various settings, including the wider family environment of children,
childcare or educational institutions, or in the context of new
information and communication technologies.
3. The Assembly has thus addressed a number of recommendations
to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and to the
member States on various aspects of the issue, for example
Recommendation 1934 (2010) on child abuse in institutions: ensuring full protection
of the victims,
Resolution
1733 (2010) on reinforcing measures against sex offenders and
Resolution 1834 (2011) on combating “child abuse images” through committed,
transversal and internationally co-ordinated action. A report on
“Fighting ‘child sex tourism’” (
Doc. 13152) is due to be debated
together with the present report at the Assembly’s April 2013 part-session.
4. However, it is the 2007 Council of Europe Convention on the
Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse
(Lanzarote Convention, CETS No. 201) which is going to be the key
to ending this scourge. The Lanzarote Convention, opened for signature
after five years of preparation (starting after the adoption of
Assembly
Resolution 1307
(2002) on the sexual exploitation of children: zero tolerance),
contains all the measures needed to prevent sexual violence, to
protect children and to prosecute the abusers. The convention is
open to the 47 member States of the Council of Europe as well as
to non-member States and the European Union, and incorporates a
solid monitoring mechanism in the form of its Committee of the Parties.
5. The Lanzarote Convention is the most advanced and comprehensive
legally binding instrument at international level on the protection
of children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse: it is
the first time that an international treaty defines and criminalises
sexual abuse of children in such a comprehensive manner, including
new forms of sexual abuse (“grooming”, etc.) and based on clear
definitions of terms such as “child”, “sexual exploitation”, “sexual
abuse” and “victim”. A landmark Council of Europe modern “5 Ps”
convention, it contains provisions to:
- prevent and combat sexual exploitation and sexual abuse
of children;
- protect the rights of the child and provide assistance
to victims of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse;
- prosecute the perpetrators;
- promote appropriate policies and national and international
co-operation against this phenomenon;
- ensure child participation.
6. It is because the Council of Europe realised that its best
opportunity to end sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children
was in the form of a campaign which would not only raise awareness
of the phenomenon, but would primarily promote the Lanzarote Convention,
that the Council of Europe ONE in FIVE Campaign to stop sexual violence
against children was launched in Rome on 29-30 November 2010. Uniting the
various organs and bodies of the Council of Europe, the campaign
is run at intergovernmental, parliamentary, regional and local levels.
To date, around 25 countries are involved in campaigning, in close
co-operation with all stakeholders, including parliaments, non-governmental
organisations (NGOs), institutions such as children’s commissioners
and ombudspersons, and others.
7. The ONE in FIVE Campaign – a statistic which refers to the
sad fact that about one in five children in Europe are a victim
of some form of sexual violence – is scheduled to run for a total
of four years. The time is now right to conduct a mid-term review
of the campaign, in order to celebrate its achievements and to learn from
good practices and increase the campaign’s impact even further in
the remaining two years. The aims of the campaign are twofold:
7.1 to achieve further signatures,
ratifications and implementation of the Council of Europe Convention
on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual
Abuse;
7.2 to equip children, their families/carers and society at
large with the knowledge and tools to prevent and report sexual
violence against children, thereby raising awareness of the extent
of it.
8. The working methods of the campaign are based on uniting the
stakeholders at all levels to focus on these two common aims. This
is achieved by having three dimensions at European level, respectively
run by the Council of Europe Programme “Building a Europe for and
with children” (responsible for the intergovernmental level and
for the co-ordination of the overall campaign), by the Parliamentary
Assembly, and by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.
The campaign also builds on the support of the leadership of the
Council of Europe’s various organs and bodies, such as the President
of the Parliamentary Assembly, the Deputy Secretary General of the
Council of Europe and the Thematic Co-ordinator on Children of the Committee
of Ministers. Furthermore, the monitoring mechanism of the Lanzarote
Convention – the Lanzarote Committee of Parties – is an important
element contributing to the success of the campaign.
2 The three
dimensions of the campaign – united we stand
9. The biggest success of the campaign is arguably the
number of ratifications of the Lanzarote Convention, which reached
25 in March 2013, that is more than half of all Council of Europe
member States. But the (less easily measurable) effect of the awareness-raising
activities in 25 countries in the first two years of the campaign
should also not be underestimated.
2.1 Intergovernmental
and national level: Building a Europe for and with children
10. At international level, the campaign is co-ordinated
through the Council of Europe Programme “Building a Europe for and
with Children”. Support for the development of the campaign at national
level is provided by the co-ordination unit responsible for carrying
through the strategic objectives of the Programme and includes: guidance
and support for Council of Europe national campaign partners; authorisation
to use the campaign material, campaign logo, etc; assistance in
the production of awareness-raising material in the national language(s);
and support for legislative reform and harmonising national legislation
with the convention’s provisions. The Programme also runs the official
campaign website
Note (which features the campaign’s three dimensions,
background information and the latest campaign news and resources).
It provides the Secretariat of the “Lanzarote Committee”, the Committee
of the Parties of the Lanzarote Convention set up to monitor its implementation,
which is one of the major strengths of the convention.
11. In fact, the intergovernmental sector was at the origin of
the campaign. The official launch was held on 29 and 30 November
2010 in Rome. The Italian Ministry of Equal Opportunities hosted
the event, attended by European members of governments, international
organisations, parliamentarians, local authorities, non-governmental
organisations and civil society, complemented by committed experts
from fields that are crucial to the campaign's success. The launch
received widespread media coverage. Strong political messages were conveyed
from the attendees during this two-day event, including the voices
of young people, who offered their own perspective on preventing
and disclosing child sexual abuse.
12. At the launch event, the material and tools produced for the
campaign were unveiled, in particular “The Underwear Rule” material
which was developed to prevent sexual abuse by encouraging dialogue
between parents and children. The material, centred around a book
aimed at young children called “Kiko and the hand”, also includes
a website (
www.underwearrule.org), a TV spot, posters and postcards. All of this material
is currently available for downloading in Czech, Dutch, English,
French, Italian, Russian, Serbian and Spanish (it also exists in
Catalan, Maltese and Romanian), and the TV spot has been translated
into 36 languages.
Note
13. Other campaign materials include the ONE in FIVE Campaign
poster and postcards (translated into 27 languages), a publication
on many aspects of sexual violence “Protecting children from sexual
violence – A comprehensive approach” (2010), material prepared by
the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress to assist parliamentarians
and local/regional politicians in campaigning (also available in
a number of languages on the website). A song “Stop the silence”
has also been dedicated to the campaign by the Serbian musician Aleksandra
Kovac, which now exists in Serbian, English and Italian. On the
occasion of Universal Children’s Day on 20 November 2012, the Council
of Europe launched a television and web documentary “Keep me safe”. This
documentary illustrates good practices taking place in different
member States through prevention, education and protection of victims,
and through promoting child-friendly justice.
Note
14. At the 10th meeting of the contact parliamentarians in Moscow
on 20 November 2012, Ms Anica Djamić, the Committee of Ministers'
Thematic Co-ordinator on Children, recounted that she regularly
informed the Committee of Ministers of progress made since the launch
of the campaign and also about implementation of the Strategy for
the Rights of the Child. With regard to the key goal of the campaign
– signature and ratification of the Lanzarote Convention – in two
years there had been two signatures and 13 additional ratifications
of the convention, while in 18 States campaigning was under way
for its signature, ratification or implementation. Some countries
were running public awareness campaigns and eight were planning
to do so.
15. In fact, only one country has yet to sign the Lanzarote Convention:
the Czech Republic. In the Czech Republic, where a national ONE
in FIVE Campaign has already been launched, the competent ministries appear
divided. The Latvian Justice Minister, Mr Janis Bordans, signed
the convention on 7 March 2013 after having secured the support
of the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers, following a call to do so from
the parliament’s Social and Labour Affairs Committee and the Latvian
parliamentary delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly.
16. Twenty-one signatory States still need to ratify the Lanzarote
Convention. In many of these States, the parliamentary work to incorporate
legislative amendments before ratification has begun. In other States, ratification
bills are already making their way through the parliamentary process
(which can take some time, in particular in federally organised
States).
17. The monitoring mechanism of the Lanzarote Convention (on which
the Parliamentary Assembly has a seat without voting rights) held
its first meeting in September 2011. It will hold its fourth meeting
on 21 and 22 March 2013 in Strasbourg, with a view to adopting a
questionnaire which will be used by States to provide information
on how the convention is being implemented in their country. The
drafts discussed by the Lanzarote Committee at its third meeting
provided both for a stock-taking questionnaire (which can also be
used subsequently as a base-line to assess progress in implementation
in member States) and for a first thematic monitoring round on “sexual
abuse of children in the circle of trust”. The interpretation of
the “circle of trust” by the competent expert, Robert R. Spano (Professor
and Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Iceland) – who presented
his interesting concept to the contact parliamentarians at their
10th meeting in Moscow in November 2012 –, being rather broad, the
Lanzarote Committee will have to be vigilant to ensure that the
answers of the States Parties are comprehensive and go into the
necessary depth.
18. For the countries which have ratified the convention, implementation
is now key. Usually, a country’s legislation will already have been
brought into conformity with the provisions of the Lanzarote Convention during
the ratification process (although there may be exceptions). In
the spirit of Article 38 of the Lanzarote Convention, on international
co-operation, the Lanzarote Committee will also have the role of
gathering examples of good practice. Since the Committee is only
just finalising the questionnaire on which it will base this work,
it is currently too early to give information on how State Parties
are complying with the convention.
19. However, it is already clear that multi-stakeholder involvement
is key. As regards the campaign, some good practice examples have
already been featured in various campaign material (for example
in the recent web and television documentary “Keep me safe from
sexual violence” mentioned above, in the Handbook for parliamentarians,
or in the parliamentary newsletters). Thus, NGOs and ombudsperson/child
commissioner institutions are involved in the campaign: for example,
the Maltese Commissioner for Children is the campaign partner at
national level. At her initiative, all school entry-level children
were provided with a Maltese adaptation of the Kiko book and all
primary schools received a copy for their libraries.
20. The current President of the Assembly, Mr Jean-Claude Mignon,
devoted 2012’s “Children’s parliament” in his home town of Dammarie-les-Lys
(where he is also Mayor) to the campaign. The Director of UNICEF’s CEE/CIS
Regional Office and the Deputy Secretary General of the Council
of Europe agreed to co-operate in promoting the ONE in FIVE Campaign
in an exchange of letters of July 2012. In Cyprus and Iceland, there
has been awareness-raising in schools, and national helplines have
appeared on ONE in FIVE Campaign TV spots in Armenia and Georgia.
The Oak Foundation supports campaigns run in eastern Europe and
supported the University of Bedfordshire (United Kingdom) which
conducted a desktop review “Challenging sexual violence in Europe:
using participatory methods with children” (2012). Further work
will continue in 2013 in training teachers under the Pestalozzi
Programme, as well as using the Handbook for teachers devised by
a Spanish NGO, and work will continue in combating sexual violence
against children in the domain of sport together with the Council
of Europe’s sports sector.
21. The role of international co-operation in tackling sexual
violence against children is also important. An international conference
took place on the second anniversary of the campaign launch in Rome
on 29-30 November 2012 in order to identify and promote new approaches
and strategies.
2.2 Parliamentary dimension:
Parliaments united in combating sexual violence against children
22. When adopting
Recommendation
1934 (2010) on 5 October 2010 on “Child abuse in institutions: ensuring
full protection of the victims”, the Assembly resolved to develop
the parliamentary dimension of the campaign. In the last two years,
the Assembly has set up a Network of contact parliamentarians (with
currently 53 members)
Note under
the banner of “Parliaments united in combating sexual violence against
children”, which has already held 11 meetings and adopted two declarations.
The Assembly has also inspired and supported numerous actions in
and by national parliaments and by parliamentarians in this framework.
23. To support the key goal of promoting the signature, ratification
and implementation of the Lanzarote Convention, the Assembly has
published a Handbook for parliamentarians on the convention as a
practical tool to help parliamentarians better understand and promote
it. The Handbook (currently available in English, French, German,
Romanian, Russian and Spanish, and soon to be published in Azeri)
highlights the sensitive issues which need to be tackled through
national legislation. A short leaflet on the parliamentary dimension
of the campaign has also been published, as well as a compendium
of activities and good practices implemented in 2011 and 2012 by
the Assembly and by the Network of contact parliamentarians involved
in the campaign.
Note A newsletter is published four times
a year with updates on the parliamentary dimension of the campaign
on the occasion of Assembly part-sessions (eight newsletters have
been published so far).
24. The Network of contact parliamentarians (ably chaired by the
current Chairperson of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and
Sustainable Development, Ms Liliane Maury Pasquier) is the backbone
of the parliamentary dimension, allowing its members to exchange
good practice and hear expert presentations on key features of the
Lanzarote Convention. During its 11 meetings so far, the Network
has tackled the following subjects, drawing on expertise from the
other dimensions of the campaign, the Council of Europe Commissioner
for Human Rights and outside experts and activists:
- sexual abuse of children with
mental disabilities;
- child sexual abuse in the circle of trust;
- fighting against sexual violence: empowering children;
- the obligation to report suspected sexual violence against
children;
- the means to redress and eliminate sexual violence against
children;
- preventing sexual violence against children;
- combating “child sex tourism”;
- combating “grooming” (solicitation of children through
the Internet for sexual purposes);
- combating “child pornography” on the Internet.Note
25. The national parliament has an important “watchdog” and monitoring
role to play in overseeing the effective implementation of the convention
at national level. The creation of a parliamentary committee on children’s
rights can be very useful in this respect. The preliminary results
of a parliamentary research study that the Assembly has commissioned
through the European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Documentation
(ECPRD) indicate that of 28 replies by member States (plus three
by observer States), 10 parliaments have a specific committee.
26. At the level of the Parliamentary Assembly, the Sub-Committee
on Children of the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee (and
its Chairperson, Carina Ohlsson from Sweden) made a significant
contribution to European campaign events and co-ordination in 2011.
This role was delegated to the newly created post of General Rapporteur
on Children of the Parliamentary Assembly in 2012 (the first General
Rapporteur, Ms Marlene Rupprecht from Germany, put a particular
emphasis on participation in Lanzarote Committee meetings).
2.3 Local and regional
dimension: An action plan and a pact of towns and regions
27. Local and regional authorities have a key responsibility,
along with national governments, to protect and promote citizens’
human rights, which includes safeguarding and promoting the safety
and welfare of children and young people. The services that are
needed to help victims of sexual violence and abuse are provided,
in the main, at the local level. This is also the level where preventive,
awareness-raising measures and assistance can be most effective.
Local and regional authorities are therefore on the frontline of
the fight to stop sexual violence against children and must develop
and implement action plans and strategies to deal with current cases
and prevent new ones.
28. With this in mind, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities
of the Council of Europe approved a Strategic Action Plan in 2011
which aims to raise awareness of the ONE in FIVE Campaign’s aims
among Congress members, local and regional authorities, as well
as national associations of local and regional authorities. It also
hopes to encourage local and regional authorities to launch their
own campaigns and to adopt a multi-stakeholder approach, as proposed
by the Lanzarote Convention.
29. The main tool the Congress is using to achieve these aims
is its Pact of Towns and Regions to Stop Sexual Violence against
Children, endorsed by the Congress Bureau in 2012. The Pact contains
a list of initiatives, such as the ones detailed in the Lanzarote
Convention, which local and regional authorities may take; these
initiatives are organised according to the four-pronged approach
of Prevention, Protection, Prosecution and Participation. As, in
these times of economic and financial crisis, many local authorities
are seeing their resources cut, the list includes initiatives requiring
very little if any public spending, as well as others which will
necessitate substantial investment because of the need to define
specific strategies and set up dedicated structures.
30. The Congress is urging as many towns and regions as possible
to commit to the ONE in FIVE Campaign by signing up for the Pact.
A specific programme of awareness raising was launched in 2013 and
a “Pact Platform” has been set up on the Congress’s ONE in FIVE
website,
Note where towns and regions can sign
up and provide information on what they are doing in the fight to
stop sexual violence against children. This Platform will also serve
as a database of good practices. It is due to be launched during
the Congress’ 24th session (19-21 March 2013).
31. Two other awareness-raising activities were organised by the
Congress in 2012 for different audiences: information on the Pact
was given to national associations of local and regional authorities,
a major partner for the Congress in raising visibility of its activities;
and examples of the types of initiatives and structures listed in the
Pact were examined during a seminar organised for Congress members
and other interested parties. The seminar allowed for an exchange
of views among local and regional authorities and presentation of
such initiatives as the Zagreb Centre for Child Protection (Croatia)
and the Engage multi-agency team in Blackburn with Darwen (United
Kingdom).
32. While many measures advocated by the Lanzarote Convention
will have to be transposed into criminal and civil laws, some crucial
issues in the field of child protection may come under the remit
of regions, such as the regulation and organisation of welfare,
social and health services and the adoption of specific measures and
structures to prevent and protect children from sexual exploitation
and abuse. Congress Resolution 350 (2012) and Recommendation 332
(2012) on regional action and legislation to combat sexual exploitation
and abuse of children, adopted in October 2012, make some relevant
recommendations to regions, especially those with legislative powers,
and member States.
3 Challenges
33. For all its success, the ONE in FIVE Campaign has
faced several challenges – some of which still continue today. The
first – and possibly most difficult and enduring one – is how to
run a successful campaign on a shoestring budget. The Council of
Europe has come under increasing budgetary pressure, coupled with targets
to reduce a staff/activity ratio perceived as unbalanced by some
member States. Since campaigning is by definition a staff-intensive
activity, and it has proven practically impossible to finance staff
reinforcement for the campaign from the ordinary budget, permanent
staff members in the intergovernmental sector, the Assembly and
the Congress have had to devote considerable chunks of their working
time to campaigning – amongst many competing priorities.
Note
34. It is only thanks to the generous voluntary contribution of
the German Government in 2011, and of the Parliaments of Armenia,
Austria, Azerbaijan, Finland, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal,
the Russian Federation and Switzerland, and the Governments of Andorra,
Finland, Germany and Liechtenstein in 2012, that the campaign has
managed to maintain its dynamic parliamentary dimension. The Parliamentary Assembly
hopes to continue to raise enough funds to continue its campaign
work until it comes to an end in November 2014, but other dimensions
– in particular the local and regional one, which urgently needs strengthening
– may not succeed in the same way. The Committee of Ministers should
be encouraged to “put its money where its mouth is”, and allocate
sufficient funds from the ordinary budget to all dimensions of the campaign
until November 2014, including the necessary staff resources – and
sufficient funds for the Lanzarote Committee thereafter, to ensure
meaningful monitoring.
35. Another big challenge has been breaking the taboo on sexual
violence against children in many countries. Due to different cultural
sensitivities and traditions, not all campaign material and good
practice is successful in all member States. Something which constitutes
a good practice in one member State (such as confidential preventive
treatment for persons fearing they may become sexual offenders in
Germany) may not be easily transferable to another, especially as
legal systems differ significantly and mentalities change only slowly.
36. The campaign has already covered a lot of ground in the past
two years, but many challenging issues remain to be treated, such
as peer-to-peer sexual violence (in particular amongst adolescents),
sexual abuse in sports, effective treatment (both preventive and
after-the-fact) of sexual offenders which is consistent with European
human rights standards… this list is not exhaustive. I also believe
that we urgently need to develop – and widely disseminate – campaign
material for adolescents (perhaps a short video clip which can be
shared via social media?). Indeed, I think it would also be useful
for the campaign to have its own dedicated Facebook page, and possibly
even a Twitter account.
37. The final challenge will come after the campaign has ended
in November 2014: how can we keep up the momentum of the campaign
to ensure that progress continues to be made regarding the ratification
and implementation of the Lanzarote Convention without an official
campaign? Of course, parliamentarians can keep up the pressure on
their governments to sign and ratify (for example through parliamentary
questions), and can also ensure that adequate legislation is passed
for its implementation, and can influence the budgetary resources
which are devoted to fighting sexual violence against children at
national level. But will this be enough?
4 Conclusions
and recommendations: stepping up the campaign’s outreach and effectiveness
38. While the Council of Europe can rightly be proud
of the achievements of the first two years of campaigning, I believe
it is possible to step up the campaign’s outreach and effectiveness
even further. We must not rest on our laurels, but strive to meet
the ultimate aim of the campaign: that all member States in Europe
(and other States beyond) are not only Party to the Lanzarote Convention,
but also implement its provisions and develop an array of awareness-raising
measures, be it in the form of a campaign or other – so that the
shameful number of ONE in FIVE becomes a much, much smaller one.
39. First, I believe that adequate financing from the ordinary
budget of the Council of Europe (first for the three dimensions
of the campaign until its end in November 2014, then for the Lanzarote
Committee), including for related staff expenditure, is a precondition
for success at European level. In this way, more time can be invested
in carrying out the real objectives of the campaign and ensuring
that the campaign does not become too “donor-driven”.
40. Second, I believe that the key to success in the fight against
sexual violence against children is a multi-stakeholder approach
at all levels. Thus, I would like to see increased co-operation
between the different tiers of government at national level, but
also full involvement of parliaments, NGOs, ombudsperson/child commissioner
institutions, academia and children, young people and parents themselves.
This co-operation should go beyond mere dialogue and include concrete
measures with an impact on the ground. The plight of victims, who
are often cut off from legal avenues to seek redress because of
statutes of limitations and/or lack of sufficient evidence which
would stand up in a criminal court, should be given particular attention.
Financial compensation – at least in a symbolic form – should also
be considered.
41. Third and last, I believe that we need to tackle all the issues
related to sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children, however
difficult, sensitive or painful some of them are. We must not allow
ourselves to become complacent just because our country has signed
and/or ratified the Lanzarote Convention; do our laws really stand
the test? Are they correctly implemented? Is there some good practice
in another country which we can learn from and which can help us
progress that bit more towards preventing sexual violence against
children, protecting and helping the victims, and successfully prosecuting
the perpetrators? That “bit more” could save a child from an awful
fate.
