26/01/2011 Equality and Non-Discrimination
Strasbourg, 26.01.2011 – A network of PACE parliamentarians held its first meeting today in Strasbourg to launch the parliamentary dimension of the Council of Europe’s “One in five” campaign to combat sexual violence against children.
The group – which will eventually bring together “contact parliamentarians” from each of the Council of Europe’s 47 parliaments – will be pressing for better laws to protect children, spread good practice and organise awareness-raising events across the continent.
“It is estimated that one child in five becomes a victim of sexual exploitation or abuse of some form,” said PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, addressing the launch. “These figures are frightening.” He said parliamentary action was crucial to the success of the campaign: “Let us mobilise the means at our disposal as parliamentarians and contribute to a society in which our children may grow happily and safely in their ‘circles of trust’.”
The President also officially launched a 120-page Handbook for parliamentarians on promoting the Lanzarote Convention, a multilateral treaty which harmonises European laws to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation. “We can say without exaggeration that it is the most comprehensive and most innovative instrument worldwide today,” the President pointed out. Ten states have so far ratified, and a further 32 have signed the convention, which came into force in July 2010.