21/05/2015 Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The PACE network of contact parliamentarians to stop sexual violence against children held its 23rd meeting in Chisinau (Republic of Moldova) yesterday. Devoted to the theme of strategies and mechanisms to protect children from sexual abuse, trafficking and sexual exploitation, parliamentarians heard from local Moldovan and international experts which strategies work – and which don’t.
Valeriu Ghiletchi (Republic of Moldova, EPP/CD), the Network’s Chairperson, emphasised: “We have really learnt a lot today – but, even more importantly, we have had the opportunity to discuss a common strategy to go on fighting sexual violence against children even when the ONE in FIVE campaign comes to an end later this year. While we can rightly be proud that we have achieved a record number of ratifications of the Lanzarote Convention in recent years – and we hope that the Czech parliament will vote its ratification bill today, becoming the 37th country to be bound by the Convention, the `gold standard´in its field – we all know that ratification is not enough: implementation on the ground is key.“
Participants agreed that for child protection mechanisms to be effective, they need to respond to topical events, address abuse in different contexts (institutions, the family, etc.), and gather all stakeholders involved on a continuous basis not only encouraging, but also legally obliging them to co-operate. Training professionals of various backgrounds (including volunteer workers) and setting up child-friendly procedures and institutions are amongst the key areas for action; many good practice examples exist at the European level, and countries need to be encouraged to regularly exchange information about them.
Mr Ghiletchi concluded that effective measures could be envisaged in many areas but that the lack of resources was a constant concern in most countries – sufficient budgets therefore needed to be assigned to such policies, including through relevant decisions by national parliaments.