EU intends to take new measures to
protect children from violence
The quarantine introduced amid the COVID-19 pandemic did not have the best effect on the lives of little Europeans. Children locked up in their homes for two months did not attend school and were deprived of normal communication with their peers. Some have suffered abuse, including on social media, Euronews reported.
According to Ylva Johansson, European Commissioner for Home Affairs, the pandemic has exacerbated the issue:
The EU envisages the creation of a European center for the fight against child sexual abuse - the organization of a crime prevention network, and the formation of a reliable legal framework that fully utilizes the existing EU legislation in the field of combating sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children.
Brussels indicates that it is striving to resolve these issues as soon as possible.
The European Commission hopes that the proposed initiatives will be effective and that Europe will continue to play a leading role in the fight against abuse and violence against minors...
It's not hard to play a leading role when so many other regions and countries are doing little or nothing.
Just Beginnings Collaborative (JBC) Announces
'We See You Fund' Grantees
Coalition of survivor-leaders and funder allies identifies and supports 12 exemplary organizations seeking to prevent childhood sexual harm
OAKLAND, CALIF. (PRWEB)
This June, Just Beginnings Collaborative (JBC) announced its funding of 12 grantees as part of the donor collaborative’s We See You Fund. JBC carefully selected organizations that center survivors, especially queer and trans, Black and Indigenous people of color, those with disabilities, and those with complex immigration status issues, in their efforts to interrupt, support healing from, and prevent child sexual abuse. The group of grantees comprises initiatives from across the country, and includes projects that approach child sexual harm expansively, often as part of other anti-violence movement-building.
“We See You Fund grantees represent the tremendous creativity and strength that those traditionally blocked from opportunity are bringing to our ongoing public health crisis and the growing call to finally reckon with our shared past, rooted in systemic racism and oppression,” said JBC Executive Director Nicole Pittman. “We meant for the We See You Fund to be an acknowledgment that we see and hear the alternative futures for children people bring into being every day. We are in awe of our grantees’ hopeful spirit and continue to learn from their examples about what it means to truly support an end to childhood sexual harm.”
JBC’s 2020 We See You Fund grantees include:
The Brave House
Embodiment Project
Fathers & Families of San Joaquin
The Hive Community Circle
Human Rights for Kids
The Inner Truth Project
Music Beyond Measure
Native Justice Coalition
Prostasia Foundation
S.O.U.L. Sisters Leadership Collective
Sovereign Bodies Institute
Women’s Leadership Project
The We See You Fund specifically sought to support work with multiply vulnerable children and adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse who are at the greatest risk of harm. Young people belonging to these groups are often overlooked by institutions, which makes efforts to center them all the more essential during this critical time. Pittman sees all 12 of the grantees as “possessing a deep commitment to creative, hopeful, survivor-led solutions that begin with communities and flourish through thoughtful action.”
“We not only see their good work now; we see the transformative opportunities they are seeding in every moment.”
More About Just Beginnings Collaborative
Since 2015, Just Beginnings Collaborative has been building an alliance of survivor-leaders and funders dedicated to ending child sexual abuse and fostering a branching (rhizomatic) process of interconnection to get there. We support survivor-centered efforts that propagate transformative practices in criss-crossing root systems. We align with funders who want those roots to penetrate the philanthropic world. We grow through and past binaries of good and evil. We advance a campaign to restory child sexual abuse by traversing a vast horizontal root web of influences. Where others have seen only inevitability, we sense tremendous possibility.
JBC operates under the fiscal sponsorship of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (http://www.rockpa.org). For more information, please visit http://www.justbeginnings.org.
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Saudi Arabia: Sex harassment penalty irreversible
Offender liable to jailing, fine even if victim renounces right
Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent, Gulf News
Cairo: A legal punishment against sex harassment is irreversible in Saudi Arabia even if the victim renounced own right or did not file a legal complaint, a state rights watchdog has said.
In 2018, Saudi Arabia approved a law criminalising sexual harassment, making the act punishable by up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of SR300,000.
The Saudi Human Rights Commission (HRC) has said that in the crime of harassment, the victim’s renunciation of own right or failure to file a complaint does not deny the competent agencies the right to take the legal action they deem necessary to serve common good.
The panel has defined harassment as every verbal expression, deed or motion carrying sexual insinuation made by a person towards another referring to the body and honour or harming modesty in any way including modern technology methods.
According to Saudi law, harassment carries a punishment of three years in prison and a fine of SR100,000 or one of both penalties.
But if the victim is a child, a person with special needs or has been subjected to the act while sleeping or unconscious, the crime is punishable by up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of SR300,000 or one of both penalties.
The HRC has urged state and private sector institutions to put in place a mechanism to receive complaints of alleged harassment, verify them and hand down administrative punishment to offenders.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has sought to fight sex offences and boost women’s rights as part of drastic reforms in the kingdom championed by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
New campaign launch by Canadian Centre for Child Protection
The Graphic Leader
A new online safety campaign launched by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P) and supported with provincial funding is urging families to talk with their tweens and teens about the risks of online activities such as live streaming, online gaming and live chatting, Families Minister Heather Stefanson announced today.
“With more young people spending time online than ever before during the COVID-19 pandemic, digital safety is more important than ever,” said Stefanson. “It is important for parents to have the information and tools they need about online safety so they can have important conversations with their children about staying safe online. We are proud to partner with the Canadian Centre for Child Protection on this campaign, which highlights the importance of checking in with your kids regularly, setting limits, and knowing how to identify potential dangers.”
C3P’s [Cybertip.ca]Cybertip.ca tipline has seen more than an 80 per cent increase in online child exploitation reports in recent months.
The new campaign, which launches this week and runs until late fall, focuses on parents and caregivers of tweens aged eight to 12 who use live-stream apps, gaming platforms and live chat features. It includes television, print, digital and social media tools, with additional information and resources available at [protectkidsonline.ca]protectkidsonline.ca, a website that provides tips on what parents can do to keep kids safe online, along with age-appropriate points to talk about with tweens and teens.
Free online safety lessons have also been developed for teachers with students in grades 3 to 8 on how to identify and respond to unsafe situations online.
“It is imperative that we work collectively to raise awareness and mitigate risks surrounding online safety concerns facing tweens and teens,” said Signy Arnason, associate executive director, C3P. “Through Cybertip.ca, we are seeing kids as young as eight years old being targeted by adults through live stream apps, and in the last few years have processed over 300 reports involving child exploitation that originated in an online gaming environment. So it is important for parents and educators to have these online safety conversations at every age in order to keep kids safe.”
The new online safety lessons, which are also available to families for free, can be accessed at protectchildren.ca/order.
The Manitoba government first announced its support for this campaign in early March. It supports the work of the province’s sexual exploitation strategy, Tracia’s Trust, and the findings of the Collaboration and Best Practices to End Sex Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation in Manitoba research report, which was released last year. The need for increased public awareness about sexual exploitation and the risks to Manitoba youth was also highlighted by the Advisory Council of Knowledge Keepers, which provides guidance and the inclusion of experiential voices to the province on these important issues.
C3P is a national charity dedicated to the personal safety of all children. The organization’s goal is to reduce the sexual abuse and exploitation of children through programs, services and resources for Canadian families, educators, child-serving organizations, law enforcement and other parties. C3P also operates Cybertip.ca, Canada’s national tipline to report child sexual abuse and exploitation on the Internet.
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Germany unveils plan to crackdown on child sex offenders
The ministry of justice proposed a bill to coin the term "sexualized violence against children" as a new crime and extends sentences for child sex offenders. The plans come after a series of horrifying child abuse cases.
Germany's Justice Ministry has proposed a bill introducing a new crime of "sexualized violence against children" and tougher penalties for sex offenders.
The reason for the new term would be to "clearly describe the injustice of the acts" of sex abuse against children, said Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht, who presented the bill.
The term "sexual abuse" was previously used when a relationship of dependence was exploited – not only regarding children, but also other scenarios including in prisons or nursing homes. Any sexual act with children under the age of 14 is considered illegal.
Under the proposal, the offense of "sexualized violence against children" will be a new crime, with a penalty between one and 15 years in prison. Until now, sex crimes against children have been punishable with jail terms ranging from six months to 10 years.
Well, shoot! It's a start but either violence or sexual abuse should be good for at least 1-10 years, but any combination of those dramatically increases the trauma on the child and should be reflected in a dramatically increased sentence. One to ten years is woefully insufficient.
Getting tough on sex abuse
In the future, acts "without physical contact" would be met with a minimum sentence of six months. The distribution, possession and procurement of child pornography will also be met with a stricter punishment. Those convicted of distributing images or videos of child sex abuse can be imprisoned from one to 10 years, as opposed to the current term of three months to five years.
One to ten years? The same punishment as violent child sexual abuse? Good grief!
Meanwhile, possession and procurement of such images could be punishable by one to five years. Currently, the penalty is three years imprisonment or a fine. Sharing commercially or through gangs would also be punishable by two (to) 15 years, as opposed to the current six months to 10 years.
The statute of limitations to press charges would also be extended until the victim reaches the age of 30, according to the draft bill. Meanwhile, the amount of time a conviction will be included on a criminal record would also be extended considerably.
Wow! This is so inadequate! The statute of limitations closing at 30 is going to miss the majority of survivors of child sexual abuse. The average age of people when they begin to deal with their CSA is 43. I, myself, was in my late 30s and was in my 50s before I ever sought any help with it.
The bill would also allow for greater virtual surveillance of suspects involved in the creation of child abuse images and investigations into its procurement or possession.
The proposed changes follow the biggest investigation into organized child sex abuse in the history of modern Germany. In October of last year, police searched the house of 43-year-old Jörg L., a cook and hotel manager who was accused of filming himself sexually abusing his daughter who was born in 2017. The search, which eventually involved over 300 police officers, led to the discovery of a criminal pedophile network with tens of thousands of suspects.
There are so many good things in this bill that will make a difference in many lives, but it fails to come down hard enough on violent offenders, and it fails to include the thousands of people who could not deal with their horror story before turning thirty.
Scrap the statute of limitations entirely and, at least triple the sentences for violent sex offenders. A ten-year sentence will allow paedophiles who terrorize children to be released from prison while some of those children are still children. This is cruelly unfair to victims and completely fails to protect children.
Scrap the statute of limitations entirely and, at least triple the sentences for violent sex offenders. A ten-year sentence will allow paedophiles who terrorize children to be released from prison while some of those children are still children. This is cruelly unfair to victims and completely fails to protect children.
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