Fighting sexual violence:

Council of Europe legal instruments

Ksenija Turković
Professor of Criminal Law
Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb
 Worst forms of violence against children

 2, 000 000 children are used in the sex industry each

year (UNICEF)

 There are more than 1, 000 000 images of some 10-

20 thousand sexually abused children posted on the
Internet

 There are no statistics on the total amount of sexual

abuse of children in Europe

 Discrepancy between the number of reported and

actual cases
 Review of the existing
international documents
 The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (art. 34)
 The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child
prostitution and child pornography
 International Labour Organisation Convention 182 concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action
for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour

 The European Social Charter (revised)

 The Convention on Protection Against Sexual Exploatation & Sexual Abuse
 The Convention on Cyber crime (art. 9)
 The Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings
 The Council of Europe Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights
 Recommendation No. R (91) 11 concerning sexual exploitation, pornography and prostitution of, and
trafficking in, children and young adults
 Recommendation Rec(2001)16 on the protection of children against sexual exploitation
 Recommendation Rec (2006) 8 on assistance to victims of crimes

 The Council of the European Union Framework Decision on combating the sexual exploitation of
children and child pornography
 The Council of the European Union Framework Decision on the standing of victims in criminal
procedures

 The Stockholm Declaration and Agenda for Action

 The Yokohama Global Commitment
 The Budapest Commitment and Plan of Action
 Purposes of the Documents
 to promot the well being & best interest of
any child
 to prevent and combat sexual exploitation
and sexual abuse of children;
 to protect the rights of child victims of sexual
exploitation and sexual abuse;
 to promote national and international co-
operation against sexual exploitation and
sexual abuse of children.
 Definitions

 “child” - any person under the age of

eighteen years
 “victim” - any child subject to sexual
exploitation or sexual abuse
 Content
 Substantive criminal law (offences, sanctions,
aggrevated circumstances)
 Procedural law (child friendly justice – rights of
victims, protective measures, assistance to victims,
position before, during & after proceedings)
 Preventive measures
 Specialised authorities and co-ordinating bodies
 Intervention programmes or measures
 Recording and storing of data
 International co-operation
 Substantive criminal law
Offences
 “sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children”:
 Sexual abuse (18 CSESAC),
 Child prostitution (19 CSESAC)
 Child pornography (20 CSESAC, 9 CCC)
 Child pornographyc performances (21 CSESAC)
 Corruption of children (22 CSESAC)
 Solicitation of children for sexual purposes (23 CSESAC)
 Sexual slavery
 Sexual tourism (double criminality rule not required)
 Trafficing in children (18 CAaTHB)
 Sexual abuse (18 CSESAC)
 legal age for sexual activities left open
 must incriminate coercion, abuse of trust/authority,
abuse of voulnerable situation (e.g. disability)
 does not govern consensual sexual activities between
minors
 Child prostitution (19 CSESAC)
 recruiting, causing to participate, coercing, profiting
from exploatation
 having recaurse (clients)
 payment or other consideratin given or promissed to
child or third person
 Child pornography (20 CSESAC, 9 CCC)
 Producing, offering or making available, distributing or
transmitting, procuring for oneself or for another
person; possessing, knowingly obtaining access through
information and communication technologies
(reservation)
 any material that visually depicts a child engaged in real
or simulated sexually explicit conduct or any depiction
of a child’s sexual organs for primarily sexual purposes
(definition)
 simulated representations or realistic images of a non-
existent child (reservation)
 excluded materials produced and possessed by children
with their consent and solely for their own private use
 Child pornographyc performances (21 CSESAC)
 recruiting or causing a child to participate; coercing a
child or profiting from or otherwise exploiting a child
 knowingly attending pornographic performances

involving the participation of children (reservation)

 Corruption of children (22 CSESAC)

 intentional causing, for sexual purposes, of a
child who has not reached the legal age for
sexual activities to witness sexual abuse or
sexual activities, even without having to
participate
 Solicitation of children for sexual purposes (23
CSESAC)
 intentional proposal, through information and
communication technologies, of an adult to meet a
child who has not reached the legal age for sexual
activities for the purpose of committing any of the
above offences where this proposal has been followed
by material acts leading to such a meeting.
 Sanctions
 Natural persons
 Deprivation of liberty
 Other measures
 Withdrawal of parental rights
 Monitoring & supervision of perpetrator

 Legal entities
 exclusion from entitlement to public benefits or aid;
 temporary or permanent disqualification from the practice
of commercial activities;
 placing under judicial supervision;
 judicial winding-up order

 Both
 Seizure & confiscation
 The temporary or permanent closure of an establishment
 Aggrevating circumstances
 the offence seriously damaged the physical or mental health of the victim;
 the offence was preceded or accompanied by acts of torture or serious
violence;
 the offence was committed against a particularly vulnerable victim (victim
of trafficing – 19 CAaTHB));
 the offence was committed by a member of the family, a person cohabiting
with the child or a person having abused his or her authority;
 the offence was committed by several people acting together;
 the offence was committed within the framework of a criminal
organisation;
 the perpetrator has previously been convicted of offences of the same
nature
 the offence was committed by public official (trafficing)
 Preventive measures
 Awairness raising of general public (children rights, forms of abuse
and exploatation)
 Recruitment (persons convicted for these crimes could not be admitted to work place in
which they would have regular contacts with children ) & training
 Education of children (potential risks and ways to avoid them – sexual
education)
 Prevent or prohibit the dissemination of materials advertising
the offences
 Preventive intervention programs or measures
 Research
 Border measures, security & control of documents
 Specialised authorities and co-
ordinating bodies
 institutions for the promotion and protection of
the rights of the child (e.g. ombuds. for
children)
 focal points - observing and evaluating the
phenomenon of sexual exploitation sexual
abuse of children
Intervention programmes or measures

 Relaps prevention programs (right to

consent/refuse)
 Recording and storing of data

 Collecting & storing data relating to the

identity and to the genetic profile of convicted
person
 Single national authority in charge of that
 International co-operation

 Victims may make a complaint before the

competent authorities of their state of
residence
 Mutual legal assistance in criminal matters or
extradition
 Integrate prevention and the fight against
sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of
children in assistance programmes
 Transfer info. on endangerment (trafficing)
 Child Friendly Justice
 Encourage reporting; remove confidentiality rule
 Jurisdiction over nationals is not subordinate to the
condition that the acts are criminalised at the place
where they were performed
 Ex officio proceedings
 Statute of limitation prolonged
 Uncertainty about the age should not prevent
investigation
 Possibility of covert operations
 Treating children with dignity & compassion

 The right to be informed

 About their rights, services
 Release of the perpetrator
 On ct. proceedings and available remedies
 Adopted to their maturity; in appropriate language

 The right to be heard and express views and

concerns
 Access to criminal proceedings (access to records)
 Representation of children before the court (guardian ad
litem, legal counsel)
 Expressing views and concerns (translation, special
communicator)
 The right to protection from hardship during
justice process
 Adult attendant
 Multidisciplinary child abuse teams
 Forensic interviewing (without delay; special premisses,
specially trained professionals,same person)
 Closing the courtroom
 Alternatives to live, in court testimony
 Avoid meetings with perpetrator
 Organisation of the court premisses

 The right to effective assistance

 Speical representative
 Legal counsel free of charge
 Represented by NGOs, foundations, groups, etc.
 Protection of privacy
 Closed trials
 Details not made publicly known – acces to records
 Encourage self-regulation of media

 The right to assistance & safety

 Establish specialized victim assistance services, helplines
 Assistance to victims and close persons (financial, medical,
psychological, emotional)
 Special protective measures (removing alleged
perpetrator/victim from the family)
 Identify faimily, if it is in the best interesto of the child
 If not national still should have acess to labor market &
education
 Not conditional on willingness to act as witness
 Child victims shall not be returned to a State, if there is
indication, following a risk and security assessment, that
such return would not be in the best interests of the child
 Speedy trial

 The right to reparation, recovery & social integration

 Simplification of procedures

 Use of informal and community justice procedures

 Special preventive measures

 Permit exercise of discretionary power at all levels of

juvenile justice administration
 Added Value
 New crimes introduced
 participation of child in pornographic performances,
 corruption of children,
 solicitation of children for sexual purposes
 The scope of traditional offences is widened or more
precisely defined
 clients incriminated for prostitution;
 refers to all types of pornography not only computor based
 intentional access to porno. material on Internet/by use of IT is punishable
 simulated presentations of nonexistant chyildren deemed pornography
 Aggrevating circumstances defined
 abuse of children within family
 abuse of voulnerable children
 Period of limitation is extended (leave children enough time after
becoming of legal age to sue)
 Definition of jurisdiction – no double criminality is required

 Taking of parental rights – defined as sanction

 Number of measures for the protection of child victims &

witnesses is introduced

 The use of covert operations during investigations is possible

 The criminal proceedings must be officially instigated

 Report of these crimes does not constitute violation of

professional secrecy

 Database of perpetrators should be established

 Focal points for the collection of data & research should be
established

 Persons convicted for these crimes could not be admitted to

work place in which they would have regular contacts with
children

 Intervention programs for perpetrators & potential perpetrators

of these crimes should be introduced (consent/refusal)

 Training should be provided to all kinds of professionals

coming in contact with children

 Data and info. on potential risks and ways to avoid them should
be disseminated among children (through sexual education
preferably)
Thank you for your attention