Protecting Europe’s children

Date: 24/04/1997

DELAYS in the ratification of the Europol convention clearly highlight the difficulty EU member states have turning words into action.

The convention will help provide new powers and resources for combating sexual exploitation of children, yet ministers who were quick to pledge action in response to the Dutroux scandal in Belgium last year have not succeeded in completing the first step of ratifying the convention.

The time has come to turn consensus into commitment.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) has been working for more than 100 years protecting children and preventing child abuse.

In recent years, fully aware of the EU's impact on the lives of children, we have been working with other organisations throughout the Union to develop a European approach to child protection issues.

The NSPCC played a role in establishing the European Forum for Child Welfare (EFCW), the first pan-European umbrella body for children's organisations. In 1995, faced with the challenge of giving children a voice at the Intergovernmental Conference, the NSPCC was instrumental in building Euronet, the European network for children's rights and protection.

Euronet has since played an energetic part in bringing together child welfare organisations in every member state in a campaign to make governments aware of the importance of a proper legal base for children's issues.

Prior to interest in the issue of child sexual exploitation following the Dutroux scandal, the NSPCC and Euronet were working successfully with the EU institutions to give more coherence and coordination to the fight against the crime at a European level.

The NSPCC's pivotal role in Euronet reflects our belief that the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are changing their way of working.

Whilst the exchange of information has its place, it is only of use if the information exchanged is then used to the benefit of children. We believe that a new, more proactive approach is needed on a pan-European level.

The EU is only now beginning to address its role in combating the sexual exploitation of children. Our experience, particularly in recent times, has shown us very clearly that child abuse is a crime that knows no boundaries and can affect any child of any family in any country.

The NSPCC strongly believes that the Union is not only in the position of being able to complement and add value to member state action on child abuse, but actually has a responsibility to play a leading role.

The opening of borders in the single market has affected, and will continue to affect, children as the most vulnerable members of our society.

The most evident result of open borders and freedom of movement is the increased freedom given to paedophiles to move themselves and children around Europe.

A paedophile who has been convicted of abusing children in one EU country could easily move to another without his conviction following him, and may have little problem finding a job there working with children.

The ability of families and workers to cross borders also presents new dangers for children. A child identified as at risk within his or her own family may not be protected once it has moved to another member state. Children who leave their native country to live or to be abused in another can all too often fall into a vacuum where no authority is responsible for them.

There is currently a jigsaw of protection in the EU, with member states taking different approaches and having different priorities. With its long experience in child protection issues, the NSPCC believes it has a key role to play in helping to piece this jigsaw together.

The European Commission also has an important responsibility to provide leadership on this issue. The openness of the Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Anita Gradin to input and advice from NGOs has been most welcome, as is her practical approach to finding solutions to this problem.

The hearing organised by the justice and home affairs task force on sexual exploitation of children provided a forum for exchange of information on the approach of different countries to tackling child abuse and for NGOs to inform the Commission of action we believe it should be taking.

Yet the Commission itself and the NGOs involved will not be thanked if fine words remain our starting point.

The NSPCC is keen to see the positive debate of the hearing turned into immediate action and results. The new budget-line funding measures for combating violence against children and the STOP programme will provide important resources for research into how the problem of child abuse can best be addressed at European level. But once again, these words must be backed up by action.

The European institutions and child welfare NGOs must improve the way in which they work together to develop initiatives and policies which will assist in the fight against sexual abuse.

The NSPCC sees the anniversaries of the adoption, in September 1996, of the European Parliament resolution on minors who are victims of violence, and of the joint action approved by justice and home affairs ministers two months later as clear deadlines for the delivery of concrete results.

Both the EU institutions and NGOs should also take action to fill the information vacuum which has left parents and the general public in a state of confusion and fear over the issue of child sexual abuse.

None of us can be responsible for creating hysteria, nor for creating an atmosphere where children grow up in a constant state of fear. However, it is clear that an immediate response is necessary, at a pan-European as well as national level.

A number of measures taken recently in the UK parliament deserve the attention of European legislators: a convicted sex offenders register; increased vetting and supervision of sex offenders; more powers to take DNA samples; a ban on the use of court statements as porno-graphy; and a review of the use of the Internet.

It is clear that there are differences and similarities in member states' approaches to this issue which can often look like a patchwork quilt of protection.

We do not expect that our experiences are exactly replicable elsewhere, yet this should not prevent a European agenda for tackling child abuse.

There is no place for misplaced national or organisational pride when it comes to child protection. The attitude that 'it cannot happen here' is misguided and very damaging. Experience has clearly shown that no country or region can consider itself immune from child sex offenders, whether in the home or in the community.

The NSPCC sees itself as one of many building blocks, creating a foundation for work on a pan-European level.

We have recently produced a booklet, Protecting children from sexual abuse in the community, which provides practical advice and information for parents and carers on how to protect their children. It is important to banish the image of the paedophile as the lone outsider waiting by the school gates and make people aware of the fact that most sexual abuse of children is carried out by someone known to the child.

The Union does not need to be defensive about this issue and must positively accept the role it has to play.

Ratification of the Europol convention is the first essential step of many.

There are worries that a proposed EU register of missing children may not come into being until the end of the decade. Three years may not seem long to politicians, but it is an eternity to children's organisations such as the NSPCC and the police and judicial authorities who are already fighting sophisticated networks of paedophiles.

A Europe without borders became a reality for child sex offenders long before the rest of the population.

The Union must be ready to give a lead and to take immediate and effective action. The people of Europe will increasingly refuse to accept words which pledge commitment in a demanding political climate unless those words are followed by action which will help us to protect our children from a crime which shocks like no other.

HTy Goddard is UK and European political adviser to the NSPCC in London. Kate Seymour is the NSPCC's European consultant in Brussels. The NSPCC is Britain's leading charity specialising in child protection and the prevention of cruelty to children.