5th Meeting of the Network of Contact Parliamentarians

to fight sexual violence against children

Florence, Italy, 17 November 2011

Speech by Ms Dusica Davidovic, Thematic Rapporteur on Children, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

of the Council of Europe

Madam President,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to speak to you today as newly appointed Thematic Rapporteur on Children of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities. The Congress Bureau made its decision to appoint a Thematic Rapporteur because it sets great store by the Congress’ participation in the Council of Europe platform "Building a Europe For and With Children", and the Congress’ contribution to the ONE in FIVE Campaign to combat sexual violence against children, which is also the focus of your Network.

This decision was the first step in the implementation of the Congress’ Strategic Action Plan on the local and regional dimensions of the ONE in FIVE Campaign, which was approved by the Bureau in September and which I am here to present.

The Parliamentary Assembly, of course, has been actively promoting the parliamentary dimension of the Campaign for quite some time, in particular through this Network of Contact Parliamentarians – the fact that today is already your fifth meeting speaks for itself. Much like you, we, local and regional elected representatives, share the grave concern about the scourge of sexual abuse of children, and the conviction that urgent action is needed at all levels of governance to stop and prevent it. Elected representatives at all levels must be at the forefront of this action, and local and regional authorities, their municipal and regional administrations, have a crucial role to play in implementing the main objectives of the ONE in FIVE Campaign.

Driven by this conviction, the Current Affairs Committee of the Congress held an exchange of views at the end of June on the possible local and regional contribution to the Campaign. At that meeting, Mr Gagit Baghdasaryan presented the parliamentary dimension of the Campaign and the activities of the Parliamentary Assembly in this regard. As a result of this exchange, a Strategic Action Plan was elaborated and subsequently approved by the Congress Bureau in September.  

According to this Plan, the focus of the Congress contribution will be, on the one hand, to encourage Congress members, local and regional authorities and their associations, as well as other partners (such as local and regional NGOs and civil society organisations, officials, professionals, decision-makers, local and regional media) to promote the Campaign;

on the other, the focus will be on raising awareness among local and regional authorities of the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse – known as the Lanzarote Convention. The ultimate objective is to bring about the establishment of child-friendly services at local and regional levels, in order to protect children and help prevent sexual violence within the community.

We see our action in fighting sexual violence against children as building upon our proposals for preventing violence against children in general, which were put forward in a Congress resolution adopted in October 2009 (Congress Resolution 289 (2009) on preventing violence against children).

This resolution calls, in particular, for the:

    -     setting up of local and regional mechanisms and action plans, co-operating with the state and other agencies;

    -     establishment of quality management systems for child care services and benchmarks for agencies;

    -     development of regional guidelines for detection, assessment, protection and response;

    -     and evaluation and monitoring of plans and policies.

As sexual abuse is one important aspect of violence against children, we see the Congress contribution to the ONE in FIVE Campaign as a follow-up to this resolution.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Under the Strategic Action Plan, the specific objectives of the Congress action will be to:

1    raise awareness amongst Congress members, local and regional authorities, associations of local and regional authorities and other partners on the Campaign’s aims;

2    promote the use of Council of Europe legal standards and instruments (in particular the Lanzarote Convention and the Child-Friendly Justice Guidelines) when setting up structures and mechanisms for protecting children from all forms of violence;

3    encourage local and regional authorities to launch campaigns, develop awareness raising tools to prevent sexual violence against children, in particular disseminate and adopt campaign awareness raising materials to assist parents and carers to talk to children about sexual violence in a child-friendly manner;

4    promote a multi-stakeholder approach and encourage local and regional authorities to develop coordinated multi-disciplinary structures, processes and mechanisms to tackle sexual violence against children;

5    and develop a culture whereby towns and regions are more child-friendly and enable children and young people to participate meaningfully in the development of safe communities free from sexual violence.

Our first step in implementing the Strategic Action Plan was to organise a plenary debate on the fight to eradicate sexual abuse of children, during the Congress session last October. We were pleased to have among the speakers: Carina OHLSSON, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Assembly’s Sub-Committee on Children, as well as Bragi GUDBRANDSSON, General Director of the Government Agency for Child Protection of Iceland, and Roswitha WENZL, Commissioner for Children’s Affairs of the City of Stuttgart and Project Director of the “Cities for Children” European Network.

During the same session, the Current Affairs Committee decided to prepare a report which will examine how European regions with legislative powers can transpose the Lanzarote Convention into their own legal frameworks. I was appointed Rapporteur on this subject, and my plan is to have the report ready for a plenary debate during the Congress session in October next year.

The Committee also decided to organise a seminar on the role of local and regional authorities in combating sexual violence against children, scheduled to take place in February 2012. I hope your Network will participate in this seminar.

Also under the Strategic Action Plan, it has been proposed that the 2012 edition of the European Local Democracy Week – this pan-European annual event – should have as its leading theme the protection of children’s rights and promotion of their well-being in our communities, or the “Child in the City” theme. We are also discussing with the Cities for Children Network the possibility of making “Children’s Safety” the theme for the City for Children European Award of Excellence in 2013. In addition, part of the next general meeting of national associations of local and regional authorities of Council of Europe member states, which will take place in 2012, will be devoted to the ONE in FIVE Campaign and its objectives as we are aware of the crucial role the Associations can play in mobilising authorities to raise awareness of the Campaign.

Finally, the Strategic Action Plan provides for the organisation of a joint activity with the Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies (CALRE) and the Conferences of Presidents of Regions with Legislative Powers (REGLEG) which could cover, among other issues, the Campaign.

These are the key elements of the Congress contribution to the Campaign which I wished to present to you today. We are convinced of the need for close co-operation between the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress in making the Council of Europe Campaign a success, and in bringing about concrete results in the fight against sexual abuse of children. This is why I am particularly pleased to be here today, and I look forward to our discussions.

Thank you.