Ahead of the International Children’s Day celebrated on 1 June, the Council of Europe has published Guidelines for policy makers on engaging with victims and survivors of child sexual exploitation and sexual abuse – “Nothing About Us Without Us” . This initiative is in line with the day’s mission to promote and celebrate children’s rights, their well-being, and address challenges they face.
Engaging with people who have experienced sexual exploitation and sexual abuse during childhood (victims and survivors) is crucial to ensure a holistic and evidence-informed approach to legal and policy reforms to efficiently prevent and respond to sexual violence. Such engagement should be safe, meaningful and create a space for dialogue.
The guidelines identify some key principles and actions that policy makers can follow to address the needs of victims and survivors during this process.
To be meaningful, engagement should:
- Be trauma-informed: those initiating the dialogue should be aware of the prevalence of trauma, understand its effects and actively seek to resist re-traumatisation.
- Uphold the self-determination of those involved: voluntary and continuous consent should be sought; persons involved should be given the right to remain anonymous and to choose how they want their contributions to be referred to.
- Empower and value the victims and survivors involved: compensation for engagement in the process should be foreseen, accessibility in terms of language use and absence of other barriers ensured, and transparency of the outcomes guaranteed.
- Ensure equality: personal characteristics, socio-economic status and geographical diversity should be duly considered.
By incorporating the voices of victims and survivors, the new guidelines contribute to further enhancing awareness and understanding of child sexual exploitation and sexual abuse in general, and to reducing stigma faced by victims and survivors.
The newly published guidelines have been developed by two prominent survivor advocates with extensive experience in engaging and facilitating victim and survivor participation in policy making, Professor S Caroline Taylor and Sophie Otiende.
“Child sexual violence and exploitation is an urgent and unremitting issue across the globe. Genuine and strategic engagement with survivor advocates in the development, design and implementation of policy, legislation and programmes are key to eradicating these heinous crimes against children. Survivor advocates possess a wealth of diverse professional skills and lived experience expertise capable of enhancing policy and programme design and increasing survivor confidence in the wider community,” the authors noted on the occasion of the publication of the guidelines.
The guidelines are a direct outcome of the 2023 edition of the Day for the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse which focused on “Learning from victims and survivors of childhood sexual violence to inspire policy change”.
The guidelines have not been designed to engage with children under the age of 18. Specific safeguards need to be in place when working with this age group on child sexual exploitation and sexual abuse (see child participation resources).
