Online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) is a specific form of violence against children. The often transnational nature of this crime requires an international, multi-sectorial response to ensure holistic support for victims and effective investigation and prosecutions.   

The first meeting of the Project Steering Group of the Council of Europe Project End Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse @ Europe took place on the 4^th of March 2019 in Strasbourg, France.

This project is  implemented in the framework of the Council of Europe Strategy for the Rights of the Child (2016-2021), and aims to support member States to prevent and combat OCSEA by:

1. setting up enabling environments for cross-sector, multidisciplinary collaboration at national and regional levels, by strengthening national governance structures and conducting situation analysis of online child sexual exploitation and abuse risks and responses in national and pan-European  contexts;
2. supporting legislative and procedural reforms, training and capacity building for law enforcement officials, judges and prosecutors and promoting multi-disciplinary interagency cooperation for end-to-end victim support;
3. addressing societal capabilities with emphasis on awareness-raising, education of key target groups and empowerment of children.

The Steering Group is composed of representatives of ten countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine and representatives of the Council of Europe and project partners.

The role of the Steering Group is to provide technical and strategic advice, support and recommendations to further the implementation of the Project. At the same time, the Steering Group will co-ordinate with relevant initiatives and programmes, monitor progress made in project implementation and support the dissemination of deliverables and resources through professional and other networks.

At this meeting, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine were designated to act as pilot countries. The Steering Group endorsed the workplan of the project and proposed activities including: a baseline mapping of Council of Europe member States, development of a gap analysis methodology to assess legislative and policy frameworks, training strategies for law enforcement, judges and prosecutors and awareness raising tools and materials.

At present, a call for consultants is open for drafting a baseline mapping of Council of Europe member states to identify current trends, promising practices and challenges faced concerning online child sexual exploitation and abuse (see below).

Upcoming events in the project include:

- Capacity Building conference for civil society representatives on Lanzarote Convention, awareness raising and OCSEA (8-9 April 2019, Strasbourg, France) - by invitation only.

- Regional conference on preventing and combatting OCSEA ( 16-17 May 2019, Strasbourg, France).

Acknowledgements:

The Council of Europe gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided for this programme by the Fund to End Violence Against Children.

Call for consultants to conduct a baseline mapping