On 27 May 2020, the Council of Europe Children’s Rights Division, the Cybercrime Office in Bucharest (C-PROC) and the Fund to End Violence Against Children opened the third meeting of the Steering Committee of the project End OCSEA@Europe. This meeting was added to the project’s planning and was held online to discuss the impact of COVID-19.
The meeting was very constructive and positive thanks to the dynamic participation of most members of the Committee who represent the 10 project focus countries.
They all shared notably:
- Challenges during the confinement period to the functioning of their national bodies involved in protecting, preventing and prosecuting OCSEA, with a focus on the importance of law enforcement and judiciary;
- Information, if available, on the increase of cases of OCSEA; the risks of child sexual exploitation and abuse, both online and offline as a result of increased exposure to screens when schools remain closed were also addressed;
- Measures which were taken to support children in vulnerable situations such as children with disabilities; and
- Good practices and concrete examples of measures to mitigate OCSEA, with particular focus on reporting mechanisms, increased capacities of Cyberpolice and access to childfriendly justice.
The meeting was also an opportunity to share information and envisage the future constructively with the Executive Secretary to Committee to the Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (the Lanzarote Convention) who informed about the questionnaire sent to members of the Lanzarote Committee on the impact of COVID-19 on the protection of children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. Moreover, the contribution of the EndOCSEA@Europe project to the ratification of the Lanzarote Convention recently by Azerbaijan and Armenia, both pilot countries to the project, was also welcomed and recognised.
Acknowledgements:
The Council of Europe gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided for this programme by the Fund to End Violence Against Children.
EVAC page on protecting children against violence during COVID-19
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public: Healthy Parenting