Many European nations have failed to deliver justice to survivors of child sexual assault by not abolishing their statute of limitations for prosecuting childhood sexual violence and not delivering justice, according to a report published by The Brave Movement and Child Global on Thursday.
According to the report, Luxembourg, Estonia, Greece, Malta, Czech Republic, Portugal, Lithuania, Finland, Slovakia and Bulgaria are the worst offenders “because the criminal statute of limitations for all or most childhood sexual abuse runs out before a victim reaches the age of 40.”
Additionally, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Slovenia and Latvia are “in the second tier,” where the statute of limitations runs out after the victim reaches 40 – even though the average age of disclosure of abuse is over 50.
One of the ways Europe has tried to bring justice to those who inflict sexual offences against children is with the creation of the Lanzarote Convention, which requires criminalising all kinds of sexual offences against children.
However, “Article 33 of the convention says your country’s limitation must be sufficient to allow victims to come forward. And that’s very vague. It’s very relative. It’s also written on the assumption that your country has a limitation,” Matthew McVarish, Brave Movement co-founder, told EURACTIV.
One of the report’s recommendations is that the Council of Europe’s Lanzarote Committee amend the convention to include an Optional Protocol that eliminates criminal limitation periods in child sexual assault offences across all member states.
McVarish, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, walked 10,000 miles to every EU capital city to speak to each government about abolishing statutes of limitations on child sexual abuse crimes, which took him two years. He started the Brave Movement alongside 15 other individuals to campaign to end all forms of childhood sexual violence.
The report also recommends that European states should entirely abolish statutes of limitations for all types of crimes of child sexual violence and abuse and that all European states must ensure that their SOL reform policies align with the European Convention on Human Rights.
“We used to think this issue would just go away if we ignored it. And no, we were completely wrong. It’s only going to get sorted if we deal with it and have the brave and difficult conversations. And that’s why we’re called the Brave Movement because we have to have some really difficult conversations about humanity to solve this,” said McVarish.
(Sofia Stuart Leeson | EURACTIV.com)
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