The European Union Delegation to Albania and UNICEF Albania have launched a new campaign called “I Trust You” to raise awarenes on child sexual abuse and exploitation in the country.
#unicefprotects
UNICEF🇦🇱 calls for concrete actions 4 all duty bearers 2 stop sexual #abuse of 👭 in 🇦🇱. A silent event, where an installation of 👭 silhouettes, each bearing a real story of sexual #abuse is placed at Skanderbeg Square and promotes a culture of reporting. pic.twitter.com/k63753RyXo— UNICEF ALBANIA (@albania_unicef) September 28, 2020
UNICEF staged a silent event in Skanderbeg Square where they instsalled a number of childrens silhouettes, each bearing a real story of sexual abuse. They called for concrete actions for all duty bearers to stop sexual abuse of children in the country.
EU Ambassador Luigi Soreca said the fight against such abuse is an EU priority. He added that everyone has a role in stopping child sex abuse.
Everyone should play its role to stop child sexual abuse. Competent public authorities should allocate adequate resources. We should all be vigilant, build trust & empower #children so they can report cases of abuse.The #EU🇪🇺will continue to support child protection in #Albania🇦🇱 https://t.co/X7gQurAUUP
— Luigi Soreca🇪🇺 (@LSorecaEU) September 29, 2020
“Competent public authorities should allocate adequate resources. We should all be vigilant, build trust and empower children so they can report cases of abuse. The EU will continue to support child protection in Albania.”
There is little in the way of concrete data on the incidence of child sexual abuse in the country. Much is believed to never be reported to the authorities. The country was ranked 26 out of 40 by The Economist in terms of the mechanisms it has to deal with the issues.
Among the shortcomings that the report raised about Albania, one in particular was the lack of protection for sexually abused children as well as shortcomings for the protection of children online. Albania received a very low score for not collecting detailed data on sexual violence in children, as well as the low involvement of media in this process. The index also considers it problematic not to regulate legislation regarding the purchase of sexual services by juveniles as whilst Article 113 of the Criminal Code, prohibits prostitution, it does not specifically mention children as sex workers meaning that purchasing sexual services from minors is not covered by law.
The report also highlights the fact that Albania doesn’t offer programs for preventing and treating the offenders of sexual crimes. It notes that the country does not currently have a support system in place to prevent prospective offenders or reoffenders from committing sexual violence against children.
According to the BECAN study, almost 12% of children and teenagers in Albania are victims of sexual harassment and about 5% of them are victims of sexual abuse.
