A trial in an English law court this week shows the need for every country to have a more responsible attitude to children.
In London, an 11 year old boy and a 10 year old boy were found guilty of the attempted rape of an 8 year old girl. The girl’s testimony was confused and if she had been an adult, the case would have been dismissed. But under English law the case proceeded and a jury of 12 people in London’s famous Old Bailey court found the boys guilty by a vote of 10-2. The two boys will later be sentenced and their names will automatically go on the national Sex Offender’s Register and remain there for the rest of their life.
It is appalling that an advanced society such as Britain would still try young children’s cases in the public spotlight of a law court before a full jury. Criminal cases involving children should be conducted in a more civilised and private context, respecting their age and providing proper support for both the accused and the defendants.
Child sex abuse is an emotive issue but it must respect the rights of all children and clearly there is a need for law reform in many countries to ensure that all children are protected.
Ron O´Grady är en av grundarna till det internationella ECPAT-nätverket. Han var under många år ordförande för ECPAT International och aktiv i ECPAT New Zeeland.
Next month the greatest sporting event of the year will begin in South Africa. Football teams from 32 countries will battle their way through the 2010 Soccer World Cup watched by millions of viewers on television. Off the screen a different scene is taking place.
Tens of thousands of soccer fans from around the world will be in South Africa, travelling in groups and having the holiday of a life-time. They are overwhelmingly male spectators and are determined to have what they call a good time. Inevitably this includes a great deal of heavy drinking and several sexual adventures.
Police in South Africa are well aware of the potential problems of this invasion and have been training for some time. Included in their concern is the potential sexual abuse of many children by drunken soccer fans. Measures are being taken to try and protect children from such abuse.
Here in New Zealand we are watching the issue closely because we will be host to the Rugby Football World Cup in 2011. Discussions between the local police and ECPAT New Zealand have already begun as we consider how best to handle a potentially volatile and difficult situation.
Ron O´Grady är en av grundarna till det internationella ECPAT-nätverket. Han var under många år ordförande för ECPAT International och aktiv i ECPAT New Zeeland.
The first thousand years of Christianity were marked by arguments about the place of sex in the church. Augustine thought intercourse was “disgusting” and Jerome thought sex was “unclean”. The Christian church struggled with these ideas for many years and the Church of Rome finally concluded that priests must be celibate. But it was still being debated at the Lateran Council in 1215 and the Nordic churches, to their credit, delayed approving celibacy for a further two centuries.
We must ask whether there is a link between this forced celibacy and the sexual abuse of children by priests that is tearing Ireland apart at the moment. The church in Rome has firmly closed any discussion on this matter. Pope John Paul II told the Irish priests that there are “profound theological and anthropological reasons for preserving celibacy”. But to many of us they are so profound that we cannot see them.
Yes, there can be merit in voluntary celibacy in helping the focus the mind on other things. But compulsory celibacy is hard to justify in the modern church.
Ron O´Grady är en av grundarna till det internationella ECPAT-nätverket. Han var under många år ordförande för ECPAT International och aktiv i ECPAT New Zeeland.
We live in a commercialized world where many people know the cost of everything but the value of nothing. Everything can be bought for a price. The ugliest example of this thinking is in those people who treat children as commodities to be bought or sold.
Those of us concerned at the growth of commercial child sex have usually just concentrated on the victims and tried to help rehabilitate the abused children. But this is just one half of the problem. We must look more seriously at the supply side – the demand for children coming from abusers. Somehow we have to change the behaviour of those men, who see nothing wrong in having sex with a child or enjoy watching a child being sexually abused on the internet.
In the commercial world when the demand for a particular product falls the supply follows. If we can educate some men to change their attitude toward children the problem of child sex abuse will be much less.
Ron O´Grady är en av grundarna till det internationella ECPAT-nätverket. Han var under många år ordförande för ECPAT International och aktiv i ECPAT New Zeeland.
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