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Italy - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under Article 12(1) of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography: Initial reports of States parties due in 2004 [2005] UNCRCSPR 21; CRC/C/OPSA/ITA/1 (15 July 2005)
UNITED NATIONS
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CRC
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Convention on the Rights of the Child
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Distr. GENERAL
CRC/C/OPSA/ITA/1 15 July 2005
Original: ENGLISH
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COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
CONSIDERATION OF
REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES
UNDER ARTICLE 12 (1) OF THE OPTIONAL
PROTOCOL TO THE
CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD ON THE SALE
OF
CHILDREN, CHILD PROSTITUTION AND CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
Initial reports of States parties due in 2004
ITALY*
[14
July 2004]
* This document has not been edited before being submitted
for translation.
GE.05-42825 (E) 310805
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Introduction 1 - 16 7
I. THE ITALIAN LEGISLATION IN THIS FIELD 17 - 49 9
A. From Law 269 of 3 August 1998 to Law 228 of
11 August 2003 17 -
41 9
B. The bill of 7 November 2003 - Provisions on
combating the sexual
exploitation of children
and child pornography 42 - 49 14
II. INSTITUTIONAL BODIES 50 - 59 16
A. Comitato Interministeriale di Coordinamento per
la lotta alla
pedofilia (Interministerial Committee
for the Coordination of the Fight
against
Paedophilia - CICLOPE) 50 - 55 16
B. The Observatory on the phenomenon and on
prevention and
suppression policies 56 - 59 17
III. THE ACTION OF THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT IN
COMBATING PAEDOPHILIA
DURING THE ITALIAN
PRESIDENCY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 60 - 68 17
IV. AREAS FOR ACTION AND OPERATIONAL
INSTRUMENTS 69 - 127 19
A. Sexual tourism: the Italian tourism industry’s code
of
conduct and initiatives to raise awareness, combat and
prevent
the phenomenon 69 - 83 19
B. The media and the protection of children 84 - 114 23
1. The Self-Regulation Code on TV and the
Protection of Children
86 - 93 23
2. The role of the public broadcasting service
in the protection
of children 94 - 97 24
3. The Self-Regulation Code of Conduct “Internet
and
Children” 98 - 114 25
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
C. Children’s SOS Tel. 114 - National free emergency
phone
helpline for children 115 - 122 28
D. The anti-trafficking freephone number 123 - 127 29
V. THE INTEGRATED SYSTEM OF SERVICES AND
ACTIONS TO PREVENT, COUNTER
AND COMBAT
PAEDOPHILIA AND THE SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
OF CHILDREN 128 -
167 31
A. The National Fund for Social Policies 138 - 141 32
B. The National Plan of Social Services and
Actions 2001-2003 142 -
144 34
C. Law 285 of 28 August 1997 containing provisions
for the promotion
of rights and opportunities for
childhood and adolescence 145 -
146 35
D. The regions 147 - 167 35
1. The drafting of guidelines for action in cases
of
maltreatment, abuse and/or sexual exploitation
of children
153 - 156 36
2. Structures for the coordination of action in
cases of
maltreatment, abuse and/or sexual
exploitation of children 157 -
162 37
3. Adoption of a regional guidance plan on
childhood and
adolescence that includes
the issue of violence against children 163 -
167 38
VI. PREVENTION AND INITIATIVES TO PROMOTE,
DISSEMINATE AND RAISE
AWARENESS OF
THE CONTENT OF THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL 168 - 222 38
A. The national prevention and awareness-raising
campaigns 168 -
171 38
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
B. The preventive approach: the role of schools 172 - 211 39
1. Some general features of the programmes taken
forward in schools
174 - 179 39
2. The specific contribution of projects involving
schools in the
fight against abuse and sexual
exploitation: Monitoring of the most
recent
initiatives put in place by schools 180 - 183 40
3. Organisational initiatives by liaison structures
and services
184 - 187 41
4. Regulatory initiatives 188 - 190 42
5. Other training and informational initiatives 191 - 197 43
6. The importance of information and prevention 198 - 211 44
C. Information, training and refresher courses for
operators in the
sector 212 - 222 47
1. Initiatives put in place by the Ministry of Labour
and Social
Policies 212 - 215 47
2. Initiatives involving representatives of central
government
departments 216 - 222 47
VII. THE CRIMINAL ASPECTS OF ACTS OF
MALTREATMENT, ABUSE AND/OR
SEXUAL
EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN 223 - 290 49
A. Sexual assault against children. 2002 and the
first half of 2003
223 - 240 49
B. Historic analysis of the available data 241 - 270 54
C. Forms of sexual exploitation 271 - 284 64
D. The use of the web as an instrument for sexual
exploitation and
child pornography 285 - 290 67
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
VIII. THE PROTECTION OF CHILD VICTIMS IN THE
TRIAL AND POST-TRIAL
STAGES 291 - 332 69
A. Instruments for the protection of children during
trial
proceedings 291 - 304 69
B. Assistance and psychological recovery treatment
programmes for
child victims of sexual abuse 305 71
C. Projects carried out using the funding made available
through
Decree 89 of 13 March 2002, containing
Regulations governing the fund
referred to in
Art. 17.2 of Law 269 of 3 August 1998
concerning
actions on behalf of child victims of abuse pursuant
to
Art. 80.15 of Law 388 of 23 December 2000 306 - 315 71
D. Social protection projects in application of
Art. 18 of
Legislative Decree 286/1998 316 - 332 74
IX. HEALTH CARE FOR CHILD VICTIMS OF ABUSE 333 - 359 78
A. NHP priority projects 2003-2005 341 - 351 79
1. Implementing, monitoring and updating the
agreement on essential
and appropriate
levels of assistance and cutting waiting lists 342 -
346 79
2. Promoting the local level as the primary level
for assistance
and for governing health and
social-health pathways 347 - 351 79
B. Health objectives and general measures 352 - 359 80
1. Support programme to combat the new pockets
of poverty and
marginalization 353 - 354 80
2. The health of babies, children and adolescents 355 - 356 81
3. Mental health 357 - 359 81
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
X. THE ROLE OF ITALIAN COOPERATION IN
THE PROTECTION OF CHILD VICTIMS
OF
MALTREATMENT, ABUSE AND/OR
EXPLOITATION 360 - 377 82
A. The development cooperation programmes of the
Ministry of Foreign
Affairs 362 - 369 82
B. Participation by local authorities in international
projects and
initiatives 370 - 373 85
C. Participation by civil society in international
cooperation
projects and initiatives 374 - 375 86
D. Italian participation in European projects 376 - 377 86
Introduction
- As
a State Party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which it ratified
through Law 176 of 27 May 1991, Italy recognises
the status of the child as
entitled to rights as an individual and within the family and social community
in which he lives, grows
and matures.
- Our
country has therefore undertaken to ensure the full respect of the rights to
which children are entitled. In accordance with
articles 4 and 19 of the
Convention, each State Party is required to adopt: “all appropriate
legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the
rights recognized in the [...] Convention” and in particular
“all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational
measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental
violence,
injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation,
including sexual abuse, while in the care
of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any
other person who has the care of the child. Such protective measures should, as
appropriate,
include effective procedures for the establishment of social
programmes to provide necessary support for the child and for those
who have the
care of the child, as well as for other forms of prevention and for
identification, reporting, referral, investigation,
treatment and follow-up of
instances of child maltreatment described heretofore, and, as appropriate, for
judicial involvement”.
- More
specifically, States Parties “undertake to protect the child from all
forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. For these purposes, [they] shall
in particular
take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures
to prevent: (a) The inducement or coercion of a child to engage
in any unlawful
sexual activity; (b) The exploitative use of children in prostitution or other
unlawful sexual practices; (c) The
exploitative use of children in pornographic
performances and materials” (Art. 34), and “take all
appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent the
abduction of, the sale of or traffic in children for any purpose or in any
form” (Art. 35). Finally, each State Party is required to
“take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological
recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of: any form
of neglect,
exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment; or armed conflicts.
Such recovery and reintegration
shall take place in an environment which fosters the health, self-respect and
dignity of the child” (Art. 39).
- This
undertaking has been reinforced through participation in other international
legal instruments for the prevention and suppression
of violence against
children.
- These
include ILO Conventions 138 on the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment
and 182 on Prohibition and Immediate Action for the
Elimination of the
Worst Forms of Child Labour, ratified on 28 January 1981 and 7 June 2000
respectively.
- Italy’s
role in taking forward the drafting and signing, in Palermo on 12 December 2000,
of the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime and its
Protocols regarding the trafficking of persons, especially women and children,
and migrants,
was particularly significant.
- In
this respect, the ratification through Law 77 of 20 March 2003 of the European
Convention on the Exercise of Children's Rights,
signed by Italy on the day of
its approval by the Council of Europe, is also worthy of mention.
- However,
participation in the above-mentioned international legal instruments has not
been the only manifestation of countries’
interest in this issue and their
intention to contribute to the drafting of documents that are binding on them.
From the mid-1990s
on, the entire international community has taken steps to
discuss these phenomena and the need to seek a strong common position to
combat
them. The first World Congress against the Sexual and Commercial Exploitation
of Children, which took place in Stockholm
in 1996, called upon all Member
States to make a specific effort in this respect. The agenda adopted at the end
of the Congress
considered all the areas of priority intervention to effectively
combat the phenomenon: local, national and supra-national co-ordination;
prevention; suppression and judicial protection; the protection, recovery and
reintegration of victims; and the participation of
children and adolescents in
drawing up policies in this sector.
- At
the national level the Agenda needs to be translated into specific action plans
against paedophilia and sexual exploitation and
the creation of policy
coordination bodies, for which it uses the term focal points. A balance sheet
of the first five post-Stockholm
years was the subject of the Multilateral
Conference of European and Central-Asian countries, Protection of children
against sexual exploitation, which took place in Budapest in November 2001.
At the end of the proceedings a Declaration of Intent and a regional
Action Plan
were adopted, with which the delegates firmly re-stated the criminal nature of
the phenomenon, confirmed their pursuit
of a strategy based on the principle of
“zero tolerance” of any form of violence and took note of the
significant progress
made since 1996, when the major gaps and challenges faced
by the countries were set out in Stockholm, for the first time in a truly
incisive manner.
- This
plan was then presented and adopted at the 2nd World Conference against
the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, which
took place in
Yokohama in December 2001. In Yokohama, the representatives of
governments, inter-governmental organisations, nongovernmental
organisations
(NGOs) and international organisations underlined their commitment to defend and
promote the interests and rights of
children in order to protect them from all
forms of abuse and exploitation. This is to be achieved through the adoption of
multi-sector,
multi-measure, inter-disciplinary action plans for the
implementation of which active coordination is envisaged in the form of
monitoring
and evaluation mechanisms between and among local and national
governments, inter-governmental organisations and NGOs, local communities
and
all the other key players in civil society at the local, national and
international levels.
- However,
Italy’s renewed, determined commitment to the protection of child victims
of violence is demonstrated by the signing
and ratification of the two
Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. These
were transposed in the form of
Law 46 of 11 March 2002, concerning the
involvement of children in armed conflicts and measures to combat the sale
of children, child
prostitution and child pornography – practices that
treat children in the cruellest and most abhorrent ways, in clear violation
of
their rights.
- This
commitment was reiterated with Italy’s participation in the special
session of the UN Assembly dedicated to children, which
took place in New
York in May 2002. The Conference discussed the work carried out at the
international and national levels against
all forms of violence and, in the
document A world fit for children, the final Declaration approved by the
Assembly, reiterated states’ commitment to attain the fundamental
objectives and the
instruments to pursue them in order to preserve the dignity
of children. These include the registration of each child at or shortly
after
birth; the creation of reception structures in the eventuality of their family
failing to carry out its task of care and protection;
prevention through
information and training campaigns and the promotion of codes of conduct; the
up-dating of national legislation
to achieve an increasingly high level of
protection for victims and of penalties for offenders; the collection of data on
cases,
actions and the impact of policies; the drawing up of agreements for the
coordination of investigations; the monitoring of trafficking
routes and the
implementation of operational programmes.
- In
this context Italy is required to present its first Report on the Implementation
of the Second Protocol to the Committee on the
Rights of the Child, the
supervisory body envisaged by the Convention.
- This
report will therefore examine the main legislative, administrative and judicial
instruments through which our country has applied
the Protocol, the activities
undertaken to provide information on and disseminate the content of the
Protocol, and the numerous bilateral
and multilateral international cooperation
initiatives undertaken by Italy in this context.
- For
the compilation of the Italian Government’s First Report on the
Implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention
on the Rights of
the Child, the Interministerial Committee for Human Rights, which operates in
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA)
and whose remit is to draw up and present
to the United Nations the Government’s reports on the implementation in
Italy of
the main Conventions on the protection of human rights, set up a
special Working Group to coordinate the input from the following
Departments:
the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of the Interior, the
Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Labour and
Social Policies, the
Ministry for Equal opportunities, the National Council for the Economy and
Labour (CNEL), and the Italian UNICEF
Committee. This clearly demonstrates the
intention to include an NGO, one that has always actively promoted the
protection of children’s
rights and taken an active part at the national
level in many informational and awareness-raising initiatives and has
provided a
valuable contribution through its experience and support of
children.
- The
Working Group began meeting in 2003 to discuss the content of the First Report,
while keeping clearly in view the need to draft
the text in accordance with the
Guidelines provided by the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
I. THE ITALIAN LEGISLATION IN THIS FIELD
A. From Law 269 of 3 August 1998 to Law 228 of 11 August
2003
- Law
269 of 3 August 1998 is a landmark provision in this context and one of the most
important results of the effort being made to
equip our country to meet the new
national and international challenges in combating the abuse and sexual
exploitation of children.
- The
objective of this law is to protect the physical and psychological health of
children in sexual matters, with a view to fostering
their proper development.
Law 269/1998 envisages penalties for the exploitation, inducement, or abetting
of child prostitution (Art.
600 bis). The subjective element of the
offence is generic and non-specific criminal intent. From the procedural point
of view, if the
victims are less than 16 years of age and have already made
statements in the pre-trial stage of the proceedings or statements filed
pursuant to Art. 238 of the code of criminal procedure (c.c.p.),
cross-examination is only allowed where considered by the judge
to be absolutely
necessary. Articles 600 ter and quater of the penal code (p.c.)
punish, respectively, the conduct of persons exploiting children for the
production of pornographic material
and those trading in, distributing or
selling pornographic material produced through the sexual exploitation of
children, or persons
possessing such material. Article 600 quinquies of
the p.c. punishes the conduct of organising or advertising trips intended
for the use of prostitution activities of which children
are victims.
- With
respect to the criminal liability of the offences under consideration and those
of sexual assault and sexual acts with foreign
children, where committed abroad,
the law has introduced an ad hoc provision pursuant to Art. 604 of the
p.c. This envisages unconditional liability for both Italian citizens and
foreign citizens
who commit offences against foreign children in combination
with the Italian citizen (in this case, see clause two of Art. 10 p.c.,
according to which a request by the Minister of Justice is necessary to punish a
foreign citizen judged to be guilty in this respect).
- The
Government’s strategy follows three main lines:
- − Prevention,
to remove conditions conducive to risk and reinforce a positive environment for
the affirmation of children’s
rights;
- − The
provision of resources for the care and treatment of child victims of abuse
and exploitation;
- − A
reinforcement of investigative and repressive measures at the national,
European and international levels.
- This
strategy has given rise to a large number of actions: the promotion of social,
educational and cultural services and opportunities
to foster the well-being of
children and adolescents; the creation of local public and private social
services for prevention and
the protection and assistance of children in
distress and their families; the creation of new legislative instruments to
combat and
suppress sexual crimes against children; more incisive international
cooperation with a view to removing the causes of those forms
of the phenomenon
that are mainly transnational.
- In
accordance with the provisions of Law 451 of 23 December 1997, in 2003 the
Italian Government drew up and approved the National
Action Plan for the
protection of the rights and development of children. The strategic lines
and priorities set forth by the Government
in this document are a result of
the work carried out by the National Observatory for Childhood and Adolescence,
and of a survey
of the actions and initiatives carried out from June 2000 to
- June
2002 by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies in conjunction with the
National Centre for the Documentation and Analysis
of Childhood and Adolescence
and all other government departments involved in “child-centred
policies”.
- With
respect to the specific issue examined in this report, the Action Plan sets out
a number of commitments of priority importance:
- The
Government undertakes to set up an Office for the Public Protection of Children,
in accordance with the principles espoused in
commitment 31
of the conclusions of the Special Session of the General Assembly of
the United Nations dedicated to children and the
European
Parliament’s Resolution no. A 3-0172/92 of 8 July 1992 and
observations by the Parliamentary Commission for Childhood
in its report on the
juvenile courts system approved unanimously on 17 December 2002 and sent to both
houses (Doc. XVI-bis, no. 1). This body would have the task of
protecting the rights and interests of children, supervising the application of
the laws
and international conventions in this area, receiving related requests
and reports, investigating violations of children’s
rights, formulating
proposals regarding action by the public authorities to protect children’s
rights, and reporting to Parliament
each year on its activities.
- The
Government undertakes to supplement the provisions of art 609 decies p.c.
with a sanction designed to ensure that this provision for the protection of
victims is respected properly and in full, and
to clarify the principles for the
allocation of competencies by using to best advantage the services provided by
local bodies with
responsibility for the protection of children in social and
health matters.
- The
Government undertakes to review the provisions of articles 392.1 bis
c.c.p. and 498.4 ter c.c.p., by establishing that it is compulsory for
the evidence of child victims to be given, on pain of invalidity, in the
form of
a protected hearing (i.e. using a “mirrored glass”
system with speakers to avoid the serious distress caused to the child
by
meeting the accused in person).
- Furthermore,
with respect to Art. 498.4 ter c.c.p., the Government undertakes
to prohibit the examination of child victims during the trial (even with
the mirrorglass and speaker
system) when – according to the statements
made by the children’s services or local authorities – this hearing
could cause serious trauma to victims who were children at the time of the
offence, in consideration of the long time-lag since the
events in question or
the changed circumstances of the individual concerned.
- An
event of great importance underpinning the commitment of the Government, the
Parliament and all the institutions against exploitation
and the trafficking of
human beings was the definitive approval of the government bill presented by the
Minister for Equal Opportunities
and the Minister of Justice, in the form of Law
228 of 11 August 2003 on Measures against the trafficking of people.
- The
law transposes, well in advance of the required timescale, the recommendations
contained in Council Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA
of 19 July 2002 on
combating trafficking in human beings, which sets out the minimum requirements
for laws and regulations governing
this subject in Member States’
criminal justice systems.
- The
Council decision is intended to complete and complement the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo,
December 2000), one
of the additional protocols to which specifically addresses the prevention,
suppression and punishment of the
trafficking of people, especially women and
children.
- Law
228/2003 incorporates the Council’s recommendations to introduce
sufficiently severe sanctions against natural or legal
persons involved in the
complex phenomenon of trafficking in human beings or reducing them to a state of
slavery or servitude.
- The
extension of the liability of legal persons for these offences is one of the key
features of the Framework Decision and this provision
has now been fully
integrated in our own legal system as a result of the new law (Art. 5).
- Law
228/2003 envisages liability to prosecution and punishment for the crime of
reduction to slavery or servitude, with imprisonment
of eight (minimum term
recommended by the Council Decision) to 20 years for anyone exerting powers
corresponding to those envisaged
under property law on another person or anyone
reducing another person to, or holding them in, a state of continuous
subjection,
forcing them to work or perform sexual services or beg or perform
services that involve their exploitation.
- More
specifically, a person is considered to be reduced to or held in a state of
servitude when the means used to achieve this end
involve violence, threats,
deception, abuse of authority or taking advantage of a situation of need or
physical or psychological
weakness on the part of the victim, or promising or
giving sums of money or other advantages to whoever has authority over that
person.
- This
law fully revises Art. 600 of the p.c. and provides a more up-to-date definition
of the offence of reduction to servitude or
slavery, one that is able to grasp
all the nuances of the phenomenon as observed in Italy, where there is a strong
connection between
these offences and those of the abuse and sexual exploitation
of women and children within the context of forced prostitution.
- The
law envisages imprisonment of from eight to 20 years for anyone committing the
offence of trafficking of persons who are in a
state of slavery or servitude or
anyone who, in order to reduce the victim to this state of subjection and loss
of freedom, induces
them through deception or forces them through violence,
threats, deception, abuse of authority or taking advantage of a situation
of
need or physical or psychological weakness on the part of the victim, or by
promising or giving sums of money or other advantages
to whoever has authority
over that person, to enter, stay in or leave Italian territory or travel within
it.[1] The law is intended to
tackle the entire trafficking “chain”, which involves individuals
and organisations operating
with counterparts in the countries of origin,
transit and destination of the victims.
- The
law envisages an increase in the penalty: by one third to a half if the
abovementioned offences (including exploitation of prostitution
or subjection of
the victim to the removal of organs) are committed against children of
under 14 years; and from one half to twothirds
if the offence is
committed by an ascendant, parent, spouse or cohabiting partner (Art. 600
sexies p.c.).
- The
new provisions also address the crucial issues of prevention and protection.
More specifically, Art. 14 on Prevention Measures
envisages that to give effect
to actions to prevent the offences of reduction to or holding in slavery or
servitude and offences
linked to the trafficking of persons, the Foreign
Ministry should draw up cooperation policies with the countries of origin of the
victims and organise, in agreement with the Minister for Equal Opportunities,
international meetings and information campaigns.
The application of the law
depends, however, on the ability of operators to grasp its significance and
equip themselves with suitable
instruments. The law requires, therefore, that
the Ministers of the Interior, Equal Opportunities, Justice, and Labour and
Social
Policies should where necessary organise, within the constraints of the
resources currently available, training courses for their
staff and any other
initiatives that might be useful to this end.
- With
respect to protection, the law establishes (Art. 12) a Fund for
Anti-Trafficking Measures in the Prime Minister’s Office. The fund is
intended for social integration and assistance programmes for the victims of
trafficking,
as well as the other social protection measures envisaged by Art.
18 of the Consolidated Text on immigration in accordance with Legislative
Decree
286 of 25 July 1998.
- The
fund brings together the sums allocated thus far pursuant to Art. 18 and the
proceeds of any seizures ordered in the wake of conviction
or the application of
plea bargaining for any of the offences punished by the new law.
- Experience
has shown that if real help is to be provided then prompt action and an
immediate response to the victim’s call for
help are required. The law is
mindful of this aspect and envisages a special emergency programme for
assistance to victims (Art.
13) that guarantees, on a provisional basis,
adequate board and accommodation and health care.
- The
programme is subject to the adoption of specific regulations by the Minister for
Equal Opportunities in conjunction with the Minister
of the Interior and the
Minister of Justice. The sum of 2.5 million euros per year has been earmarked
for the introduction of the
special programmes with effect from 2003.
- The
fact that the law has been supplemented by specific prevention and assistance
measures means that the Italian legislative framework
is actually more
comprehensive than that envisaged by the Council’s Framework Decision and
more closely tailored to the circumstances
where it will be applied.
- The
recent law on trafficking sends out a clear message on the need to take the
special needs of these women and children into account,
by seeking the
introduction of adequate measures for the protection, support and recovery of
victims alongside the work of prevention
and suppression.
- A
number of European legislative provisions have also been transposed to the
Italian legislative system in this sector. These include
Council Framework
Decision 2004/68/JHA of 22 December 2003 on combating the sexual
exploitation of children and child pornography;
Council Resolution of 20 October
200 on initiatives to combat trafficking in human beings, in particular women
(2003/C260/03); European
Parliament and Council decision adopting a programme of
Community action (2004-2008) to prevent and combat violence against children,
young people and women and to protect victims and groups at risk (the DAPHNE II
programme) (COM(2003) 54); and Decision No 1151/2003/EC
of the European
Parliament and of the Council of 16 June 2003 amending Decision No. 276/1999/EC
adopting a multiannual Community
action plan on promoting safer use of the
Internet by combating illegal and harmful content on global networks.
B. The bill of 7 November 2003 - Provisions on combating the
sexual exploitation of children and child pornography
- Of
great importance is the recent government bill of 7 November 2003 (Provisions on
combating the sexual exploitation of children and child
pornography), submitted by the Minister of Equal Opportunities and the Minister
of Justice,
currently being considered by the Justice Committee of the Chamber
of Deputies. This bill has been adopted by the sub-Committee
as the key text
with respect to the many other bills on this subject already presented. On 29
April 2004 the State-Regions Conference
expressed its favourable opinion on the
bill.
- The
bill[2] drawn up by the
Minister for Equal Opportunities and the Minister of Justice and approved by the
Council of Ministers on 7 November
2003 envisages a reform of the current
legislative framework resulting from the entry into force of Laws 66/1996 and
269/1998. The
bill takes into account the need for amendments that has emerged
since these two laws were implemented. It also takes on board the
position that
has developed at the European level, as set forth in the proposed Council
framework decision on combating the sexual
exploitation of children and child
pornography, on which political agreement was reached by all Member States
during the JHA Council
of 14 and 15 October 2002, and which is now at the
approval stage.
- Member
States are, of course, required to bring their legislation into line with
binding provisions such as framework decisions.
The decision under
consideration would require Italy to introduce a number of reforms to the
existing legislation, including: the
extension of the protection of minors until
the age of 18 has been attained, thus fully implementing the provisions of the
UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child; the extension of the notion of child
pornography to include realistic images of a non-existent child
or a real person
appearing to be a child; the identification of features constituting
offences concerning sexual exploitation of
children and child pornography that
are common to all states; the introduction of a new framework of sanctions;
specific liabilities
of legal persons; common provisions on jurisdiction and
prosecution; and common rules at the European Union level for the protection
of
and assistance to victims.
- The
Italian bill also incorporates the recommendations of the Parliamentary
Committee for Childhood, which in 2002 completed its fact-finding
enquiry on the
abuse and sexual exploitation of children. The enquiry was opened in December
2001 and conducted through
- hearings
of experts in the sector and representatives of institutions directly involved
in suppression and prevention and in assisting
victims. The complex enquiry
translated into the important document on paedophilia approved on 16 July
2003,[3] which summarises the
main conclusions reached by the Committee. The Report puts forward proposals
for reforms to the legislative
framework that would give greater effect to the
strategies and measures to combat and suppress paedophilia. It highlights, for
example:
the need for greater certainty regarding the penalties applied to those
convicted of sexual offences and the exploitation of children,
as well as the
timeliness of defining new offences to express the various forms taken by this
type of crime.
- The
provisions contained in the bill would result not just in stricter penalties,
but would also specifically envisage ancillary punishment
with a clear
preventive function. With a view to avoiding specific recidivism, the bill
seeks to eliminate those circumstances that
might make repeat offences more
likely. It envisages, for example: the loss of parental authority following
conviction or plea bargaining,
both in cases where the parental relationship is
a constituent element of the offence and in those where it is an aggravating
circumstance;
and the prohibition of persons convicted of paedophilia from
holding positions in schools or other structures mainly frequented by
children.
On the subject of sexual tourism, the bill introduces two important new
features: the first concerns the obligatory requirement
sine die for
tourism operators to include a warning in advertising material and travel
documents as to the criminal liability in Italy even
for offences committed
abroad; and the second concerns the extension of criminal liability to anyone
taking part in tourism initiatives
intended for the exploitation of child
prostitution.
- The
bill places a particular emphasis on offences committed through the use of
Internet, with the introduction of a mechanism to collect
and monitor
information on sites disseminating child pornography and to encourage service
providers to adopt a responsible and involved
approach. To this end, the bill
proposes that a National Centre for Combating Child Pornography on the Internet
be set up in the
Ministry of the Interior, with which service providers should
interact in the communication of information that might be used to
block
offences being committed that involve the dissemination, distribution or
commercialisation of child pornography.
- One
particularly innovative aspect is the specific role envisaged for banks and
financial intermediaries providing payment services,
who would be required to
cooperate with the National Centre for Combating Child Pornography on the
Internet and adopt specific monitoring
measures that would make it impossible to
use normal payment circuits to obtain material or to benefit from the proceeds
of the sale
of child pornography.
- In
conclusion, the progress made thus far marks a very real quality leap in the
action being taken forward by the Italian Government:
coordination and
integration are the two key factors in a policy that places children’s
well-being at the centre of attention.
To combat abuse and sexual exploitation
these elements are the necessary prerequisites for any project aiming to have an
effective
and lasting impact, whether we are dealing with the taking in hand of
a child or political actions or projects in the field (training,
awareness-raising campaigns, the creation of specialised services, etc).
II. INSTITUTIONAL BODIES
A. Comitato Interministeriale di Coordinamento per la lotta
alla
pedofilia (Interministerial Committee for the Coordination
of the
Fight against Paedophilia - CICLOPE)
- Although
many countries have brought their national legislation into line with the
approaches followed at the international level
to better reflect the criminal
nature of exploitation, assistance and protection measures and mechanisms are
rarely subject to proper
regulation and monitoring processes.
- With
respect to coordination structures, only eight countries have reported setting
up national focal points. These include Italy,
with the Comitato
interministeriale di coordinamento per la lotta alla pedofilia (Interministeral
Committee for the Coordination of the Fight
against Paedophilia –
CICLOPE; see Stockholm agenda).
- With
the creation of CICLOPE in spring 2002, Italy made an important advance in
implementing the undertakings entered into at the
international level and
optimising its domestic policies to combat the abuse and sexual
exploitation of children. The need for central
coordination had been under
consideration for some time by the Government, with many commentators
noting the urgent need to integrate
the actions taken by each government
department, not least with a view to fully capitalising on the actions adopted
and making them
as effective as possible.
- The
Committee’s remit is to perform the “functions involved in the
coordination of the prevention activities carried out
by all government
departments and to provide assistance, including legal assistance, to children
and protect them from sexual exploitation
and abuse”. These functions had
previously been attributed to the Prime Minister’s Office by Art. 17 of
Law 296/1998
and were delegated through the Prime Minister’s Order of
14 February 2002 to the Minister for Equal Opportunities, who chairs
the CICLOPE
coordination committee. This committee acts as a liaison structure for the
intervention strategies put in place by individual
government departments,
including with the cooperation of the private social sector and civil society as
a whole. This makes it a
focal point as defined by the Stockholm agenda for
Action of 1996. Its remit includes taking part, in conjunction with the
MFA,
in the work of EU and international bodies tasked with protecting children
from sexual exploitation.
- The
CICLOPE Committee includes representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs,
the Interior, Justice, Labour and Social Policies,
Health, Education,
Communications, Technological Innovation, Relations with Parliament, Productive
Activities, EU Policies and, naturally,
Equal Opportunities. In carrying out
its tasks it draws on the cooperation of associations, NGOs and experts in the
sector.
- In
its first year of activity the CICLOPE Committee reviewed the activity being
taken forward by the different central government
departments and worked
towards the implementation of a number of important elements of the first
National Plan to combat and prevent
paedophilia, adopted in September 2002.
B. The Observatory on the phenomenon and
on prevention and
suppression policies
- There
is a widespread awareness that a knowledge of the data and characteristics of
the phenomenon is a vital tool not just for research
and prevention purposes,
but also to determine which assistance measures are most suited to the needs of
the victims of abuse and
sexual exploitation.
- Unfortunately,
Italy does not yet have a centralised system for the collection and analysis of
the relevant data. In this, our country
is in a similar situation to many
others, but this does not mean that we should view this lack any less seriously,
since it undermines
our ability to properly evaluate the impact of policies and
identify the practices that are most effective and therefore best suited
for
dissemination at the national level. The lack of systematic data that we
encounter when monitoring violence is mirrored in the
more general lack of a
global information system on childhood and services for children. The survey of
the initiatives being taken
forward by the various departments on the issue of
paedophilia has shown up gaps and discrepancies or imbalances in the information
available, which can obstruct the creation of a common strategy, the exchange of
experience and comparisons at both the national
and European levels.
- Within
the context of the CICLOPE Committee, the Ministry for Equal Opportunities
expressed the need to find a solution to these inefficiencies
by setting up an
Observatory on the Phenomenon and on Prevention and Suppression Policies,
which was subsequently established through the Minister’s Decree of
17 June 2003. The Observatory supports the Committee in obtaining
qualitative and quantitative data at the national, European and international
levels and is made up of three bodies:
- − A
Committee of experts, whose remit is to draw up the guidelines for the exchange
of information by the various actors involved
following a network-based
approach;
- − A
Technical Committee, acting as an operational arm of the Committee of Experts
and with responsibility for investigations
and data collection according to the
working plan drawn up by the Committee of Experts;
- − A
Council of associations operating in the field, through which they can make
their experience available as an advisory body
to the two
Committees.
- The
Committee of Experts is already working on the guidelines for the collection and
elaboration of the data. Responsibility for
the first of these two tasks will
lie with the Technical Committee, whose members will be appointed over the next
few months. At
the same time, formal agreements will be drawn up with the
associations taking part in the Council.
III. THE ACTION OF THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT IN COMBATING
PAEDOPHILIA DURING THE ITALIAN PRESIDENCY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
- The
Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union provided an opportunity
to reaffirm Italy’s commitment and concern
in this area. Topics
concerning the implementation of
the rights of children and their protection from any form of exploitation
were included in Ministers’ policy agendas during
the six months of the
Presidency, with the Ministry for Equal Opportunities and the Ministry of Labour
and Social Policies promoting
specific events.
- The
Ministry for Equal Opportunities placed a particular emphasis on combating the
trafficking of human beings, paedophilia, and domestic
violence.
- With
respect to trafficking, the Ministry organised a national conference to analyse
experience of, and identify good practice in,
actions to combat the phenomenon
and support victims with a view to their social and employment reintegration
(national conference
on Actions to Foster the Social and Employment
Inclusion of Women Victims of Trafficking, Turin, 24-25 October 2003).
This event
built on the conference held in Siracusa in December 2002, and
at the same time provided an opportunity to illustrate the Resolution
on
the trafficking of human beings, and women in particular, presented by the
Italian Presidency to the European Union’s Social
Affairs Council and
approved on 20 October 2003.
- With
respect to the abuse and sexual exploitation of children, a Working Seminar to
raise awareness and exchange experience on measures
to combat paedophilia was
promoted. This event was intended as an opportunity to encourage the exchange
of experience and to identify
a platform of European action to protect children
from exploitation and sexual abuse and to assist and foster the recovery of
victims
(national Seminar on Raising Awareness and Exchanging Experiences to
Combat Paedophilia, Noto, 7-8 November 2003).
- Domestic
violence, a form of maltreatment to which many boys and girls are exposed and
which can cause them serious emotional, psychological
and behavioural harm, was
the focus of a seminar organised by the Network of anti-violence centres in
cities taking part in the Urban
Italia Programme. This Network, a project
supported by the Ministry, is unique in its kind and was made possible by
European Union
funding. Launched in 1998, it has enabled the creation of
anti-violence centres and a reinforcement of existing services, thus making
it
possible to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon of violence within
couples or families, and to put in place innovative
measures for prevention and
action (national seminar on the Network of antiviolence centres of cities
taking part in the Urban Italia
Programme, Catania 25-26 November 2003).
- With
respect to the programme taken forward by the Ministry of Labour and Social
Policies, the issue of violence against children
was included in the Italian
Presidency agenda at the meeting of European ministers with responsibility
for children’s issues[4]
(Lucca, September 2003) and again at the European conference of Ministers
with responsibility for children’s issues organised
jointly by Italy and
France as part of the Presidency initiatives (European conference on Preventing
Abuse, Promoting “Good
Treatment”: a European ambition, Paris 20
November 2003).
- The
meeting in Lucca brought together Ministers, Under-Secretaries and
representatives of the Ministers of the EU and the 10 accession
countries to
discuss three issues regarding the affirmation of the rights of children:
- − Combating
sexual abuse within and outside the family and the sexual exploitation of
children in the European Union;
- − Combating
child labour in the European Union, to initiate a reflection on child labour in
industrial societies;
- − Promoting
children’s rights at EU level through guarantee mechanisms at the local,
national and European levels.
- The
European Conference in Paris on the maltreatment of children, organised by the
Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policies
and the French Ministry for
Health, the Family and the Disabled, discussed three main topics:
- − A
balance sheet and the prospects for the Daphne European programme in the light
of the new edition of the programme;
- − The
concept of good treatment and its recognition in Europe in training policies,
the creation of services and professional
practices linked to childcare;
- − Social
assistance phone helplines for reporting cases of maltreatment of children.
- The
meetings included in the Italian Presidency agenda played an important role in
the development of a European social policy designed
to protect children from
violence. They provided the right context for the analysis of some aspects of
the phenomenon that have
a peculiarly transnational nature, led by child
pornography, sexual tourism and trafficking, and called for a wide-ranging
debate
on prevention, suppression and assistance strategies, the lastnamed of
which are formally the responsibility of the individual Member
States, as part
of their domestic social and health policy frameworks.
IV. AREAS FOR ACTION AND OPERATIONAL INSTRUMENTS
A. Sexual tourism: the Italian tourism industry’s code
of conduct and
initiatives to raise awareness, combat and prevent the
phenomenon
- Worthy
of note in this sector is the bill approved by the Government
on 7 November 2003. This envisages criminal liability for those
taking part in tourism initiatives intended for sexual exploitation and
places the obligation to provide information on the provisions
of Law
269/1998 regarding sexual tourism onto a permanent footing.
- In
the period under consideration Italy continued to take part, mainly in the
person of representatives of the Ministry for Productive
Activities, in the work
of the international bodies coordinating the fight against the sexual
exploitation of children in tourism.
- Of
particular note is our membership of the Task Force set up by the World
Tourism Organisation (WTO), a working group that holds
regular meetings to
coordinate and plan activities at the transnational level. The last
such meetings took place in London (November
2002) and Berlin (March 2003). The
work carried out by the Task Force in recent years culminated in the
organisation, with the support
of the WTO and the EU, of the European Conference
for the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation in Tourism, which
took
- place
in Rome in April 2003 and provided an opportunity to draw up a balance sheet of
the initiatives being taken forward and to relaunch
the International
campaign against sexual exploitation of children in tourism, which is being
run in partnership with ECPAT, Terre des hommes – Germany and the
International Federation of Journalists.
- Between
1997 and 2000, the European Union and the individual Member States, including
Italy through the Ministry for Productive Activities
and the Foreign Ministry,
have supported and encouraged numerous initiatives, again in coordination with
ECPAT, Terre des hommes
and the International Federation of Journalists. The
principal initiatives include:
- − The
production of in-flight spots;
- − The
creation and distribution of luggage tags and information booklets;
- − Awareness-raising
and training of tourism operators and the publication of educational material;
− The opening of an Internet platform for information and
reports;[5]
− The drafting and publication of the tourism industry Code of
Conduct;
− Information campaigns in the various media.
- In
2001 action at the European level and the efforts of the individual Member
States were stepped up with the direct involvement of
the tourism industry in
combating the sexual exploitation of children. An agreement was drawn up for
cooperation with the WTO, which
is promoting the International Campaign
against the sexual exploitation of children in tourism. The actions taken
forward during this campaign include:
- − Awareness
raising initiatives in some of the key destination countries for this type of
tourism and the involvement of local
government;
- − Follow-up
on the application of the code of conduct;
- − Awareness-raising
initiatives with the support of the media;
- − The
monitoring of the effectiveness of the Internet platform;
- − The
dissemination of the WTO guidelines on sexual tourism;
- − The
promotion and adoption of specific training modules in the curricula of training
schools for tourism operators;
- − The
production of radio and TV adverts;
- − Communication
on the project at the main national and international tourism fairs.
- At
the end of 2002, the International campaign against the sexual exploitation
of children in tourism once again received funding from the European Union
and began its new round of activities by organising four regional consultations
(Europe, Asia, Africa and South America), of which the Rome Conference was
the first. The choice to proceed with a series of consultation
meetings arose
from the need to draw up a balance sheet on the progress made thus far and to
provide a new impetus, from a perspective
focusing on regional specificities, to
cooperation between partners at the supra-national, national and local levels.
- Thanks
to the efforts of NGOs such as Terre des hommes and ECPAT, which for years have
campaigned against the sexual exploitation
of children, the Italian tourism
industry has become more sensitive to this dramatic problem and has considered
its own responsibilities
and role in combating the form of violence against
children that affects it most directly: sexual tourism. This change can be
ascribed
both to ethical responsibility motives and to quality objectives, which
the industry needs to keep constantly in mind on pain of
losing part of its
market, especially the family segment.
- The
WTO has also taken the initiative in this area by promoting the Task force to
protect children from sexual exploitation in tourism, an international
network of public and private organisations working in the sector. Its aim is
to carry out initiatives to prevent,
isolate and root out the sexual
exploitation of children in tourism.
- Over
the last two years, important Italian associations in the tourism sector have
adopted the Italian Tourism Industry’s Code of
Conduct[6] drawn up
by ECPAT, a document whose aim is to combat the exploitation of minors in this
context. Awareness-raising initiatives to
encourage the adoption of the Code
have been carried out, including with the support of the Tourism Directorate at
the Ministry for
Productive Activities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
which has funded development cooperation projects on these issues.
- Tour
operator companies, travel agencies, airlines and airports that have adopted the
Code have undertaken – in addition to
the provisions envisaged by Law
269/1998 – to take specific measures against the sexual exploitation of
children in tourism:
- − To
inform and update tourism industry personnel in Italy and in destination
countries on the issue of the sexual exploitation
of minors;
- − To
inform clients – above and beyond the requirements of Law 269/1998 –
of the industry's commitment to combating
the sexual exploitation of children in
tourism, indicating its adoption of this Code of Conduct;
- − To
insert clauses in contracts with corresponding suppliers in destination
countries requiring them not to facilitate, in
any way, contact that has sexual
relations as an objective between tourists and possible exploiters of children,
and/or direct contact
with exploiters and/or minors;
- − To
include in contracts between tour operators and hotels wording to the effect
that local children are not to be admitted
to customers’ hotel rooms, and
not to renew the contracts of structures that do not apply this ban;
- − To
attach as an addendum to all contracts with foreign correspondents and hotels
the English translation of the Code of Conduct;
- − Not to
utilize advertising messages – on printed publications, video or the
Internet – that might suggest or allude
to behaviour not in line with the
ECPAT campaign or the principles inspiring the Code of Conduct;
- − To
insert in all forms of communication used to promote travel products the phrase:
“Our company has adopted the Code of Conduct against the sexual
exploitation of minors in tourism”;
- − To
inform industry personnel of this Code of Conduct and include it in all new
employment contracts.
- The
Code envisages that airline companies should also seek to raise public awareness
of the sexual exploitation of children and the
guiding principles of the
Code of Conduct using inflight magazines, ticket jackets, Internet links,
post-cards and videos on long-haul
flights. Airport Authorities are also
required to raise public awareness through specific actions such as "spots" in
transit areas,
the use of ticket jackets and other informational material at
airport ticket counters.
- With
a view to monitoring the dissemination and application of the Code, a Control
Body coordinated by ECPAT Italia has been set
up,[7] with the task of
ascertaining that signatory parties to the Code are actually implementing it.
The Italian associations and tour
operators that are taking part in the
international campaign against the commercial sexual exploitation of children
have supported
the organisation of training seminars, conferences and
awareness-raising campaigns addressed to all those operating in the sector,
their customers and public opinion in general. As pointed out by bodies such as
FIAVET, Federturismo, ASTOI and Assotravel, the
tourism industry’s efforts
have their legal basis in Law 296/1998, through which Italy has taken forward
the awareness-raising
process begun with the Stockholm Congress of 1996.
- Recent
Italian initiatives that are worthy of mention include the European
Conference for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in
Tourism (April 2003), promoted by the WTO, the European Union and the
Ministry for Productive Activities. This event provided an opportunity
to
examine the state of progress of legislation and policies, and to review the
cooperation projects set up in various parts of the
world and promote the spread
of good practice as an instrument for the training of tourism industry operators
and users.
- The
Automobile club d’Italia (ACI) has also taken action on these issues. The
ACI has supported awareness-raising campaigns
through the media and, in
cooperation with the MFA, has created a website dedicated to
tourism.[8] This provides
information to Italians travelling abroad on the security, health and tourism
situations in 208 different countries.
The site also provides information on
the penalties applicable to those responsible for sex offences against children
under the
legislation currently in force in Italy and other countries. Set up
in 1998, the site has developed into a widely known and used
information
contact point that receives about 50,000 visits a month. The information
available on the site is also provided through
a
- call centre[9]
open each day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Italian tourists need to be informed of and
“trained” in the different circumstances
prevailing in the countries
they visit, not least to ensure that they are aware of the content of the
various “offers”
they receive and their possible consequences.
- The
promotion of the Italian Tourism Industry’s Code of Conduct has now moved
on to its next stage, that sees some signatory
parties, together with ECPAT
Italia, engaged in the application of the Code in the tourism destination
countries (especially the
Dominican Republic and Thailand). The projects
initiated so far have considerably stepped up the fight against sexual tourism.
B. The media and the protection of children
- In
recent years the attention of the adult world has focused on children’s
relationship with the communications media, and on
the risks that they might run
in the use of Internet. These new concerns have been added to those regarding
the correct use of television.
- The
Ministry for Communications has sought to respond to the need expressed by a
number of commentators to regulate the communications
sector for the protection
of children by moving on both fronts and setting up two working groups: one on
“TV and the Protection
of Children” and the other on “Internet
and Children”.
1. The Self-Regulation Code on TV and the Protection of
Children
- On
29 November 2002, the Ministry published the Self-Regulation Code on TV and the
Protection of Children, which has been adopted
by the main national and local
broadcasters’ associations. A joint Supervisory Committee (made up of
representatives of the
institutions, users and broadcasters) has also been set
up with the principal aim of supervising the correct application of the Code
by
all signatory parties and monitoring the quality of children’s
programming. Each citizen is also considered to be responsible
for supervising
the application of the Code, since arrangements have been put in place for
anyone who feels they have information
regarding violations of the principles
sanctioned by the Code to send in reports to this effect.
- These
reports can be followed up immediately as the main new feature of the Code
(compared with the 1997 version) is that it envisages
powers by the Supervisory
Committee to impose sanctions, and close liaison between the Committee and the
Regulatory Authority in
order to give effect to these powers.
- Particularly
worthy of note is the explicit provision on the treatment of news concerning
children and the arrangements for them to
take part in broadcasts. The Code
guards against the risks of concentrating over-much on the spectacular
aspects of such situations
or their instrumentalisation, and against violations
of the right to privacy, contempt for the dignity of children and intrusion
into
individuals’ private lives. These risks are inherent to any situation
where news is given of particularly dramatic events
such as those involving
sexual assaults on children.
- The
Self-regulation Code on TV and Children aims to address the unhealthiest forms
of information through the rules of conduct it
sanctions and awareness-raising
and training programmes for communications operators.
- During
the debate on Law 39 of 1 March 2002 containing Provisions on meeting the
obligations arising from Italy’s membership
of the European Communities
(the “Community Law” for 2001), the Ministry supported the amendment
to Law 249 of 31 July
1997 setting up the Communications Authority and rules
governing) which resulted in the introduction of a new type of penalty. More
specifically, it is now telecommunications and broadcasting systems, with the
insertion of a new article (Art. 3 bis possible for the Authority to
arrange for television broadcasters belonging to EU Member States to
provisionally suspend the reception
and retransmission of programmes broadcast
abroad in the event of manifest and grave breaches of the ban on broadcasting
programmes
that could be seriously detrimental to the physical, mental or moral
development of children, especially programmes containing gratuitous
violence or
pornographic scenes.
- The
new Service Agreement between the State and RAI (the Italian public broadcasting
network) for 2003-2005, which was signed on 23
January 2003, also places a
strong emphasis on the needs of children.
- The
agreement establishes that part of the public broadcasting service’s
mission is to provide children’s programmes that
take into account the
needs and sensitivities of young and older children and to ensure, in general
programming and with regard to
the broadcasting schedule, that close attention
is paid to their protection.
- Art.
6 of the agreement expressly addresses the function that the broadcasting
service should perform with respect to children and
the criteria that it needs
to comply with to ensure quality programming that respects children’s
right to the protection of
their dignity and their physical, psychological and
moral development.
2. The role of the public broadcasting service in the
protection of children
- The
RAI’s membership of the CICLOPE Committee testifies to its role as a
committed participant in the campaign to combat paedophilia.
- The
RAI’s Social Action
Department[10] has conducted
a series of initiatives, in cooperation with internal corporate structures or
key national or local institutions, on
social communication and the issue of
paedophilia. The Department follows three, equally important, lines of action:
(a) In-house awareness-raising initiatives. The
corporation has circulated information on the
CICLOPE[11] project and its
innovative potential throughout its multi-media editorial structures through
specific meetings (in cooperation with
the Personnel Division). RAI also
distributes suitable material to journalists, writers, etc. This commitment has
led to an increase,
in both qualitative and quantitative terms, in the attention
paid to the issue in the networks’ programming;
(b) Further study and action. Initiatives linked to the RAI’s
nature as a public service and therefore to ways of communicating the
issue, focusing on
both prevention and on its social consequences, have
also made it possible to address aspects linked to language and content. In
cooperation with Telefono Azzurro (the children’s phone help-line), a code
for communications operators on how to deal in the
media with children and
adolescents’ fears (Bambini e adolescenti di fronte alle paure –
(Children and Adolescents face to face with their
fears))[12] has been
drawn up and disseminated within and outside the corporation. With CORECOM in
Friuli Venezia Giulia, RAI has put together
a dossier on paedophilia and the
treatment of this issue by the
media;[13]
(c) Documentation. Various initiatives have been taken forward in
relation to documentation on the issue of paedophilia on television. For
example,
in cooperation with the CENSIS, a research project entitled Au
revoir les enfants was conducted and presented on RAI in July 2002. The
project focused on the relationship between children and the representation
of
pain in TV and involved the analysis of three months of RAI programming. Ample
attention has also been paid to the abuse of children
in situations of serious
social disadvantage.
- In
spring 2003 the radio programme Zapping and Radio RAI’s GR1 news
programme launched a campaign in collaboration with UNICEF on Infanzia
rubata, infanzia violata (Childhood Stolen, Childhood Violated)
– a campaign to say “no” to child soldiers, sexual mutilation
and sexual tourism.
- With
this campaign, RAI and UNICEF Italia sought to alert political and social forces
and public opinion to three extreme aspects
of the condition of children
throughout the world. During the campaign many volunteers from the regional and
provincial Committees
of UNICEF Italia, associations and organisations, local
authorities and municipal councils, children, schools, health authorities
and
museums took part in the campaign. The Department for Fire-Fighting, Public
Emergencies and Civil Defence (Coordination Office
and External Relations
Office) at the Ministry of the Interior also took a particularly active part in
the campaign. Others taking
part were newspaper editors and personalities from
the worlds of entertainment, culture and sport, and about 250 members of
Parliament
(from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate and from all political
allegiances).
3. The Self-Regulation Code of Conduct “Internet and
Children”
- A
particular emphasis has been laid on the difficult subject of how best to combat
paedophilia on the Internet, a phenomenon that
is recent but no less serious and
far-reaching for that. In its pathological form, the huge expansion of Internet
made possible
by the exponential pace of technological development, accompanied
by a lowering of the average cost of IT equipment, has favoured
both the market
for images of sexual abuse and child pornography and contacts between individual
paedophiles and organised groups.
- The
guidelines provided by the National Plan issued by the CICLOPE Committee on this
issue concern:
- − The
adoption of self-regulation instruments by providers and their cooperation in
actions to combat paedophilia, with due
respect for the provisions currently in
force at the national and European levels;
- − A
reinforcement of international cooperation through bilateral or multilateral
agreements that through shared objectives give
greater force to common actions
to combat transnational IT crime;
- − The
production and free distribution of IT filter programmes;
- − Information
campaigns to increase knowledge of the Internet and online paedophilia to enable
the benefits offered by the Web
to be put to best use and at the same time to
incentivise and enhance users’ self-defence capacities.
- On
the subject of self-regulation, worthy of note are the initiatives by the
Ministry of Communications, which drew up and issued
the new television
self-regulation code and the code for the protection of children with respect to
the Internet, and those of the
Ministry for Innovation and Technologies (MIT),
assisted in its efforts to prevent and combat the phenomenon by the Interior
Ministry’s
Postal and Communications Police Service.
- The
starting point for the MIT’s initiative was the implementation of the
commitments set out in the plan E-Safe Directions 2003-2004, which
follows on from the Safer Internet Action Plan adopted by the European
Union Parliament and Council to address the potential risks connected with the
use of IT instruments (the
Ministry for Communications also deals with the
Safer Internet Action Plan).
- The
MIT, including through its Technical Committee for an Informed Use of Internet,
is involved in the implementation of an action
plan along the following three
lines:
(a) Creation of a more controlled environment for
Internet surfing by children. Through the Technical Committee for an
Informed Use of the Internet, the Minister for Innovation and Technologies took
part, with
the working group Internet @ Infanzia (part of the Communications
Ministry’s Committee for the Review of the broadcasting system),
in
drafting a self-regulation code for all Italian Internet service providers. A
collaborative project was also entered into with
Oxford University’s
Programme for Comparative Media Law and Policy Self Regulation
Information Project, which within the European Commission’s Safer
Internet Action Plan assist Member States in drawing up regulatory codes that
are compatible with the European framework;
(b) Development of filtering and content classification systems. The
MIT has already taken action by making available to users the ICRA (Internet
Content Rating Association) filter, as part of
the European project funded by
the Safer Internet Action Plan. The filter, which is free and available in
Italian, acts as a site-labelling
and content identification system for the
protection of children as they surf the net. In this same sphere of action and
following
a number of hearings with interested parties, the Technical Committee
for an Informed Use of the Internet has noted the need for
greater coordination
at the European level, especially as regards the monitoring of the usefulness
and overall effectiveness of filtering
systems;
(c) Raising the awareness of public opinion and operators. In
addition to the necessary involvement of all those working in the Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, the
Ministry also feels that major
information campaigns should be mounted to increase awareness of the risks
connected with Internet
surfing.
- In
this context the Minister for Equal Opportunities and the Minister for
Innovation and Technologies intend to draw up an intensive,
far-reaching
information and training campaign for 2003/2004. The development and
honing of skills and an informed use of the new
technologies are the basis for a
project currently being drawn up, addressed mainly to women and involving the
production and distribution
of a CD-ROM containing information on the correct
use of the Internet. This collaborative project by the two Ministries has been
conceived with a view to achieving positive knock-on effects on children.
Indeed, the idea of setting a female target audience arose
from the double
consideration that it is usually women who spend most time with children,
whether as mothers, child-minders or teachers,
while according to the
statistical data they also seem to be the least technologically literate group.
- The
course of action being followed is in line with the commitments undertaken by
the Government at the international level, for example
by signing the Convention
on Cybercrime drawn up in Budapest in 2001, which is currently being ratified by
Italy.
- A
decisive result in this sphere was achieved through a new initiative, the
Children and Internet self-regulation code. The Ministry
for Communications had
overall responsibility for drawing up and coordinating this code, which was
signed on 19 November 2003 by
representatives of Internet
providers[14] and by the
Ministers for Communications and for Innovation and Technologies, after approval
by the Committee for the Broadcasting
System and the Committee for an Informed
Use of the Internet, which is based in the MIT. The Code is the result of the
efforts of
a working group, Internet and
Children,[15]
set up specifically for this purpose in the Ministry for
Communications. Also contributing to the drafting process were representatives
of business associations in the sector, who have subscribed to the Code, as well
as members of children’s protection, consumers’
and users’
groups.
- The
Code is intended as an instrument to safeguard the right of children to be
protected from unlawful and harmful content disseminated
over the web and for
general protection in the safe use of the new technologies of the information
and electronic communications
society.
- Its
aims are as follows:
- − To
direct adults, children and families towards a correct and attentive use of the
Internet;
- − To
provide appropriate protection against the risk of minors coming into contact
with content that is unlawful or harmful
for their development;
- − To give
minors equal opportunities for secure access to the resources of information
technology;
- − To
protect children’s right to privacy and ensure the correct processing of
their personal data;
- − To
collaborate fully with the competent authorities in the prevention, restriction
and suppression of cyber-crime, especially
with regard to crimes against
children;
- − To
facilitate the protection of minors from unsolicited commercial information, or
commercial information that exploits the
vulnerability of children;
- − To
propagate the contents of the self-regulation code to operators and
families.
- The
adoption of the self-regulation Code responds to the call at the European and
national levels for measures to step up the fight
against cybercrime, child
pornography and the use of the Internet as a means of committing offences
involving the sexual exploitation
of children.
- The
Code provides definitions of the actors applying it in the sector (from access
providers to Internet point operators) and launches
an “Internet @
Minori” quality logo testifying that those carrying out business
activities on the Internet have subscribed
to and are complying with the Code.
- The
Code applies to all adherents that underwrite it. Voluntary adherence to the
Code entails a firm commitment to accept in full
the contents of the code as
well as the supervisory activities and sanctions it envisages; and the
adaptation of the contractual
conditions of the services provided to its
provisions.
- The
Code identifies the main instruments for the protection of minors in this
context. These include: information for families and
teachers; differentiated
navigation services; content classification; the use of age identifiers in
accordance with laws concerning
the protection of personal data and the dignity
of the person; and the management of data useful for the protection of minors
and
for investigative activities.
- Responsibility
for content quality and the purposes for which the IT media are used lies with
the access provider (required to ensure
that customers take a responsible
approach to the use of connection services), housing/hosting providers,
content providers and Internet
point managers.
- The
Code also envisages the creation of a Guarantee Committee, made up of experts
appointed by a ministerial decree issued by the
Minister for Communications.
The Committee is responsible for overseeing the correct application of the Code
by those subscribing
to it and deciding on the disciplinary sanctions it
envisages (warning, censure, revocation of the authorization to use the
“Internet
@ Minori” logo indicating compliance with the Code).
- Anyone
may submit reports of violations using special forms that are available online.
C. Children’s SOS Tel. 114 - National free emergency
phone helpline
for children
- In
2002 the Ministry for Communications, in conjunction with the Ministry for Equal
Opportunities and the Ministry for Labour and
Social Policies, began trials on
an emergency phone helpline to report situations involving cruelty to children
or violations of
their rights. The phone number is 114.
- This
number gives access, at no cost to the caller, to a “cruelty to children
emergency” service available to children
and adolescents who need to
report abuse or other serious problems. The “114” code is designed
as a single access number
that takes calls for help and routes them to the
appropriate structures such as the police, the local social-health services or
the
judicial authorities, after evaluating the caller’s needs.
- Following
the inter-ministerial decree of 14 October 2002, as adopted by the Ministry for
Communications in conjunction with the Ministry
for Equal Opportunities and the
Ministry for Labour and Social Policies, the project was set up and operational
arrangements put
in place. A three-month trial period is envisaged in
three cities, chosen in terms of statistical representativeness and the
existence
of well-established operational structures.
- The
pilot was run by SOS Il Telefono Azzurro from 26 March to 23 June 2003 in the
Province and Municipality of Treviso and the municipal
districts of Milan and
Palermo.
- The
aim of the trial was to test a model to take and properly interpret the calls
for help, set in motion the relevant actions and
liaise with other institutional
interlocutors at both the central and local levels. The reference model for the
operation of the
service was a network capable of creating synergies among all
the players involved (other institutional bodies, the 118, 117 and
113
emergency numbers and local health agencies (LHAs)), while respecting the
institutional role and expertise of each.
- From
the technical-organisational point of view, the 114 helpline was given a
call-centre architecture with three response stages:
- − Front
line – receiving the call for help and analysing the information regarding
the situation reported;
- − Back
line – specialist action and liaison with other structures;
- − Back
office – specific support actions.
- The
results of the first pilot run showed the importance of following agreed
procedures with all the institutions in the area (police,
local authorities
etc), whose contribution in terms of experience in the sector and in-depth
knowledge of local circumstances proved
to be decisive for the satisfactory
outcome of the actions undertaken.
- On
the basis of the experience gained thus far and through an inter-ministerial
decree of 6 August 2003, the service has been put
on a permanent
footing and rolled out countrywide. After a public tender procedure the service
was entrusted to the Associazione
Telefono Azzurro, this time for a two-year
period that can be extended to four years, at a cost of 1,200,000.00 euros per
year.
D. The anti-trafficking freephone number
- The
anti-trafficking freephone number is a system-wide action set up at the end of
July 2000. It is funded by the Ministry for Equal
Opportunities using
national funding pursuant to Art. 18 of Legislative Decree 286/1998. The
service is available 24/7 and consists
of a national centre and 14 local
centres. The freephone service handles users’ requests for information
and help directly,
assesses and selects the calls judged to be authentic, and
initiates the procedures to put the victims in touch with their local
centres
and then with project operators.
- From
July 2000 to March 2003 the freephone service took 520,936 calls, of which it
took action on 194,350, from:
- − Victims
of trafficking: 21,945 (11.29%);
- − Clients:
14,151 (7.28%);
- − Relatives:
16,912 (8.70%);
- − Members
of the public: 119,733 (61.61%);
- − Police:
13,664 (7.03%);
- − Suspected
persons: 2,632 (1.35%);
- − Victims
of prostitution: 5,313 (2.73%).
- Calls
from victims aged 14 or under amounted to 1% of the total from January to
March 2003. The percentage of calls from 14 to 17-year-olds
was higher, at
7% of the total. On the subject of age, we cannot rule out that the peak
found for the 19-25 age group (35% of the
total) actually conceals the fact that
minors have been forced by their exploiters to say they are older than they
actually are.
- The
Ministry for Equal Opportunities has also funded another two projects as part of
the actions pursuant to Art. 18:
- − The
national monitoring of the results achieved by the public prosecutors’
offices in the investigations arising from complaints
regarding traffickers,
coordinated by the Ministry of Justice;
- − System-wide
actions to encourage the voluntary return and re-integration of the victims of
trafficking in their countries of origin, coordinated by the Ministry of the
Interior, with the assistance of the International Organisation for Migration
(IOM).
- Other
system-wide actions include awareness-raising and public information campaigns
for the anti-trafficking freephone service, promoted
by the inter-ministerial
commission and the Ministry. One of the most recent information campaigns was
Operazione via d’uscita (There’s a way out) presented by the
Ministry for Equal Opportunities at the conference Inferno tratta – Il
dovere di reprimere, l’impegno per salvare (The Hell of Trafficking
– our duty to suppress,
our commitment to save), which took place in
Rome in December 2002. This campaign, which also received funding from the
European Union, was implemented in
concert with the Ministry of the
- Interior
and took the form of a television spot shown by the main private and public
broadcasters, along with stickers and roadside
posters. In 2002 the Ministry
for Equal Opportunities also organised or took part in study meetings on
trafficking, the most significant
of which were:
(a) The
first European Conference on the trafficking of women, which was organised by
the European Commission and took place in Siracusa
on 5-6 December 2003;
(b) The above-mentioned Conference Inferno tratta – Il dovere di
reprimere, l’impegno per salvare, organised in Rome by the Ministry.
V. THE INTEGRATED SYSTEM OF SERVICES AND ACTIONS
TO
PREVENT, COUNTER AND COMBAT PAEDOPHILIA
AND THE SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF
CHILDREN
- As
stated in the National Plan to combat Paedophilia, in the new framework of
institutional relations the state has a double function
of strategic guidance
and evaluation to monitor the effectiveness of public spending and ensure the
essential levels of assistance
with respect to the exercise of civil and social
rights.
- However,
the Regions have sole responsibility, as established by the revised version
of Title V of the Constitution (Constitutional Law no. 3 of 18 October 2001
containing Amendments to Title V of Part II of the Constitution), for
planning and coordinating social and health initiatives, while the local
municipal services and the health services run by
the local health agencies
(LHAs) are responsible for managing, organising and implementing primary,
secondary and tertiary prevention
services. Mechanisms to monitor the system of
social and health services going through the reorganisation process are
therefore
necessary to ensure that abused children’s rights to protection
and, more generally, to health, are being respected.
- With
this aim in mind, the CICLOPE Committee has recommended that a standardised
monitoring and evaluation system be set up that takes
into account the results
achieved in terms of cost effectiveness (understood as the optimal relationship
between the means used and
results achieved) and cost-aware management (savings
of available resources).
- The
objectives to be met to consolidate the system of social services provided by
the local authorities are therefore:
- − Liaison
by the various public and private social services organisations making up the
multi-centre prevention and protection
system;
- − Encouraging
functional coordination between actions for the promotion of well-being and
those for protection from violence;
- − Providing
more economic resources for the treatment phase;
- − Incentivising
the training and qualification of operators in the services;
- − Ensuring
and consolidating the integration of social, health and legal processes so that
procedures are brought into line
with the needs of children, averting the risk
of secondary victimisation as a result of inefficiencies in the actions taken
forward.
- A
decisive contribution in ensuring that the organisational and programming
approach to children’s issues is addressed and taken
forward in a uniform
manner throughout the country was Law 285 of 28 August 1997 containing
provisions for the promotion of rights
and opportunities for children and
adolescents. This encouraged the creation and growth of a wide range of local
experiences whose
activities follow all three lines of prevention.
- The
National Centre for the Documentation and Analysis of Childhood and Adolescence,
a government body set up for this purpose through
Law 451/1997, has reported on
the results obtained each year in its Report to Parliament on the State of
Implementation of Law 285/1997.
In 2001 the Centre carried out a
research-action involving an in-depth survey of the projects taken forward in
this sector.[16]
- The
survey showed that, with regard to basic services, a good (but not uniform)
network of assistance structures for child victims
of violence and their
families is taking shape at the local level in Italy.
- These
services, run by local and/or private social organisations, are also flanked by
the juvenile court system’s social services,
whose activities,
following the entry into force of Law 269/1998, have been further extended
to include assistance to child offenders
and protection and assistance for the
victims of prostitution and child pornography. These services, run by the
juvenile courts’
centres as envisaged by Art. 8 of Legislative Decree 272
of 28 July 1989 concerning Implementation, coordination and transitional
provisions pursuant to Presidential Decree 448 of 22 September 1998,
containing provisions
on criminal proceedings against child offenders,
and reformed by Legislative Decree 146 of 21 May 2000 containing Measures
to up-grade the structures and staffing levels of the prison administration
and of the Central Office of the Juvenile Courts
System, as well as the
establishment of new ordinary and special management grades in the prison
officers corps in accordance with
Art. 12 of Law 266 of 28 July 1999,
operate in close liaison with the services set up by the local authorities.
- The
next few years will see a partial break with the past, with the full
implementation of the recent law reforming the social services
(Law 328 of 8
November 2000, the Framework Law for the creation of an integrated system of
social services and actions), the social-health
integration process and the
attribution to the Regions of sole responsibility for social matters.
- The
following sections contain a description of the different instruments and actors
playing a part in the creation of an integrated
network of services for
children, especially as regards the issue of combating paedophilia and the
sexual exploitation of children.
A. The National Fund for Social Policies
- The
Social Fund finances the system of regional and district social plans that
provide the framework for the implementation of the
integrated network of
personal services, currently undergoing far-reaching new developments.
- From
the financial point of view, Art. 20 of Law 328/2000, which reformed the system
of social-health policies, and Art. 80.17 of
Law 388 of 23 December 2000
(the Finance Law for 2001), provided the basis for a single National Fund
for Social Policies and confirmed
that the Finance Law should determine the
amount allocated to it. This means that the Fund is no longer the sum of the
allocations
made through a number of different laws but an instrument for a more
general programming of social policy actions. The fact that
the Fund for Social
Policies has been allocated without constraints to the Regional authorities was
seen as a way of ensuring planning
and organisational autonomy in the reform of
the social services.
140. The resources allocated to the National
Fund for 2003 amount to 1,716,555,931 euros, as envisaged by the Ministry
of Labour and
Social Policies Decree of 18 April 2003 on the distribution of the
National Fund for Social Policies for 2003, adopted in conjunction
with the
Ministry for Economic Affairs and
Finance.[17] The amount
allocated to the Regions increased by about 15%, from 771,461,269 euros in
2002 to 896,823,876 euros in 2003, a difference
of about 125 million euros. The
aim of the reform envisaged by Law 328/2000 is to create an integrated network
of actions with a
view to overcoming the fragmentation that has long been a
feature of social policies in Italy; and a network of services that will
be
operated with the participation of diverse public, private and not-for-profit
actors. These organisations will be able to bring
together diverse actions at
different times of citizens’ lives as envisaged by Art. 22 of the law,
which states that the integrated
system of social services and actions should be
achieved through coordinated policies and services in the different sectors of
the
life of society. This is to be done by integrating services to individuals
and families with economic measures where appropriate,
and drawing up courses of
action to optimise the effectiveness of resources and prevent the duplication of
competencies and the “sectorialisation”
of responses.
- As
stated in the National Social Plan 2001-2003, in accordance with Law 328/2000
the intention is to promote a Responsible Welfare,
by which is meant a welfare
system that can be defined as plural, since it is constructed and supported by
shared responsibilities
in an approach based on a wider system of government
that capitalises on a solidarity-based federalism between:
- − All
levels of government: municipal, provincial, regional and central which, each
within their own sphere of responsibility,
contribute to the formulation,
implementation and evaluation of social policies;
- − Trade
union and employers’ organisations and social and consumers’
associations, that play a part in formulating
social welfare objectives and
evaluate the degree to which they have been achieved;
- − Local
communities, families and individuals, who are active players in the social
policy field and play a key role in the
design and realisation of the system;
- − The
aggregation and self-organisation of users, families, and individuals, which are
a factor for the enrichment of the network
of
services;
- − The
public assistance and charitable institutions taking part in the regional
programming of the system;
- − Actors
such as the ONLUS (non-profit (socially useful) organisations), the cooperative
sector, the voluntary sector, associations
and bodies working in the social
sector, foundations, union advisory bodies and bodies recognised by the
religious authorities, that
play a part in the programming, organisation and
operation of the integrated system. Law 328/2000 specified (Art. 22.1 c)) that
actions for the promotion of the rights of children and adolescents, as well as
actions in support of children in situations of disadvantage,
should be included
in the “essential level of social services delivered in the form of goods
and services”. The law
also establishes that actions carried out under
the integrated system should be implemented in accordance with the aims of law
285/1997.
This last point is significant because the implementation of that law
implies the intention to substantively implement the UN Convention
on the
Rights of the Child.
National Fund for Social Policies - Regional breakdown
|
Resources - 2002
|
Resources - 2003
|
Difference 2003-2002
|
Abruzzo
|
18 909 834
|
21 108 898
|
2 199 064
|
Basilicata
|
9 492 354
|
10 853 710
|
1 361 356
|
Calabria
|
31 724 898
|
41 301 496
|
9 576 598
|
Campania
|
77 014 313
|
103 772 555
|
26 758 242
|
Emilia Romagna
|
54 417 335
|
60 745 641
|
6 328 306
|
Friuli Venezia Giulia
|
16 921 620
|
18 889 470
|
1 967 850
|
Lazio
|
66 348 939
|
75 290 951
|
8 942 012
|
Liguria
|
23 291 912
|
26 387 239
|
3 095 327
|
Lombardy
|
109 159 547
|
122 178 458
|
13 018 911
|
Marches
|
20 639 815
|
23 040 062
|
2 400 247
|
Molise
|
6 153 673
|
7 335 331
|
1 181 658
|
Autonomous Province of Bolzano
|
6 354 100
|
7 093 032
|
738 932
|
Autonomous Province of Trento
|
6 512 509
|
7 269 863
|
757 354
|
Piedmont
|
55 399 871
|
61 842 439
|
6 442 568
|
Puglia
|
53 824 175
|
67 328 454
|
13 504 279
|
Sardinia
|
22 838 383
|
25 696 413
|
2 858 030
|
Sicily
|
70 862 100
|
80 953 332
|
10 091 232
|
Tuscany
|
50 566 167
|
56 446 613
|
5 880 446
|
Umbria
|
12 665 163
|
14 138 021
|
1 472 858
|
Valle d’Aosta
|
2 226 537
|
2 485 466
|
258 929
|
Veneto
|
56 138 023
|
62 666 432
|
6 528 409
|
Total
|
771 461 269
|
896 823 876
|
125 362 607
|
B. The National Plan of Social Services and Actions
2001-2003
- The
current national social policy is determined by the National Plan of Social
Services and Actions 2001-2003 approved in implementation
of Art. 18 of Law
328/2000. The priority objectives established in the Plan for 2001-2003, which
reflect the aims of protecting
children from violence, include a greater
emphasis on and support for family responsibilities (Objective 1) and
reinforcing children’s
rights (Objective 2).
- The
aim of Objective 1 is to reinforce the primary context for the development and
protection of children by putting in place actions
to support family
responsibilities and parenthood. In particular, the priorities include the
creation of services for children and
families, economic support measures and a
boost for initiatives that facilitate the sharing of childcare responsibilities
by both
parents.
- With
Objective 2, the aim of the National Plan is to consolidate the responses for
children and adolescents, including immigrants,
following an approach based on
the reinforcement of their rights. The types of services that need to be
developed at the local level
to effectively implement Objective 2 include a
particular focus on the creation and enhancement of psychological and social
support services for family members at risk of violent conduct, including
sexual, through highly integrated social-health primary prevention initiatives;
psychological-social treatment and rehabilitation services for
child victims of violence (maltreatment, abuse, sexual exploitation) through
integrated actions by the social, health, legal
and education services;
services to foster the socialisation and enhance the relational resources
of children and their parents (play areas, family centres, meeting places
for adolescents, etc).
C. Law 285 of 28 August 1997 containing provisions for the
promotion
of rights and opportunities for childhood and adolescence
- As
mentioned earlier, the provisions of Law 328/2000 on the integrated network of
personal services were anticipated by Law 285 of
28 August 1997, which
established uniform conditions for action to promote the rights of children and
adolescents throughout the
country, through the creation of local plans at the
municipal level in cities such as Rome, Naples, Palermo, Milan etc and at the
provincial level elsewhere.
- With
respect to actions against maltreatment, abuse and sexual exploitation, the
survey included a “census” of 95 specific
projects carried out over
the first three years of implementation of the law. The four main lines of
action for the projects were:
- − The
mobilisation and promotion of institutional and third sector resources;
- − An
increase in the public’s and expert operators’ awareness of the
extent and nature of the phenomenon;
- − The
promotion of multi-disciplinary and inter-institutional work, with the creation
of networks linking the different local
institutions;
- − The
specialisation of the existing social-health services and the creation of
specialised teams to collect information, take
calls for help, protect,
investigate reports of violence, evaluate families’ rehabilitation
potential, and provide psycho-social
support for children during court
proceedings and therapy.
D. The regions
- In
consideration of the fact that responsibility for the functions involved in the
coordination and programming of the social and
health services now lies solely
by the Regions, it would seem to be of priority importance to evaluate
initiatives, including of
a decision-making
- and
legislative nature, carried out by the Regions in promoting the rights of
children and adolescents, and especially in combating
paedophilia and the sexual
exploitation of children.
- 12
of the 20 Regions have already adopted laws, resolutions or other administrative
provisions specifically regarding the issues of
maltreatment, abuse and/or the
sexual exploitation of children.
- The
Abruzzo Region’s pilot scheme for health actions for children at risk and
their families[18] and Veneto
Region’s Regional Pilot Scheme to combat maltreatment and
abuse[19] both belong to the
last-named type of initiative.
- Calabria
Region has also made specific programming choices on the issue of violence, by
adopting Regional Decree 838 of 24 September
2002, concerning criteria and
arrangements for the granting of funding for specific prevention, assistance and
rehabilitation programmes
for child victims of sexual abuse.
- In
the period under consideration Emilia Romagna Region, which in 1999 adopted
Guidelines on the sexual abuse of
children,[20] further
developed sectorial actions through the approval of projects for training in
maltreatment and psycho-physical abuse
issues[21] and the allocation
of funding to the provincial authorities for actions to combat this phenomenon,
resulting in projects for the
creation of specialist
services.[22]
- Worthy
of note are the efforts of Piedmont Region which, following the approval in 2002
of the Guidelines for the taking in hand by the social assistance and health
services of cases of abuse and maltreatment of children, has promoted a
range of policies for action on issues concerning children, maltreatment and
sexual abuse in particular. In the
period under consideration, the data made
available enabled a framework of initiatives to be mapped out, starting with a
series of
decisions[23] in
which a priority role is given to specialist and basic training for all
operators involved in protection. The work carried out
throughout this Region
can be set in an organisational framework of deeply innovative services, with
the creation of 22 local multi-disciplinary
teams with responsibility
for taking in hand cases of abuse and maltreatment of children.
1. The drafting of guidelines for action in cases of
maltreatment,
abuse and/or sexual exploitation of children
- 12
of the 20 Regions have drawn up guidelines for action in cases of maltreatment,
abuse and/or sexual exploitation of children.
- The
survey confirms the choice made by a number of Regions to adopt resolutions for
special instruments to regulate and coordinate
procedures for reporting and
taking in hand child victims of maltreatment and abuse.
- The
regional guidelines respond to operators’ need for clarity during the most
sensitive phases of protecting children, when
they need to decide how to proceed
with respect to reporting, adopting urgent protection measures, involving (or
not involving) the
family, and opening psychological-social evaluation
procedures.
- The
guidelines also include precise recommendations on the division of
responsibilities by the social and health services, the juvenile
courts, the
public prosecutor’s office in the juvenile courts and the ordinary
prosecutor’s office. These instruments
are intended to acknowledge the
different relations between the judicial and the administrative spheres,
by mapping out a uniform
course of action for the taking in hand of the
children and their families. Of the new initiatives, worthy of note is the
approval
by Tuscany Region (Decision 313 of 25 March 2002) of the document
Guidance and operational instruments concerning the neglect and maltreatment
of children. This provides recommendations and the appropriate courses of
action for reporting such cases (under both civil and criminal justice
procedures); refers to a number of principles and useful indicators for
identifying cases; and indicates the arrangements for communication
and
cooperation by the judicial authorities, the social and health services and
local authorities. Also worthy of mention are the
guidelines drawn up by the
Autonomous Province of Trento, Sicily Region and Friuli Venezia
Giulia.
2. Structures for the coordination of action in cases of
maltreatment,
abuse and/or sexual exploitation of children
- 13
of the 20 Regions have set up structures to coordinate actions in cases of
maltreatment, abuse and/or sexual exploitation of children.
- The
work being taken forward by the Regions recognises the importance of the network
of inter-institutional and multi-disciplinary
cooperation, which might see the
involvement, in addition to the Region itself and representatives of municipal
and provincial authorities,
of:
(a) The ordinary criminal
court;
(b) The juvenile court;
(c) The social services;
(d) The health services provided by the local health agencies;
(e) The social services of the juvenile courts system.
- The
data collected show that in most cases the coordination structures are at the
provincial level, or else are based on social-health
assistance districts.
- In
Piedmont, the coordination function at the provincial level is carried out by
provincial government committees within the Prefects’
offices. However,
the region also has specific multi-disciplinary teams to take in hand cases of
abuse and maltreatment of children,
set up in each LHA and in the Regina
Margherita children’s hospital.
- In
Tuscany, a multi-disciplinary working group has been set up with the involvement
of local operators tasked with studying the phenomenon
of abuse and putting
in place an operational benchmark project that identifies organisational models
for social-health integration
on the issue of disadvantage and childhood abuse,
to be promoted in each of the main districts at the local level.
- The
project for babies and older children adopted by Friuli Region (DGR 1393/2003)
set the key services for the protection of minors
suffering abuse or
maltreatment within the context of district level social-health service
integration: the municipal authorities’
social services, the family advice
centres and the district service providing psychological or neuro-psychiatric
assistance for older
children.
3. Adoption of a regional guidance plan on childhood and
adolescence
that includes the issue of violence against children
- 17
of the 20 Regions have adopted a regional guidance plan on childhood and
adolescence that includes the issue of violence against
children.
- The
issue is now fully integrated in the regional guidance programmes for childhood
and adolescence, generally linked to regional
social and/or health plans. Only
four Regions did not give a positive answer to the question put to them on this
issue.
- Molise
Region approved the plan for a fund for the promotion of rights and
opportunities for childhood and adolescence (pursuant to
Law 285/1997), which
includes a regional project to combat sexual abuse.
- Sardinia
Region also describes its Plan for the Implementation of Law 285/1997 as the
framework within which specific investments
have been made on the subject of
abuse to encourage the creation of network services in each local social-health
district.
- The
programming lines followed by Tuscany Region envisage that the municipal
authorities should address their activities to children’s
needs in the
areas of prevention and the support and protection of children in situations of
violence, neglect and disadvantage.
VI. PREVENTION AND INITIATIVES TO PROMOTE, DISSEMINATE AND
RAISE AWARENESS OF
THE CONTENT OF THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL
A. The national prevention and awareness-raising
campaigns
- Informing,
awareness-raising, and providing recommendations on prevention to help people
escape from violence and increase public
awareness of the extent and gravity of
events that are serious violations of fundamental human rights are tasks on
which the Italian
Government’s National Plan to Prevent and Combat
Paedophilia and Sexual Exploitation bases the communication strategy supporting
the main instruments to counter and prevent the phenomenon.
- In
addition to the initiatives illustrated in Chapter IV of the present Report,
others currently being taken forward, in conjunction
with the public
broadcasting service, include an anti-paedophilia television campaign that is
broadcast on the national and regional
networks at the scheduling times (and
during the programmes) most popular with children. An ad hoc campaign
that is purely informational (but closely tailored to its audience of children
and adolescents) has also been produced to
accompany the entry into operation of
the children’s emergency service linked to the 114 helpline.
- An
example of institutional communication addressed to children is the campaign
launched by the MIT to guide children and their families
on the correct use of
the Internet.
- The
Directorate General for Tourism, which is part of the Ministry for Productive
Activities, is working on the subject of sexual
tourism and has developed
awareness-raising and prevention campaigns in conjunction with the European
Union, the World Tourism Organisation
and NGOs.
B. The preventive approach: the role of schools
- Schools
are the natural places to begin raising people’s awareness of and
disseminating the content of the Protocol and, naturally,
to adopt initiatives
to increase children’s own awareness of the problem, by contributing to
the development of a proper preventive
approach and measures to combat the
phenomenon. The Ministry for Education, the Universities and Research, in
conjunction not just
with the local authorities but also with national
non-profit organisations such as Telefono Azzurro, has launched a number of
awareness-raising
and training initiatives for teachers, school managers, and
children and adolescents themselves. Schools have also been conducting
projects
for some time now, often as part of their health education initiatives, on the
prevention of maltreatment and abuse of children.
These projects are addressed
to teachers, pupils and their families, with the involvement of social and
health operators and private
sector social organisations.
- These
projects are included in the Training Provision Plans implemented autonomously
by schools, and in projects supported by local
authorities acting in conjunction
with schools.
1. Some general features of the programmes taken forward in
schools
- The
various generations of training and awareness-raising programmes in recent years
can be divided into three main categories on
the basis of their content:
- − Generalist:
focusing on general issues such as the affirmation of the rights of children,
children’s well-being, or
social, emotional and sex education within the
curriculum;
- − Specific:
focusing almost exclusively on the prevention of paedophilia and sexual abuse
within the family;
- − Mixed:
combining general themes with more specific issues related to violence against
children.
- Some
programmes focus only on children, others only on teachers, and others again
only on parents. Some are multi-centred, in that
they envisage actions
addressed to all players acting within the world of education. Other still are
multi-systemic, or multi-sectoral,
pilot projects in which activity plans hinge
not just on schools but also on the other agencies for the promotion and
protection
of children, first of which the social and health services. In
general, the more specific projects directly involving children and
adolescents
provide immediate instructions to enable the child to learn how
to:
- − Distinguish
between good and bad physical contact and the characteristics of emotional
relationships;
- − Assert
their right to refuse contact and any requests making them feel ill at ease;
- − Identify
their private parts;
- − Identify
their own personal help networks both inside and outside the family;
- − Not
keep certain types of secret;
- − Not
feel guilty if they become victims of abuse.
- The
actions vary considerably in terms of duration. Some consist of just one
meeting, while others last for weeks or even months.
The generalist and mixed
programmes for children need to last longer as they include sessions dedicated
to framework topics, such
as sexual differences, social skills and sex
education. The duration of the programmes is tailored to suit the age of
the children:
for the youngest children just a few short, frequent sessions are
envisaged, while for adolescents the programmes often include workshops
that can
continue throughout the school year.
- A
wide range of instruments is used, including: lessons, writing exercises,
dramatisations, the showing and production of videos,
role play, physical
expression activities, creative expression activities (drawing, collages,
sculpture), free discussion, and the
analysis of stories with the help of
colouring and story books.
178. One of the key considerations in
drawing up a sexual abuse prevention programme for children is how to present
the material so
that their understanding of it matches their level of cognitive
and emotional
development.[24]
- Some
projects also envisage preliminary training for teachers and awareness-raising
initiatives with parents.
2. The specific contribution of projects involving schools in
the fight
against abuse and sexual exploitation: Survey monitoring the most
recent initiatives put in place by schools
- In
its note of 26 November 2002, the Youth Policies Directorate General in the
Ministry for Education, Universities and Research sent
a circular (Ref. 4915/AD)
to the regional education directors requesting information on the actions put in
place by schools to counter
maltreatment, violence and abuse of children.
- The
following section contains information provided by the Education Ministry, but
before reviewing the work carried out at the local
level in the period under
consideration (January 2002 to the first quarter of 2003) it is worth
summarising briefly the overall picture
that emerges from the data provided
by the Directorates of the following Regions: Lombardy, Veneto, Liguria,
Tuscany, Umbria, Sardinia,
Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Puglia.
- The
experience of the schools for which information was provided for the present
report can be included in the categories set out
earlier and on the basis of
their aims can be divided into the following types of
initiative:
- − Guidance:
informational contacts with senior local representatives of central government
and representatives of local administrations, provincial
and municipal
government structures, the LHAs and the judicial authorities;
- − Organisational:
the setting up of committees, formally recognised working groups or
inter-institutional tables; or the creation of operational services;
- − Regulatory:
the drawing up of protocols and inter-institutional multi-disciplinary
agreements for programmes of activities and the definition
of procedures;
- − Training/information:
single-sector and multi-disciplinary training and information pathways,
awareness-raising actions for parents, educational actions
for children and
adolescents.
- Actions
at the local level were in some cases the product of inter-institutional
agreements and protocols of understanding drawn up at the regional level, as
in the case of Puglia, where the regional education office
signed a protocol of
understanding with bodies and associations to put in place the necessary
instruments for the detection of abuse/violence
and set up the related
databases. In the case of Tuscany, with the creation of the Regional Schools
Directorates a regional referent
with specific responsibility for the issue of
child abuse was appointed. Many local initiatives in the Region are part of the
framework
agreement between the representatives of the provincial Administrative
Service Centres (ASCs) and Tuscany Region; an agreement thanks
to which a
regional procedural protocol is being studied and initiatives to provide
information and distribute documentation to schools
in the Region have been
planned. Finally, in Lombardy the Regional Schools Directorate and Lombardy
Region have agreed on training
programmes for teachers and parents, as well as
educational initiatives for children and adolescents, with the aim of
undertaking
a widespread and systematic programme of refresher courses and
awareness-raising initiatives, as instruments to combat the various
forms of
abuse and maltreatment of children.
3. Organisational initiatives by liaison structures and
services
- In
Sardinia the ASC in Nuoro is contributing to the observatory for childhood set
up by the provincial government of Nuoro, which
includes referents from LHAs,
Prefect’s offices, the Juvenile Court, municipal councils and the Questura
(local police headquarters).
- The
ASC in Bari has been involved in setting up a provincial inter-institutional
Committee in the Government’s local office
in Bari for measures to combat
paedophilia and a restricted technical Working
Group[25] tasked with
developing synergies between the various institutions and bodies involved with a
view to drawing up operational monitoring
and action strategies. The Group has
been involved in:
- − Putting
in place the necessary instruments to detect and study the phenomenon and set up
databases;
- − Identifying
training opportunities and arrangements relating to violence/abuse;
- − Coordinating
and integrating services at the provincial level.
- The
creation of a helpline (a call centre and Internet contact centre for the
prevention of child abuse) is one of the specific objectives
of the
collaborative project currently under way between the Regional Educational
Office in Basilicata, the Juvenile Court, the S.
Carlo di Potenza
Hospital, the Police and the Paediatricians’ Association. As a result of
meetings by these institutional
actors, a project was set up that led to the
opening of a service for the prevention of violence and sexual abuse
against children
and the activation of telephone and Internet contact centres.
This project started in December 2002, with the creation of a project
coordination team.
- In
Campania[26] too the
educational sector has helped set up local services. The ASC in Caserta, in the
form of the technical working group set
up in the Prefect’s Office, has
been cooperating inter alia in drawing up an agreement for an
inter-institutional programme to launch a local project called Progetto
Azzurro: anti-abuse centre.
4. Regulatory initiatives
- In
June 2002, the Provincial Inter-Institutional Committee in Bari for Measures to
Combat Paedophilia signed a protocol of understanding
with all the bodies and
institutions making up the Committee. This document is the starting point to
foster:
- − A
knowledge of the causes, circumstances, and contexts of the different
occurrences of violence;
- − The
most appropriate synergies for measures to prevent and combat abuse;
- − The
promotion of training opportunities for operators and persons interacting with
children, with families and with social-educational
agencies;
- − Support
for the network of services and structures entrusted with the protection and
socialisation of young children and,
if appropriate, the activation of further,
more specific services for children and their families.
- Working
with the Provincial government, the Viterbo ASC has taken forward a project on
Assistance and prevention in cases of violence, maltreatment and abuse of
children and adolescents. In November 2002 a Protocol of Understanding was
signed by the ASC, the Questura, the Prefect’s Office, the LHA, and
Viterbo
Municipal Council. The Protocol was adopted as an operational platform
for the project against maltreatment and abuse, a key feature
of which is
training for nursery and primary school teachers.
- Along
with Protocols of Understanding, forms of regulatory collaboration between
schools and other local bodies also include programme
agreements for the
drafting and planning of the actions envisaged by local social and educational
policies. This is a form of cooperation
that became widespread in Italy with
the entry into force of Law 285/1997, which for funding purposes required plans
to be drawn
up for local initiatives by all actors with specific competencies in
the promotion of the welfare and protection of children and
adolescents.[27] For
example, the ASC in Lecce has subscribed to the programme for the adoption of
the three-year plan for 2002-2004 pursuant to
Law 285/1997. This agreement
envisages “the activation of actions for prevention and assistance in
cases of abuse or sexual
exploitation, neglect, maltreatment and violence
against children”.
5. Other training and informational initiatives
- Training
and awareness-raising projects, whether addressed only to teachers or else
multi-centred and therefore involving parents,
pupils and operators in the local
services, have been implemented throughout the country.
- All
the projects reported on can be set within a framework of inter-institutional
cooperation and are often the fruit of plans agreed
within local Committees or
coordination groups.
- In
Taranto, the inter-institutional coordination group in the Prefect’s
Office dates from 2001. For the period under examination
the group was
engaged in the organisation of an inter-institutional training course for
teachers and psychological-social workers.
The course was proposed by the
Prefect’s Office with the involvement of the Provincial government,
Taranto Municipal Council,
the ASC, the TA/1 LHA, UNICEF, LUMSA (Catholic
University), the Juvenile Court and Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office, and the
city’s
main hospital.
- School
pupils in Taranto took part in an awareness-raising project on Paedophilia
and sex education (supported by LHA/TA1 health operators), which
continued throughout the 2001/2002 school year.
- In
Frosinone and Latina, a number of training initiatives for teachers, parents and
pupils were set up, implementing collaborative
projects with the Prefect’s
Office, the Children’s Centre at the Questura, social workers, LHAs and
the University.
- As
mentioned earlier, Lombardy’s regional education office and Lombardy
Region have drawn up a wide-ranging training, educational
and awareness-raising
plan.[28] The main elements
of this are: integrated training by researcher-teachers and LHA operators on
maltreatment and sexual abuse (definition,
evaluation and main characteristics;
extent and short-, medium- and long-term consequences of the phenomenon;
indicators; observation
and network projects, etc), and teaching activities with
hundreds of experimental classes. The actions envisaged in the initiative,
which has received new funding, started up in January 2003 and are expected to
be completed in 2004.
- The
regional education office in Umbria is working on a project called
Let’s Help Palinuro, a research and training programme for the
protection of school-age children and adolescents.
6. The importance of information and prevention
- The
solution of problems connected to childhood requires diversified forms of
intervention that also have to be integrated and coordinated
by educational
establishments, actors in the sector, social partners and non-profit
organisations. Besides instruments of a repressive
nature, information and
prevention initiatives are particularly important in social-inclusion policies
(combating child exploitation,
family support, prevention of school drop-outs).
However, there is still much to be done to arouse civil awareness on childhood
issues and to promote these policies.
- The
growing needs of children and adolescents are the special responsibility not
just of the state but also of local authorities,
educational establishments,
social forces and associations, who are required to defend, apply and develop
the principles ratified
by the New York Convention on the Rights of the Child
(1989) and the Special Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations
of
2002. And they have to do so in accordance with their own particular
situations.
- In
this context, the Consiglio Nazionale dell'Economia e del Lavoro (CNEL)
can become a centre for monitoring, evaluations and dialogue. In an
increasingly fragmented country, the CNEL is one of the
few institutional fora
in which Italy’s economic and social problems have found an increasingly
frequent and fruitful airing,
thanks especially to the contribution of the
social forces in the Assembly and the constant links with representatives of
ministries,
public bodies and institutions.
- Particularly
important in this respect is the publication of the Proceedings of the
Conference “Il bambino da soggetto di diritti
a protagonista di
scelte” (The Child from Subject of Rights to Protagonist of
Choices), organised by CNEL’s Commission on Labour and Social Polices,
in cooperation with “Telefono Azzurro”, in June
2003. This
conference is an early indicator of CNEL's intention to put its resources and
commitment to the service of minors and
to give a concrete contribution to the
protection and assertion of the rights of children and adolescents. This
commitment will
be pursued by installing the Working Group for the Rights of
Children and Adolescents in the Commission of Labour and Social Policies.
The
working group will be made up of CNEL board members and representatives of
UNICEF and of public bodies and institutions.
- To
combat the exploitation of child labour, discrimination, sexual violence and all
those often hidden assaults on children’s
rights, a firm approach based on
vertical and horizontal solidarity must be achieved.
- Vertical
solidarity means that the “authorities closest to the citizens should
shoulder these responsibilities”. This
implies integration between
different public bodies in planning and managing services and interventions for
children and adolescents.
Integration on a political level
- by
defining local spheres of interest and local plans (involving municipalities,
LHAs, educational establishments and the judicial
authorities). And integration
on an operational level, where local actors from different sectors
combine forces to promote the well-being of children in their territory.
- There
must also be horizontal solidarity between public institutions and civil
society, with the consequent enhancement of the tertiary
sector and social
forces.
- More
specifically, by promoting joint ventures and partnerships with the educational
world, the church, voluntary associations and
social forces, the municipalities
can gradually build up a network that tackles these problems by working towards
integration. Worthy
of mention here are the initiatives launched in recent
years by some Italian municipalities.
- Initiatives
for teaching children about their local areas (more extra-curricular activities,
recreational areas, greater use of the
urban context) are thus a core part of
the strategy for combating social exclusion, and the important work carried out
by the social
forces should be stressed here. There have been numerous
initiatives for information and prevention organised in recent years
(conferences,
study days) and the social partners have been significantly
involved in using the instruments set up by the relevant laws (cooperation
with
some municipalities for the application of law 285/1997). Also noteworthy is
the commitment of non-profit organisations in
the social services (supporting
public actors and the social partners) and in sports and extracurricular
activities in general.
- Finally,
there is the “Childhood Plan” – containing the proposals of
the Standing Forum of the Tertiary Sector –
which highlights the major
problems involving minors and possible solutions.
Foreign children and adolescents in Italy
- The
analysis of issues regarding the presence of foreign minors in Italy is very
important under various aspects:
1. One of the most delicate
aspects concerns unaccompanied foreign minors. This is a very complex
situation, the extent of which
is difficult to estimate, because many
of these minors remain in complete illegality. Unaccompanied foreign
children and adolescents
receive a residence permit “for minors”
which can be converted, on reaching the age of majority, for those minors who
have been in Italy for at least three years and who have taken part in an
integration project for at least two years. This possibility,
while helping to
protect the rights of minors, is limited by the requirements (three years
of residence or entry before 15): a rule
that risks encouraging more entries of
under 15year-olds. The protection of the basic rights of unaccompanied foreign
minors should
also include real possibilities to plan their reception,
assistance, guidance and education. The reception units should not be conceived
only for initial assistance but should also have guidance and accompanying tasks
linked to psychological, cultural, social, motivational
and educational aspects
and involving learning and the development of knowledge and know-how.
2. Also important is the integration of the current regulations in support
of maternity and paternity, based on the essential values
of solidarity and
acceptance on which the family institution is based, including adoptive and
foster families. The disparities ensuing
from the lack of clarity in
Legislative Decree 151/2001 (Consolidated Act of provisions regarding the
protection and support of maternity
and paternity, pursuant to Art. 15 of Law 53
of 8 March 2000) on parental leave must be rectified. The aim is
to extend the regulation
on compulsory and voluntary leave of absence, already
envisaged for natural parents, to adoptive and foster parents or minors,
independently
of their origin and age when inserted in the family.
3. The insertion and integration of foreign children needs to be based on
the consistent support of the educational system. This
has the task of
eliminating social barriers and helping to achieve equal rights for all
minors in Italy, focusing on cooperation
and mutual respect and the acceptance
of the pupils’ different cultural and religious backgrounds.
- At
2.3% of all schoolchildren, the percentage of non-Italian students in Italy
(181,767 in 2001-2002, according to Ministry of Education
data), is lower
than in other major European countries. However, their numbers are steadily
increasing year by year. The geographical
origin of foreign students, their
distribution throughout the country and their breakdown by educational level are
all very diversified.
This means that the perception of immigrants in schools
and the consequent need for initiatives promoting the knowledge of “other
cultures” varies not only from region to region but often from school to
school. According to a study promoted by CNEL (by
the Coordination Unit
for Social Integration Policies for Foreigners), the value attributed to
education by foreign families who,
often with great sacrifices, keep their
children at school, has “transcultural” dimensions. The educational
“career”
of foreign children is much more erratic than that of their
Italian companions and much more exposed to the risk of dropping-out.
Linguistic and cultural gaps can often create considerable educational barriers
to pupils, and these are more serious the higher
the order of school. If we add
the problem of inserting the pupil in a class unsuitable for his or her
educational standard and
age, poor motivation (of the pupil and sometimes of the
family) and difficult socio-economic conditions, failure becomes increasingly
likely.
- The
Italian educational system is currently undergoing a process of reform, with the
result that only some schools have a “policy”
of fostering
multiculturalism and thus also the respect of other religions. It is important
to ask ourselves what parents’
expectations are with regard to their
religion and to the integration process. An effective intervention policy,
aimed at the full
integration of the child, needs to cover highly diverse
situations because the needs expressed by parents are also extremely varied
–because of personal history, country of origin, migratory plan, type of
family, presence of a network of fellow-nationals
in Italy, presence of
emotional links with country of origin, etc.
- The
school is thus required to provide not just suitable teaching tools, but also
sufficient motivation where this is lacking, and
an environment capable of
promoting physical, cognitive and relational well-being. It has to prevent
situations of disadvantage
for children and adolescents, so that the different
categories of pupils have a real possibility of achieving satisfactory results
in terms of study and social integration.
“The school” - according to CNEL – “plays a
decisive role in the integration pathways of migrant citizens, their families,
and especially of their children –
the quality of second generation
integration is decisive for an orderly and cohesive co-existence – and
also for the education
of all pupils with regard to the prospect of a new
society where different cultures encounter each other, respect each other and
are enriched by this experience” (Three-Year Programme Document
2004/2006 on Immigration Policy. Observations and Proposals, Assembly, 25
March 2004.)
C. Information, training and refresher courses for operators
in the sector
1. Initiatives put in place by the Ministry of Labour and
Social Policies
- With
the cooperation of the National Centre for the Documentation and Analysis of
Childhood and Adolescence, the Ministry of Labour
and Social Policies has
promoted the creation of a working group composed of experts in the sector. The
working group has the task
of implementing a programme of specific research,
documentation and awareness-raising initiatives on disadvantage and the
maltreatment
of children.
- In
2002, the group focused on the issue of prevention and organised a national
seminar on The prevention of disadvantage in childhood and adolescence:
policies and services for promotion and protection, “a friendly
ear”
and network approaches (Florence, 24 September). The aim of the initiative
was to bring together a wide range of public and private actors working with
families and children at the regional and local levels. The initiative
responded to a real need to meet and share experiences, as
shown by the high
number of participants: 408 registered and 395 actually attended. During the
workshop sessions ample space was
provided to present local projects and
experiences, while the plenary sessions were used to discuss the current state
of research
and the work carried out in each
workshop.[29]
- Since
primary prevention also involves actions to sensitise the interested parties to
the issues, a working group of adolescents from
various Italian Regions has
been set up. Coordinated by the National Centre and adopting a peer education
approach, the boys and
girls took part in a project design workshop that
resulted in an information booklet for teenagers on the subject of violence,
entitled
Uscita di sicurezza (Emergency Exit).
- The
working group on maltreatment and sexual abuse is currently engaged in the
second implementation stage of the plan of activities,
which sees the experts
and the National Centre working on the organisation of an experimental research
project to create a national
system to monitor instances of neglect,
maltreatment and/or sexual abuse of children that are reported and/or taken in
hand by the
local services.
2. Initiatives involving representatives of central government
departments
- A
significant investment has been made in information and training by
representatives of central government and its local offices,
including
through participation in seminars and coordination initiatives. This engagement
confirms the government’s awareness
of the importance of creating
specialised professional resources and its interest in taking part in
events dedicated to the exchange
of experiences at the national and
supra-national
levels.[30]
- The
Juvenile Courts Department organised a training/information course in the
Messina training school on The treatment of sexual abuse, for juvenile
court operators in Calabria and Sicily. The course also involved the direct
supervision of a number of cases.
- Again
in Messina, the training project From darkness into light, on the subject
of women and child victims of trafficking, was taken forward and completed.
This project included three public initiatives
on sexual violence against women
and children; a training course for “listeners”, voluntary and
otherwise; seminars in
a number of schools in Messina and the creation of a
contact point where “listeners” are available for those needing
to
talk about abuse.
- At
the training school in Castiglione delle Stiviere, the Juvenile Courts
Department has set up a training course on abuse and violence
against
children, entitled Chi raccoglie le conchiglie: adolescenti,
sessualità, adulti. The course is divided into two modules and is
addressed to operators in the juvenile courts system and local operators. The
course,
scheduled for autumn 2003, for which funding and programmes are already
in place, will focus on the issues of violence, sexuality
and the importance of
lending a friendly ear, all in relation to adolescents.
- The
children’s justice department has also promoted a series of seminars on
The sexual abuse of children and unaccompanied foreign children, in
conjunction with Criminalpol:
- − In
2002, a national module was organised that was attended by 40 operators from the
Ministry of Justice and the Police;
- − In
2003, at the local level, 3 modules were organised in the department’s
three training schools for operators in the
North, Centre and South of the
country. The seminars were attended by 120 people in all, again from the
Ministry of Justice and
the police. The two departments each handle cases
– in different ways and with different operational instruments –
involving
both child victims and child perpetrators of sexual offences against
other children, so the aim of the course was to encourage the
development of an
integrated effort through the wider dissemination of information and the
discussion of working procedures and practices.
- The
juvenile courts department has also produced a study document on Abuse and
violence against children: a survey of the phenomenon by the Children’s
Social Services Offices in the Juvenile Courts
Department. This is a
national investigation of the phenomenon of child abuse, conducted on the basis
of quantitative and qualitative information
on the cases reported and/or taken
in hand by the Department’s social services offices. A research project
on child perpetrators
of sexual offences against other children has also been
designed and initiated in conjunction with the University of Turin’s
Department of Psychology.
- The
Ministry of the Interior has also been involved at the European level, with
officials taking part in the Specialised Interpol
Group on crimes against
children. Again at the European level, the Ministry of Labour and Social
Policies has taken part in study
and discussion events on the protection of
children, abuse and the implementation of children’s rights at meetings of
the L’Europe de l’enfance group, which brings together
officials from the Ministries responsible for childhood issues.
VII. THE CRIMINAL ASPECTS OF ACTS OF MALTREATMENT,
ABUSE
AND/OR SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN
A. Sexual assault against children. 2002 and the first half
of 2003
- With
Law 66/1996, the offences of rape and indecent assault were incorporated in the
single crime of sexual assault.
- The
law defines the perpetrators of offences under this law as all those who use
violence or threats to force a minor of any age to
perform or submit to sexual
acts, or those performing sexual acts on children younger than 14 (or 16 if the
perpetrator is their
parent, guardian or the person entrusted with their care)
even in the absence of violence, or those who perform sexual acts in the
presence of children under 14 with the aim of having them witness these acts.
Participation by a number of persons in acts of sexual
assault also constitutes
an offence.
- The
latest data – not yet definitive – available from the Ministry of
the Interior on this offence refer to 2002 and the
first half of 2003.
Table 1
Sexual assault against child victims - reported
offences and
persons reported to the judicial authorities. Italy,
2002
|
|
Reported offences
|
Persons reported to judicial authorities
|
Sexual assault (art. 609 bis and ter p.c.)
|
395
|
341
|
389
|
Sexual acts with children (art. 609 quater p.c.)
|
80
|
55
|
57
|
Child abuse (art. 609 quinquies p.c.)
|
18
|
9
|
9
|
Group sexual assault (art. 609 octies p.c.)
|
18
|
18
|
53
|
Total
|
511
|
423
|
508
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- First
of all, it can be seen that the most common offence is sexual assault,
with
395 victims (70% of whom younger than 15), 341 reported offences and 389 persons
reported. Of these, 221 (about 57%) of the
persons reported were arrested.
While this amounts to over half of the total, it still follows that almost
half are still at large.
With respect to the other offences envisaged under Law
66/1996, although the numbers of offences are lower, the number of victims
is
still significant. In the case of sexual acts with minors, a large proportion
of victims are in the lower age groups: 87.5% were
under 15 at the time the
offence was reported, and almost half were aged 0-10.
- In
consideration of the age of the victims, the gravity of the phenomenon is also
demonstrated through the fact that, of the total
of 511 victims, 177 were
younger than 10 (34.6%), 210 (about 41%) were aged 11 to 14, while the remaining
24.3% were between 15 and
17 years of
age.
Table 2
Sexual assault against minors - age of victims by
type of offence.
Italy, 2002 (Absolute values)
|
|
Age 0-10
|
Age 11-14
|
Age 15-17
|
Sexual assault (art. 609 bis and ter p.c.)
|
395
|
133
|
157
|
105
|
Sexual acts with children (art. 609 quater p.c.)
|
80
|
36
|
34
|
10
|
Child abuse (art. 609 quinquies p.c.)
|
18
|
6
|
11
|
1
|
Group sexual assault (art. 609 octies p.c.)
|
18
|
2
|
8
|
8
|
Total
|
511
|
177
|
210
|
124
|
%
|
100
|
34.6
|
41.1
|
24.3
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
Figure 1
Sexual assault against minors - age of the victims
by
type of offence. Italy, 2002 (Percentage figures)
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- These
data confirm both the early age at which abuse begins, a recurrent feature in
cases of sexual abuse within the family, and operators’
increased ability
to detect early symptoms of distress even in very young children. It is
interesting to note that the offence with
the highest percentage (44.4%) of
adolescent victims, i.e. aged 15 to 17, is group sexual assault. This form of
abuse is a form
of aggression strongly correlated to peer group dynamics and
often involves younger individuals both as victims and as perpetrators.
- The
information currently available points to a sort of gender gap in the victims,
70% of whom are girls. However, the proportion
actually varies, since the
percentage of girls increases with the age of the victims: from 65.5% in the
lowest age group (0-10 years)
to 81.5% in the highest (15-17). This variation
can be explained, at least in part, by the greater difficulty experienced by
boys
in seeking help when in a state of need and distress.
Table 3
Sex of the victims by age group. Italy, 2002
(Absolute values)
|
|
0-10 years
|
11-14 years
|
15-17 years
|
Girls
|
358 (70.1%)
|
116 (65.5%)
|
141 (67.1%)
|
101 (81.5%)
|
Boys
|
153 (29.9%)
|
61 (34.5%)
|
69 (32.9%)
|
23 (18.5%)
|
Total
|
511 (100)
|
177 (100)
|
210 (100)
|
124 (100)
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- With
regard to the nationality of the victims, as can be seen in the following
figure the great majority are Italian, as are the majority of offenders (85%).
Many of these offences
are committed within the environments most familiar to
the child: the home or the social or educational environments they frequent.
This explains the strong correlation between the nationality of the victims and
that of the perpetrators.
Figure 2
Victims by nationality and sex. Italy,
2002
- Of
the non-Italian victims, the biggest group consists of children from the former
Yugoslavia (19), followed by Albanians (9), Moroccans
(8) and Rumanians (7).
The graph shows clearly that, overall, there is no gender gap in the foreign
victims, as there clearly is
with the Italian victims. In terms of numbers,
amongst the foreign children there is an almost even split between the sexes,
with
38 girls and 32 boys.
- As
shown in Table 4, between 2002 and 2003 the number of victims and the
numbers of offences and persons reported all increased. While this factor must
be taken into account,
it should be noted that the Ministry of the Interior data
for 2002 and the first half of 2003 are still provisional. This means
that any
substantial changes that emerge in the analysis need to be read in the proper
light.
- The
numbers of offences involving sexual acts with children appear to be slightly
down, while there was a strong increase in all the
figures for the other
three types of sexual abuse.
- In
actual fact, at least as regards the number of victims of group sexual assault,
the percentage change of 50% actually translates
into only 6 victims in the
first half of 2002 and 9 in the first half of 2003. If evaluated in absolute
terms, therefore, the rise
appears less marked.
- From
a comparison of the data for the first half of 2002 with those for the first
half of 2003, it can be seen that the number of
child victims of sexual
offences appears to have increased by over 140. If we consider that in the
whole of 2002 the number of victims
of these offences was just over 500, the
figure for the first half of 2003 (438 victims) suggests that the total for the
year will
be much higher than for 2002.
Table 4
Sexual assault against children - victims by age
group. Comparison between
the first half of 2002 and the first half of
2003
|
from 01/01/2002 to 30/06/2002
|
from 01/01/2003 to 30/06/2003
|
% change
|
Age 0-10
|
Age 11-14
|
Age 15-17
|
Age 0-10
|
Age 11-14
|
Age 15-17
|
Age 0-10
|
Age 11-14
|
Age 15-17
|
Sexual assault (art. 609 bis and ter p.c.)
|
77
|
76
|
62
|
141
|
151
|
92
|
83.1
|
98.7
|
48.4
|
Sexual acts with children (art. 609 quater p.c.)
|
30
|
22
|
6
|
8
|
18
|
2
|
-73.3
|
-18.2
|
-66.7
|
Child abuse (art. 609 quinquies p.c.)
|
6
|
10
|
1
|
9
|
7
|
1
|
50.0
|
-30.0
|
0.0
|
Group sexual assault (art. 609 octies p.c.)
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
6
|
3
|
0
|
500.0
|
50.0
|
-100.0
|
Total
|
114
|
110
|
72
|
164
|
179
|
95
|
43.9
|
62.7
|
31.9
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- With
regard to the age of the victims, we can see that the 11-14 age group is the one
most affected by this increase, with a rise
of 60% from 2002 to 2003, from 110
victims to 179.
- In
the case of victims aged 15 to 17, the numbers of victims of group sexual
assault and sexual assault against minors appear to be
falling. The number of
victims of child abuse, a definition that is being used less in view of its
unclear legal content, which
is unable to capture the real nature of the abuse
suffered by the child, is unchanged.
- In
analysing the percentage change data, we need to bear in mind the actual numbers
involved: an increase of 500%, as noted for victims
of group assaults aged ten
or less, certainly appears alarming, but in absolute terms the figures are much
lower, going from 1 to
6 cases in the two periods under study. This
consideration is not intended to underplay the gravity of the violence suffered
by
such young children, but to avoid unnecessary and unhelpful alarm, especially
in view of the observations we have made concerning
the nature of the data and
the phenomenon under study.
- The
increase in the number of victims is accompanied by a rise in the numbers of
offences and persons reported, from 245 in the first
half of 2002 to 349 in the
first half of 2003 for the former, and from 284 to 392 for the latter.
- The
offence showing the most marked increase is child abuse, for which both the
number of reported offences and the number of persons
reported to the judicial
authorities doubled. This is followed by offences under Art. 609 bis and
ter (a rise of 57.1% in the number of offences and 50.7% in the number of
persons reported), and group sexual assault (up 37.5%), with
an average of 3
individuals reported for each reported offence in 2003. Taking the data
overall, we see a reduction in the number
of arrests (154 in the first period,
compared with 284 persons reported, and 139 in the second period, against 392
persons reported).
This can probably be explained by the fact that the data
being compared are those for the first half of 2002 and the first half
of 2003,
which means that the number of arrests compared with the total number of persons
reported is bound to increase as on-going
investigations are
completed.
Table 5
Sexual assaults against children - victims, reported
offences and persons
reported to the judicial authorities. Comparison
between the first half
of 2002 and the
first half of 2003
|
from
01/01/2002 to 30/06/2002
|
from 01/01/2003 to 30/06/2003
|
% change
|
Victims
|
Reported offences
|
Persons reported to the judicial authorities
|
Victims
|
Reported offences
|
Persons reported to the judicial authorities
|
Victims
|
Reported offences
|
Persons reported to the judicial authorities
|
Sexual assault (art. 609 bis e ter p.c.)
|
215
|
189
|
209
|
384
|
297
|
315
|
+78.6
|
+57.1
|
+50.7
|
Sexual acts with children (art. 509 quater p.c.)
|
58
|
41
|
44
|
28
|
27
|
29
|
-51.7
|
-34.1
|
-34.1
|
Child abuse (art. 609 quinquies p.c.)
|
17
|
7
|
7
|
17
|
14
|
15
|
-
|
+100.0
|
+114.3
|
Group sexual assault (art. 609 octies p.c.)
|
6
|
8
|
24
|
9
|
11
|
33
|
+50.0
|
+37.5
|
+37.5
|
Total
|
296
|
245
|
284
|
438
|
349
|
392
|
+48.0
|
+42.4
|
+38.0
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
B. Historic analysis of the available data
- As
we have already noted, the fact that more data are available for the offence of
sexual assault makes it possible to draw a fuller
picture by comparing the data
for previous years with those for 2002 and the first half of 2003. This makes
it possible to identify
trends in the numbers of offences and persons reported.
Law 66/1996 includes both rape and indecent assault in the category of sexual
assault – a change which means that the more recent data are not fully
comparable with those preceding the entry into force
of the law in
question.
Table 6
Child victims of sexual assault, offences reported
and persons reported
to the judicial authorities. Italy, 1999-2002
|
Victims
|
Offences reported
|
Persons reported to the judicial authorities
|
1999
|
572
|
425
|
523
|
2000
|
700
|
491
|
623
|
2001
|
398
|
360
|
444
|
2002
|
395
|
341
|
389
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- The
data for 1999-2001 showed a sharp reduction in the phenomenon, after a
fairly marked increase in 2000, both in the number of victims
and the
number of offences reported. The following two years saw a drop in the numbers,
with a tendency to stabilisation in 2002.
- The
marked increase in 2000 has been interpreted as the consequence of the entry
into force of Law 269/1998, which has certainly played
a part in raising public
awareness of the issue of sexual violence against children and at the same time
in increasing the measures
to monitor violence as a whole against children.
- While
it is true that the data are still provisional, we can say that after a rapid
fall from 2000 to 2001, the phenomenon shows a
moderate tendency to
stabilisation. However, we need to wait until the data for 2002 have been
finalised, although significant variations
are not expected with regard to the
figure for last year: the decrease of over 40% from 2000 to 2001 contrasts with
a fall of just
0.8% from 2001 to 2002. We still need to see the results for
2003, which began with a significant upwards movement in the figures,
as we
underlined in the previous paragraph. As regards the age of the victims, while
for 2000 a large proportion were aged ten or
less (303 victims, or 43% of the
total), in the following two years the increase mainly affected 11-14 year-olds
(again in terms
of the percentage breakdown of the victims by age
group).
Figure 3
Child victims of sexual assault by age group -
Italy, 2002
- If
we consider children of ten or less, the percentage falls from 43.3% of the
total in 2000 to 31.4% in 2001, settling out at just
under 34% in 2002.
For the 11-14 age group, on the other hand, we see a rise from 32.4% to 37.2%
from 2000 to 2001, and to just
under 40% for 2002. In the case of 15-17
year-olds, an increase from 24.3% in 2000 to 31.4% in 2001 is followed by a fall
to 26.5%
in 2002. Overall, just under three-quarters of the victims are under
14 years of age, a fact which, as we noted when presenting
the data for the
previous section, gives us ample food for thought with regard to the gravity of
the problem.
- Table
7 shows the breakdown of the victims by age group and geographical distribution.
The Regions with the highest number of victims
are Lombardy and Campania, which
have however seen a marked decline in the phenomenon in the three years under
consideration. In
Lombardy, for example, the number of victims fell from
116 in 2000 to just over 45 in the following two years. Campania saw a similar
trend, from a total of 114 victims in 2000 to 40 in 2002. In terms of
percentage change, the 2000-2001 period is mainly characterised
by
a fall in the numbers of very young victims: compared with an
overall reduction of 43.1%, there was a drop of just under 60% for
the
0-10 age group. For 2000/2001, on the other hand, the numbers of 15-17
year-olds fell by 16%, while there was a slight increase
for the other
two age groups.
Table 7
Child victims of sexual assault by age group and
region - 2000-2002
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
0-10 years
|
11-14 years
|
15-17 years
|
Total
|
0-10 years
|
11-14 years
|
15-17 years
|
Total
|
0-10 years
|
11-14 years
|
15-17 years
|
Total
|
Piedmont
|
7
|
11
|
9
|
27
|
2
|
2
|
8
|
12
|
4
|
11
|
0
|
15
|
Valle d’Aosta
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
Lombardy
|
42
|
39
|
35
|
116
|
14
|
21
|
12
|
47
|
18
|
13
|
17
|
48
|
Trentino Alto Adige
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
4
|
2
|
3
|
3
|
8
|
1
|
4
|
3
|
8
|
Veneto
|
9
|
13
|
13
|
35
|
2
|
3
|
9
|
14
|
7
|
3
|
5
|
15
|
Friuli Venezia Giulia
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
4
|
2
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
Liguria
|
6
|
5
|
10
|
21
|
6
|
2
|
1
|
9
|
11
|
9
|
6
|
26
|
Emilia Romagna
|
8
|
13
|
9
|
30
|
5
|
6
|
5
|
16
|
12
|
14
|
6
|
32
|
Tuscany
|
21
|
12
|
12
|
45
|
5
|
6
|
6
|
17
|
19
|
13
|
15
|
47
|
Umbria
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
1
|
15
|
4
|
20
|
Marches
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
4
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
3
|
10
|
Lazio
|
24
|
19
|
29
|
72
|
19
|
20
|
22
|
61
|
12
|
13
|
17
|
42
|
Abruzzo
|
9
|
3
|
1
|
13
|
3
|
3
|
1
|
7
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
Molise
|
7
|
2
|
0
|
9
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
3
|
Campania
|
62
|
34
|
18
|
114
|
19
|
17
|
10
|
46
|
17
|
15
|
8
|
40
|
Puglia
|
35
|
27
|
16
|
78
|
11
|
21
|
12
|
44
|
3
|
6
|
8
|
17
|
Basilicata
|
0
|
8
|
2
|
10
|
8
|
4
|
11
|
23
|
0
|
4
|
2
|
6
|
Calabria
|
28
|
5
|
0
|
33
|
7
|
12
|
7
|
26
|
5
|
14
|
6
|
25
|
Sicily
|
34
|
27
|
8
|
69
|
10
|
20
|
9
|
39
|
15
|
14
|
3
|
32
|
Sardinia
|
6
|
5
|
2
|
13
|
9
|
5
|
2
|
16
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
Italy
|
303
|
227
|
170
|
700
|
125
|
148
|
125
|
398
|
133
|
157
|
105
|
395
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- A
better approach to the analysis of the data for the geographical distribution of
the victims is presented in the following table.
- The
decision to present the data for all three years in this case too enables us to
evaluate not just the extent of the phenomenon
but also the trend. It
makes sense to speak of a fall in a given geographical area not just
in numerical terms but also with respect
to the incidence of the phenomenon in
that area, both in terms of percentage breakdown of the victims by age group
(and so we give
a geographical breakdown of the victims for each group) and in
terms of incidence on the total population, i.e. on the number of
children
resident in the area in question.
Table 8
Geographical breakdown of victims.
Indicators.
Italy, 2000-2002
|
|
|
Percentage breakdown
|
Victims for every 100 000 resident children
|
0-10 years
|
11-14 years
|
15-17 years
|
Total
|
0-10 years
|
11-14 years
|
15-17 years
|
Total
|
North-west Italy
|
18.2
|
24.2
|
31.8
|
23.4
|
3.9
|
11.1
|
13.9
|
7.2
|
North-east Italy
|
7.3
|
11.9
|
14.7
|
10.6
|
2.2
|
7.8
|
9.2
|
4.6
|
Central Italy
|
14.9
|
15.0
|
25.9
|
17.6
|
4.2
|
8.6
|
14.2
|
7.0
|
Southern Italy
|
46.5
|
34.8
|
21.8
|
36.7
|
8.0
|
11.1
|
6.6
|
8.5
|
Islands
|
13.2
|
14.1
|
5.9
|
11.7
|
5.0
|
9.7
|
3.9
|
5.9
|
Italy
|
100.0
|
100.0
|
100.0
|
100.0
|
5.0
|
10.0
|
9.5
|
6.9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2001
|
|
Percentage breakdown
|
Victims for every 100 000 resident children
|
0-10 years
|
11-14 years
|
15-17 years
|
Total
|
0-10 years
|
11-14 years
|
15-17 years
|
Total
|
North-west Italy
|
17.6
|
17.6
|
16.8
|
17.3
|
1.6
|
5.3
|
5.4
|
3.0
|
North-east Italy
|
7.2
|
8.1
|
16.8
|
10.6
|
0.9
|
3.5
|
7.7
|
2.6
|
Central Italy
|
20.0
|
18.9
|
24.0
|
20.9
|
2.4
|
7.1
|
9.7
|
4.7
|
Southern Italy
|
40.0
|
38.5
|
33.6
|
37.4
|
2.8
|
8.0
|
7.5
|
4.9
|
Islands
|
15.2
|
16.9
|
8.8
|
13.8
|
2.4
|
7.6
|
4.3
|
4.0
|
Italy
|
100.0
|
100.0
|
100.0
|
100.0
|
2.1
|
6.5
|
7.0
|
3.9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2002
|
|
Percentage breakdown
|
Victims for every 100 000 resident children
|
0-10 years
|
11-14 years
|
15-17 years
|
Total
|
0-10 years
|
11-14 years
|
15-17 years
|
Total
|
North-west Italy
|
24.8
|
21.0
|
22.9
|
22.8
|
2.4
|
6.7
|
6.2
|
3.9
|
North-east Italy
|
16.5
|
14.0
|
13.3
|
14.7
|
2.2
|
6.4
|
5.2
|
3.6
|
Central Italy
|
26.3
|
28.7
|
37.1
|
30.1
|
3.3
|
11.4
|
12.6
|
6.7
|
Southern Italy
|
21.1
|
26.1
|
23.8
|
23.8
|
1.6
|
5.8
|
4.5
|
3.1
|
Islands
|
11.3
|
10.2
|
2.9
|
8.6
|
1.9
|
4.9
|
1.2
|
2.4
|
Italy
|
100.0
|
100.0
|
100.0
|
100.0
|
2.2
|
6.9
|
5.9
|
3.9
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- A
mere comparison of the data for one of the more highly populated areas, such as
Lombardy, with those for a smaller region with a
lower population, could be
misleading and lead us to make general conclusions that might well be incorrect.
In Table 8, the section
showing the percentage breakdown shows the proportion of
victims compared with the total for the age group in question. Thus it
appears,
for example, that the percentage of victims aged 0-10 was higher in
Southern Italy in 2000 and 2001, with 46% and 40% respectively of the total
for child victims of sexual assault in that specific age
group. Again in
Southern Italy, and for the same age group, we see a fall to 21.1% in 2002, a
trend that was also confirmed by the
number of victims for every 100,000
resident children in the same area, which fell from 8 in 2000 to 1.6 in
2002.
- Indeed,
it is in Southern Italy that, as demonstrated by the figures shown in the
preceding tables, we find the greatest fall in the
number of victims and,
above all, in their incidence on the total number of victims and on the
population of resident children.
If we disregard the breakdown by age group, we
find a fall from an overall figure of 8.5 victims for every
100,000 resident children
in 2000 to just under 5 in 2001, and just over 3
in 2002.
- It
can immediately be seen, including in graph form, how the numbers of child
victims, taken as a percentage of the population of
resident children in the
different geographical areas, changes from 2000 to 2002. More specifically, for
the southern regions, which
saw the greatest incidence of the phenomenon with
respect to the population of resident children in 2000 and 2001, with
values above
the national average in both years, in 2002 the figure was lower
than the national average and one of the lowest for the period.
Figure 4
Geographical breakdown of child victims of sexual
assaults for
every 100,000 resident children
- Before
going on to analyse the other features of the phenomenon under study, it should
be underlined that the data on the number of
victims per 100,000 resident
children appear to over-estimate the real incidence of the phenomenon since a by
no means negligible
proportion of the victims are non-Italians, which means
that the reference population should also include foreign children present
on
Italian territory. It would also be legitimate to think that the foreign
victims also include non-resident children.
- So,
if we analyse the nationality of the victims, between 1999 and 2002 the only
substantive change was the marked increase in the
number of victims of unknown
nationality. This can presumably be ascribed to the provisional nature of the
data available and the
fact that many procedures relating to offences committed
in 2002 are probably still on-going.
Table 9
Child victims of sexual assault, by
nationality.
Italy, 1999-2002
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
Victims
|
% of total
|
Victims
|
% of total
|
Victims
|
% of total
|
Victims
|
% of total
|
Italian
|
541
|
94.6
|
641
|
91.6
|
370
|
92.7
|
293
|
74.2
|
Foreign
|
31
|
5.4
|
45
|
6.4
|
29
|
7.3
|
42
|
10.6
|
Unknown
|
0
|
0.0
|
14
|
2.0
|
0
|
0.0
|
60
|
15.2
|
Total
|
572
|
100.0
|
700
|
100.0
|
399
|
100.0
|
395
|
100.0
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- An
increase can be noted in the proportion of victims of foreign nationality, which
can in part be attributed to the increase in the
foreign population
resident in Italy. The data for the resident foreign population show a
considerable increase in recent years,
to 1,464,589 at the
end of 2000, with a growth rate of 12.6% from 1997 to 1998, 13.8% from
1998 to 1999, and 15.3% from 1999 to 2000.
To the numbers of resident
foreigners should be added those with permits of stay, whose numbers are
tending to rise – about
3% in 1999-2000 and around 5%
in 20002001.[31] This
last factor can be attributed at least in part to the Government’s efforts
to “regularise” the presence of
foreign nationals on Italian
territory and reduce the numbers of clandestine immigrants.
- Table
10 shows a breakdown of the victims not just by nationality and age group, but
also by sex. The data show a marked prevalence
of female victims, who account
for nearly three-quarters of the total of children subjected to sexual assaults
in 2002. The distribution
by age of female victims shows that the 11-14 age
group was most badly affected, with about 39% of the total for girls, who
account
for about 80% of all victims in this age group. If we look at the
youngest age group (ten and under), just under 70% were girls
(about 31.7% of
all female victims). This figure is still very high but reflects a higher
proportion of male victims compared with
the other age groups. Finally, 81% of
the victims in the oldest age group are girls. If we consider, however, that
this is the
age group with the lowest number of cases, we find that of all
female victims of sexual assaults, just under 30% are in this
category.
Table 10
Child victims of sexual assault by nationality, sex
and age group.
Italy, 2002
|
|
11-14 years
|
15-17 years
|
Total
|
|
Males
|
Females
|
Males
|
Females
|
Males
|
Females
|
Males
|
Females
|
Italian
|
30
|
62
|
26
|
94
|
16
|
62
|
72
|
221
|
Foreign
|
9
|
20
|
12
|
11
|
2
|
6
|
23
|
37
|
Unknown
|
2
|
10
|
6
|
8
|
2
|
17
|
10
|
32
|
Total
|
41
|
92
|
44
|
113
|
20
|
85
|
105
|
290
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- The
picture presented thus far refers mainly to victims, but it might also be
interesting to examine some features regarding the perpetrators
of these
offences.
- Table
4, which was presented at the beginning of the section on sexual assaults on
minors, shows 395 victims in 2002, 341 reported
offences and 389 persons
reported, all figures that are declining or tending to stabilise. Of the 389
persons reported in 2002,
221 were arrested. A comparison with the data for
2001, in which 70% of those reported were then arrested, might suggest a fall
in
the proportion of arrests. However, the fact that the data are only provisional
means that in some cases the investigations and
judicial procedures might still
be under way, in which case we might expect to see an increase in cases
resulting in the arrest of
the perpetrator.
- The
increase in the proportion of arrests compared with the total number of
persons reported in 2001 might also be an effect of stricter
procedures,
recommended by the Ministry of the Interior, for reports involving the type
of offence under consideration. This leads
us to consider that once the
data for 2002 have been confirmed, the proportion of arrests might be higher
than that reported here.
Bearing in mind the provisional nature of the data,
this interpretation is confirmed by the figures for the first half of 2003,
with
33.5% of the reports leading to arrests, a figure that suggests that the time
required for investigative and judicial procedures
might have produced an
apparent fall in the percentage of arrests.
- Before
going on to evaluate the trend on the basis of the initial provisional data for
2003, it might be useful to analyse another
very important aspect of the issue
under study, the relationship between the victims and perpetrators of the
sexual assault.
Table 11
Persons reported to the judicial authorities for
violence against children.
Breakdown by State of arrest and citizenship -
2000-2002
|
|
2001
|
2002
|
Persons reported
|
Of whom arrested
|
% of total arrested
|
Persons reported
|
Of whom arrested
|
% of total arrested
|
Persons reported
|
Of whom arrested
|
% of total arrested
|
Italian
|
528
|
274
|
51.9
|
371
|
253
|
68.2
|
325
|
176
|
54.2
|
Foreign
|
91
|
69
|
75.8
|
70
|
58
|
82.9
|
63
|
44
|
69.8
|
Unknown
|
4
|
1
|
25.0
|
3
|
1
|
33.3
|
1
|
1
|
100.0
|
Total
|
623
|
344
|
55.2
|
444
|
312
|
70.3
|
389
|
221
|
56.8
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- Table
12 shows that compared with a fall in the number of victims, the figures for the
relationship between perpetrator and victim
fluctuate over the three years under
consideration. In 2000 and 2002 there was a marked predominance of
relationships where the
perpetrator knew the victim, while in 2001 there was
essentially a balance between this category and relationships where the
perpetrator
and victim did not know each other.
Table 12
Perpetrator’s relationship with the victim.
Italy, 2000-2002
|
|
2001
|
2002
|
Absolute
|
%
|
Absolute
|
%
|
Absolute
|
%
|
Relationships where perpetrator knows the victim
|
476
|
76.4
|
222
|
50.1
|
344
|
88.4
|
Relationships where perpetrator does not know the victim
|
147
|
23.6
|
221
|
49.9
|
45
|
11.6
|
Total
|
623
|
100.0
|
443
|
100.0
|
389
|
100.0
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- To
evaluate this distribution correctly, we need to wait for the data for 2003,
although the data for the first half of the year already
show the proportion of
offences where the perpetrator knows the victim to be settling out at around the
2002 level. This allows
us to say, albeit with due caution, that the anomalous
year is 2001.
- Compared
with 2000, when a similar distribution was found, 2002 is characterised by a
high proportion of offences committed by perpetrators
who knew their victims:
these account for 88% cent of all cases, compared with 76.4% in
2000.
Table 13
Breakdown by type of relationship in offences where
the perpetrator
knows the victim. Italy, 2000-2002
|
|
2001
|
2002
|
Absolute
|
%
|
Absolute
|
%
|
Absolute
|
%
|
Family environment
|
449
|
94.3
|
205
|
92.3
|
327
|
95.1
|
Parent
|
102
|
22.7
|
63
|
30.7
|
79
|
24.2
|
Sibling
|
9
|
2.0
|
3
|
1.5
|
8
|
2.4
|
Parent’s partner
|
20
|
4.5
|
13
|
6.3
|
14
|
4.3
|
Uncle
|
35
|
7.8
|
14
|
6.8
|
23
|
7.0
|
Grandfather
|
29
|
6.5
|
8
|
3.9
|
7
|
2.1
|
Cousin
|
2
|
0.4
|
2
|
1.0
|
2
|
0.6
|
Brother-in-law
|
1
|
0.2
|
0
|
0.0
|
0
|
-
|
Partner
|
3
|
0.7
|
0
|
0.0
|
0
|
-
|
Acquaintance
|
248
|
55.2
|
102
|
49.8
|
194
|
59.3
|
School environment
|
16
|
3.4
|
14
|
6.3
|
8
|
2.3
|
Teacher
|
3
|
18.8
|
11
|
78.6
|
4
|
50.0
|
School employee
|
13
|
81.3
|
3
|
21.4
|
4
|
50.0
|
Social context
|
11
|
2.3
|
3
|
1.4
|
9
|
2.6
|
Priest
|
3
|
27.3
|
0
|
-
|
1
|
11.1
|
Family doctor
|
4
|
36.4
|
0
|
-
|
1
|
11.1
|
Sports instructor
|
1
|
9.1
|
1
|
33.3
|
2
|
22.2
|
Employee of institute for children
|
0
|
-
|
0
|
-
|
4
|
44.4
|
Employer
|
0
|
-
|
0
|
-
|
1
|
11.1
|
Baby-sitter
|
3
|
27.3
|
0
|
-
|
0
|
-
|
Sports centre employee
|
0
|
-
|
2
|
66.7
|
0
|
-
|
Total
|
476
|
100.0
|
222
|
100.0
|
344
|
100.0
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- Of
these, about 95% refer to cases of sexual assault within the family (327 cases),
a proportion that is still growing with respect
to the two previous years,
for which the figures were 94.3% 2000 and 92.3% in 2001. Many of the
abuses committed within the family
environment can be attributed to
acquaintances (about 59% in 2002), although the figures most deserving of notice
concern offences
by parents, who were responsible for just under a quarter
of all sexual assaults committed within the family in 2002. Finally, the
figures for offences committed by uncles (23 cases), parents’ co-habiting
partners (14), siblings (8) and grandparents (7)
are by no means
insignificant.
- Although
the figure for the first half of 2003 is provisional, it suggests that the
considerations made for 2000 and 2002 still hold.
In those two years, in terms
of the perpetratorvictim relationship, there was a prevalence of cases of
violence where the perpetrator
knows the victim. In the majority of such cases,
the perpetrator and the victims are linked by some kind of family tie.
- If
we compare the data for the first half of 2002 with those for the first half of
2003, there is an obvious increase in these relationships,
which rose from
180 cases out of 209 reported (about 86%) in the first half of 2002 to 299 out
of 319 reported (just under 94%) in
the same period in 2003.
Table 14
Breakdown by context of relationship between the
perpetrator and
the victim. Italy, first half 2002-first half 2003
|
From
1/01/2002 to 30/06/2002
|
From 1/01/2003 to 30/06/2003
|
% change
|
Absolute
|
%
|
Absolute
|
%
|
%
|
Family environment
|
176
|
97.8
|
275
|
92.0
|
56.3
|
School environment
|
3
|
1.7
|
14
|
4.6
|
366.7
|
Social environment
|
1
|
0.5
|
10
|
3.4
|
900.0
|
Total
|
180
|
100.0
|
299
|
100.0
|
66.1
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- Of
the offences where the perpetrator knows the victim, those linked to the family
environment still predominate, even though a comparison
of the two periods shows
a substantial increase for the other two spheres under consideration: from 3 to
14 cases of assault in the
school environment, and from 1 to 10 cases in the
social sphere.
- With
reference to assaults within the family, cases in which the perpetrator knows
the victim still predominate (about 55%), although
the proportion of
offences committed by parents (24.7%) or a co-habiting partner (6.5%) is also
increasing.
- Finally,
a comparison of the first six months of 2002 with the same period in 2003 shows
a new increase in the number of victims.
This is more marked in the 11-14 and
0-10 age groups, the categories most seriously affected by the
phenomenon.
Table 15
Child victims of sexual assaults by age group -
Comparison of
the first half of 2002 with the first half of 2003
|
From
01/01/2002 to 30/06/2002
|
From 01/01/2003 to 30/06/2003
|
% change
|
Absolute
|
%
|
Absolute
|
%
|
0-10 years
|
77
|
35.8
|
141
|
36.3
|
83.1
|
11-14 years
|
76
|
35.3
|
154
|
39.7
|
102.6
|
15-17 years
|
62
|
28.8
|
93
|
24.0
|
50.0
|
Total
|
215
|
100.0
|
388
|
100.0
|
80.5
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- Before
concluding our analysis of sexual assaults on children, we should point out that
the considerations made with respect to the
provisional nature of the data for
2002 are even more relevant to our reading of the data for the first half of
2003.
- The
fact that a further increase emerges in the number of reports and victims does
not necessarily mean that the phenomenon is increasing
overall. We need first
of all to confirm the stabilisation of the trend in 2002 and then, for 2003,
wait until at least the provisional
data for the year as a whole are
available.
C. Forms of sexual exploitation
- With
respect to the offences governed by Law 269/1998, the latest statistics
available refer to 2001. For 1999 and 2001, in the case of child
prostitution 2 persons were reported on average for each offence. This
suggests that this form of offence is associated with small criminal
organisations.
However, the fact that the data for 2000 do not reflect the same
trend, with the number of persons reported actually lower that
the number of
offences, would advise us to take a cautious approach to this supposition and to
wait for the data for subsequent years
to confirm or contradict it. For the
other offences, the number of persons reported is lower than the number of
offences reported,
especially in the case of child pornography. In this
case, in the presence of a high and growing number of reported offences, the
numbers reported, and for which criminal prosecutions
have been opened, are
extremely low.
- The
ratio of cases reported to persons reported for this offence is increasing.
If we exclude 1998, the year the law entered into
force, for 1999 the
ratio is 1:6.8 (i.e. nearly 7 offences committed for each person
reported). For 2000 the ratio is one to just
under nine, and for
2001, one to just under 13.
- For
2002, the provisional data provided by the Ministry of the Interior point to a
standstill, probably a result of the provisional
nature of the data.
- In
this case the considerations made thus far seem to be contradicted by the data
for 2002, when for each offence under study more
persons were reported than
offences. We should however bear in mind that, in addition to the fact that the
period of reference is
limited, the data for the two Tables are not directly
comparable since in the first case the data refer to offences for which
prosecution
has been opened, while for 2002 the information only refers to
offences and persons reported.
- The
23 victims are mainly children induced into prostitution (11 cases) from
Eastern European countries such as Albania (3 cases), Rumania (4) and
Bulgaria (1). Five of the children are of unknown nationality and nine are
Italian.
- The
highest concentration of victims is found in central Italy, with 12 of the 23
children subjected to the offences in question,
a figure that corresponds with
our analysis of sexual assaults. The region with most cases is Umbria, with
nine of the victims.
- With
respect to the country of origin of the offenders, there is a marked
predominance, in the 99 persons reported, of perpetrators of Italian
nationality, who number 79. Of the remainder,
13 (all in a state of arrest) are
Albanian, 3 Bulgarian and 4 of other nationalities.
Table 16
Offences under Law 269/1998, offences reported and
persons reported for whom
the judicial authorities have opened criminal
proceedings. Italy, 1998-2001
|
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
Offences reported
|
Persons reported
|
Of whom males
|
Offences reported
|
Persons reported
|
Of whom males
|
Offences reported
|
Persons reported
|
Of whom males
|
Offences reported
|
Persons reported
|
Of whom males
|
Child prostitution (art. 600 bis p.c.)
|
9
|
3
|
3
|
108
|
211
|
181
|
136
|
117
|
98
|
198
|
409
|
352
|
Child pornography (art. 600 ter p.c.)
|
21
|
0
|
0
|
82
|
12
|
12
|
406
|
46
|
42
|
1 767
|
138
|
134
|
Possession of pornographic material through exploitation of children
(art. 600 quater p.c.)
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
24
|
7
|
7
|
97
|
8
|
8
|
154
|
30
|
30
|
Tourism for child prostitution and exploitation (art. 600
quinques p.c.)
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
CRC/C/OPSA/ITA/1
page 2
page 2
CRC/C/OPSA/ITA/1
page 65
Source: Istat.
Table 17
Offences under Law 269/1998, offences reported and
persons reported to
the judicial authorities. Italy, 2002
|
|
Offences reported
|
Persons reported
|
Of whom in state of arrest
|
Child prostitution (art. 600 bis p.c.)
|
13
|
20
|
16
|
Child pornography (art. 600 ter p.c.)
|
16
|
55
|
2
|
Possession of pornographic material through exploitation of children
(art. 600 quater p.c.)
|
14
|
19
|
9
|
Tourism for child prostitution and exploitation (art. 600 quinques
p.c.)
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Trafficking of children (art. 601 p.c.)
|
4
|
5
|
5
|
Total
|
47
|
99
|
32
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- For
these data too the Ministry of the Interior has provided values for the first
half of 2003. However, the limitations already
mentioned concerning the
provisional nature of the data for 2002 are again particularly relevant to the
first half of 2003. It might
nevertheless be interesting to compare the data
for this period with those for the same period of 2002, in order to map out,
albeit
with due caution, the trend for year.
- The
data for the two periods under reference indicate that the phenomenon is
increasing, especially as regards the numbers of offences
reported, persons
reported and arrests linked to the exploitation of child prostitution.
- On
average, we can observe a prompter response in terms of opening criminal
proceedings. Compared with a growth of just over 37%
in the number of reports,
the number of arrests increased by over 280%, from 12 out of 67 persons
reported in the first period under
consideration to 46 out of 92 (therefore with
half the persons reported being arrested) in the second.
- If
we compare the data on the age of the victims, the category showing the
biggest increase is the 15-17 age group, with an increase from 6 to 23 child
victims of the offences under
study, mainly that of child prostitution. With
regard to the sex of the victims, the number of girls rose from 6 to 27 (for all
offences without distinction by age group).
- With
respect to their nationality, there was a marked increase in the number
of victims of Rumanian origin, who do not appear in the data for the first half
of 2002
but account for half of the victims in the first half of 2003. The 30
victims are divided evenly between girls and boys.
Table 18
Offences under Law 269/1998, offences reported and
persons reported to
the judicial authorities. Comparison first half
2002-first half 2003
|
From
1/01/2002 to 30/06/2002
|
From 1/01/2003 to 30/06/2003
|
% change
|
Offences reported
|
Persons reported
|
Of whom in state of arrest
|
Offences reported
|
Persons reported
|
Of whom in state of arrest
|
Offences reported
|
Persons reported
|
Of whom in state of arrest
|
Child prostitution (art. 600 bis p.c.)
|
5
|
7
|
6
|
33
|
73
|
43
|
+560.0
|
+942.9
|
+516.7
|
Child pornography (art. 600 ter p.c.)
|
9
|
46
|
2
|
6
|
11
|
3
|
-33.3
|
-76.1
|
+50.0
|
Possession of pornographic material through exploitation of children (art.
600 quater p.c.)
|
12
|
14
|
4
|
4
|
8
|
0
|
-66.7
|
-42.9
|
-100.0
|
Tourism for child prostitution and exploitation (art. 600
quinques p.c.)
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Trafficking of children (art. 601 p.c.)
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Total
|
26
|
67
|
12
|
43
|
92
|
46
|
+65.4
|
+37.3
|
+283.3
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- Although
in 2002 there was a prevalence of victims in the central regions of the
country, and especially in Umbria, the data for the
first half of 2003 show
a shift towards Northern Italy. Of the 30 victims under consideration, 23 are
to be found in northern regions,
led by Emilia Romagna and Piedmont.
- If
we examine some of the data regarding the perpetrators, the majority are still
Italian (55 out of 92), although the proportion
for this second period
is lower than in the first, when 61 out of a total of 67 perpetrators
were Italian. The number of perpetrators
of Rumanian nationality rose
sharply, from zero in the first half of 2002 to 24 in the
same period of 2003.
D. The use of the web as an instrument for sexual
exploitation
and child pornography
- Another
aspect closely linked to the issues under study is the use of the Internet as an
instrument for the sexual exploitation of
children. Law 269/1998 led to the
introduction of new investigative tools to help prevent and combat the use of
the Internet for
this purpose, with an intensification in the monitoring of
websites by the Postal and Communications Police through the introduction
of
specific software.
- The
provisions contained in the bill approved by the Council of Ministers
on 7 November 2003 should give a new impetus to the
investigations.
The bill is intended to introduce new instruments to
underpin efforts to combat the commercial sexual exploitation of children,
with a particular focus on child pornography on the Internet. The bill extends
the scope of the offence and establishes the liability
of those
disseminating virtual images representing children or adults who look like
children. Also worthy of note is the plan to
set up a national centre in
the Ministry of the Interior to combat Internet-based paedophilia, with the task
of drawing up a black
list of child pornography sites and distribute all
necessary information to the banking and financial system.
Table 19
Websites monitored, searches, persons investigated
and indicted persons
subjected to restrictive measures. Italy,
1998-2003
|
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
1st half 2003
|
Total
|
Indicted persons subjected to restrictive measures
|
4
|
3
|
35
|
25
|
29
|
5
|
101
|
Persons investigated
|
8
|
136
|
255
|
220
|
562
|
488
|
1 669
|
Searches
|
8
|
111
|
164
|
222
|
606
|
490
|
1 601
|
Websites monitored
|
n.a.
|
1 470
|
2 252
|
24 894
|
32 972
|
17 159
|
78 747
|
Source: Ministry of the Interior.
- Returning
to the data, we find that from 2000 to 2001 there was a considerable increase
in monitoring activity, from 2,252 sites monitored
to 24,894. In 2002 the
figure came to just under 33,000.
- Actions
to combat child pornography on the Internet led to investigations
involving 1,669 people, of whom about 100 were subjected
to
restrictive measures. In terms of “results” the
activities were stepped up in 2002, with about 562 persons investigated
and 606 searches. These figures are almost triple those of 2001. For
2003, the data for the first half of the year indicate a further
growth,
with 488 persons investigated and 490 searches.
- The
number of indicted persons subjected to restrictions in 2002 and the first half
of 2003 does not show a significant increase,
unlike all the other aspects
considered. The investigative activity relating to 2002 and the first half of
2003 may still be on-going,
which means that to evaluate the number of
restrictive provisions we will need to wait until these investigations are
complete and
the data can be considered definitive.
- Investigative
activities, on the other hand, increased and in the period from
January 1998 to June 2003 we find over 78,700 websites
monitored and about
1,600 searches. This means that one search was initiated for every 50 sites
monitored. Over the same period,
about 1,670 people were investigated,
about 6% of whom subsequently subjected to restrictive provisions. The
intensification in
the investigative activity by the Postal and Communications
Police is the result of the adoption of very sophisticated technologies
that
make it possible to carry out increasingly rapid checks and succeed in catching
out even those “decoy” sites that
are set up and closed down again
in the space of a day.
VIII. THE PROTECTION OF CHILD VICTIMS IN THE TRIAL
AND
POST-TRIAL STAGES
A. Instruments for the protection of children during trial
proceedings
- By
acknowledging sexual abuse as a felony offence “against the person”
and no longer “against public morality”,
Act n° 66 of 15
February 1996 (“Provisions against sexual abuse”) introduces a new
policy of the statute as a basis
for criminal proceedings.
- Crimes
against children shall be prosecuted ex officio and the child victim shall be
heard in a protected environment with a psychological
support; criminal
proceedings become more child sensitive by taking into account the peculiar
emotions involved. Particularly, art.
n° 392 of the Code of Criminal
Procedure grants either the State’s Attorney or the person indicted of
sexual abuse the
possibility of anticipating the hearing of a child under
sixteen during preliminary investigations (the so-called “interlocutory
witness exam”). The purpose of this provision is to prevent the child
victim or witness from giving evidence during the trial,
which can even occur a
long time past the abuse, thus allowing him/her to promptly commence a
psychological rehabilitating process.
The “interlocutory witness
exam” occurs then at an early stage of trial proceedings.
- The
State’s Attorney is entitled to ask the Judge for Pre-trial Investigations
to hear the child and join the relevant transcript
to the case file, thus
avoiding a further involvement of the youth.
- Although
our legal system allows for any repeatable incident evidence to be renewed, it
is generally accepted that the hearing of
a child under sixteen in the context
of an “interlocutory witness exam” shall not be repeated in trial
not only as a
redundant step but also as psychologically prejudicial to the
child.
- Art.
398, par. 5-bis of the Code of Criminal Procedure entrusts to the Judge
the possibility to hear the child under sixteen while establishing place,
time
and adequate procedures for the “interlocutory witness exam”
according to the child’s needs. To this end,
the child’s hearing
can even take place either at his/her domicile or at ad hoc premises (usually
furnished with a one-way
mirror system and appropriate audio-visual equipment to
prevent the child from unwanted encounters) and shall be tape-recorded or
filmed.
- When
the child is examined under the above protective measures we can talk of a
“protected hearing” where questions are
asked by a psychologist who
has the task to protect the child victim or witness while ensuring an accurate
and credible narrative.
- Finally,
Art. 472, par. 3-bis of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides for the
Judge sitting in chambers when the offender is under age and forbids any
question
about the child’s private and sex life unless it is indispensable
to establish facts.
- Act
n° 269 of 1998 “Provisions against the exploitation of prostitution,
pornography, sexual tourism concerning children
as new forms of
enslavement” is a milestone in fighting children’s sexual
exploitation and abuse since it embodies the
principle of a full (i.e. both
psychological and physical) protection of the child and its rights to a healthy
and peaceful sexual
development.
- Acts
n° 66 of 1996 and n° 269 of 1998 not only have deeply reviewed the
applicable rules preventing and punishing sexual
abuse, but they also aim at
protecting the victim, especially children, against any form of sexual
exploitation and abuse for the
sake of their physical, psychological and moral
development, according to the principles of international agreements.
- Par.
3 of Art. n° 609-decies of the Italian Penal Code provides for mandatory
assistance of children under age by the Youth Welfare
Services of the Juvenile
Justice Department, while par. 4 empowers Judicial Authorities to avail
themselves of the Youth Welfare
Services’ support in any stage of
proceedings.
- Youth
Welfare Services act in concert with ordinary and juvenile Offices of the
State’s Attorney when abuse is reported; they
agree upon operational and
preventive measures with both Judicial Authorities and local agencies; they
develop psychological aid
techniques for child victims during
“interlocutory witness exams” and protected hearings; they organize
group-work to
develop action methodologies in favour of children victims of
sexual abuse; they study sociofamily environments, also in view of
preventing
further abuse; they cooperate with district anti-abuse centres.
- During
this supporting process called “case undertaking” they operate on a
specific “segment”, i.e. they assist
the child during the whole
judicial proceedings and protect his/her psycho-physical thoroughness as
provided by law. This “case
undertaking” is a complex
process starting with the report of a sexual abuse and involving social,
health and judicial fields.
A number of professionals are involved in this
process, each after a specific training and sphere of action. Networking and
cooperation
with the various institutions involved allows for a clear outlining
of each action.
- Particularly,
the Youth Welfare Services of the Juvenile Justice Department grant the child
victim and its family the support of
psychologists and social workers with
specific approach.
- In
compliance with the law and in order to ensure protection of the child victim
during trial and post-trial stages, the activity
of our Youth Welfare Services
focuses on the following items:
- Dissemination of
information and development of a uniform approach involving the social, health
and judicial fields from the crime-report
to the case undertaking;
- Integrated
training programmes for the various professionals and services involved, thus
developing also new communication channels
among staff at various stages of
prevention and rehabilitation;
- Networking which
ensures consistency between this complex phenomenon and the different levels of
expertise and responsibility;
- Cooperation with
the Judicial Authorities, local agencies and the Third Sector.
B. Assistance and psychological recovery treatment
programmes
for child victims of sexual abuse
- With
regard to this specific point, in addition to the situation already illustrated
in detail in the section on the integrated network
of social and health
services, it should also be noted that in accordance with the provisions of the
second paragraph of Art. 17
of Law 269/1998 of 3 August 1998 (Law
269/1998), any fines issued, sums of money confiscated and sums deriving from
the sale of goods
seized pursuant to this same law are to be paid into state
revenues to be re-allocated to a special fund under the budget of the
Prime
Minister’s Office. Two-thirds of the total sum will then be used to fund
special prevention programmes and programmes
for the assistance and
psychological recovery of under 18-year-old victims of the offences referred to
in articles 600-bis, 600-ter, 600-quater and
600-quinquies of the penal code (p.c.), as introduced by articles 2
paragraphs 1, 3, 4 and 5 of Law 269/1998. The remaining sum should be used,
where the resources available so allow, for the rehabilitation of persons found
to be responsible for the offences envisaged by articles
600-bis,
second paragraph, 600-ter, third paragraph, and 600quarter of
the criminal code who submit the appropriate request.
C. Projects carried out using the funding made available
through
Decree 89 of 13 March 2002, containing Regulations governing
the
fund referred to in Art. 17.2 of Law 269 of 3 August 1998
concerning actions
on behalf of child victims of abuse pursuant
to Art. 80.15 of Law 388 of 23
December 2000
- In
accordance with Art. 80.15 of Law 388 of 23 December 2000, the fund set up on
the basis of Law 269/1998 received resources amounting
to 10,329,000 euros.
- The
Ministry of Labour and Social Policies Decree 89 of 13 March 2002, containing
Regulations governing the fund referred to in Art. 17.2 of Law 269 of 3
August 1998 concerning actions on behalf of child victims
of abuse pursuant
to Art. 80.15 of Law 388 of 23 December 2000, defined the arrangements
for the funding of projects under specific prevention, assistance and
rehabilitation programmes.
- More
specifically, the decree establishes that two-thirds of the resources must be
devoted to projects under specific support programmes,
including psychological
counselling, for child victims of the offences governed by articles 600
bis (child prostitution), 600 ter (child pornography),
600 quater (possession of pornographic material through the sexual
exploitation of children) and 600 quinquies (sexual tourism) of the
criminal code, introduced through Law 269/1998. For the 2001 tax year, but
in operational terms that of
2002-2003, the resources distributed to the Regions
amounted to 40 billion old Lire. The remainder of the fund is earmarked for
rehabilitation programmes for persons found to be responsible for the
paedophilia offences noted above, as established by Art. 17
of Law 269/1998
setting up the fund.
- Art.
2 of the decree provides guidelines for the planning of the actions. In the
light of these provisions, the aim of the programmes
of action drawn up by the
Regions and Autonomous Provinces should be to implement proposals concerning:
(a) Preventive actions;
(b) Actions for the taking in hand of victims; and
(c) Training and informational initiatives, addressed also to the victims
and perpetrators of the offences.
- The
programmes should also indicate, albeit in general terms:
(a) The
priority actions to be promoted by the competent departments and the expected
outcomes;
(b) The actors responsible for the initiatives and the implementation of the
projects;
(c) The arrangements for collaboration between public and private bodies and
organisations operating in protecting children from
abuse, with particular
regard to collaboration by municipal councils, local health agencies (LHAs) and
the juvenile courts centres;
(d) The criteria for the distribution of the fund in the area in question
and to each priority action;
(e) The arrangements for the use and if necessary the withdrawal of
funding.
- The
decree establishes that the projects should be carried out in geographical areas
that enable them to be integrated with the local
network of social and health
services (Art. 3) and specifies that the activities involved should envisage the
coordination and professional
involvement of psychologists, educators and social
workers as well as medical and nursing personnel as indicated by the needs of
the persons being assisted. The decree requires the management of the projects
to be entrusted to public and private bodies with
direct, proven experience and
expertise in the sector.
- More
specifically, the decree establishes that the allocation of funding by the
Region to private bodies should be conditional on
their demonstrating that they
have been carrying out activities providing assistance to minors for at least
two years. This experience
must be backed up by agreements drawn up with local
authorities or LHAs and certification by these authorities or agencies of
satisfactory
compliance. Finally, the decree requires the Regions and the
Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano to send a report to the
Ministry of
Labour and Social Policies on the state of implementation and effectiveness of
the actions carried out and on the costs
incurred.
- Abruzzo
Region approved a two-year programme of initiatives implementing
Art. 17.2 (c) of Law 269/1998 and the regulations pursuant
to Decree
89/2002. The programme is divided into four projects selected after a call for
proposals. We have already illustrated
the initiatives being taken forward by
Friuli Venezia Giulia Region; it is worth adding that the
regional government has favoured, in keeping with the Project-Objective for
very young and older children, financial support for action
programmes designed
to consolidate the network of integrated social-health services for the taking
in hand of children suffering
abuse and/or maltreatment.
- After
setting up training courses (DGR 1909/02), Emilia Romagna Region allocated
resources to the provincial authorities and also
defined the ways they should be
used, along with priorities and arrangements (DGR 2608/02) with a view to
maintaining continuity
with the programming following on from Law 285/1997. The
provincial bodies concerned are in the process of putting together specific
plans of action, for which approval is expected by December.
- The
Marches Region has allocated the resources available under Art. 80 of
Law 388/2000 to the budget for the Guarantor for Childhood
and Adolescence,
set up through Regional Law 18 of 15 October 2002, since Art. 1.2 entrusts
the Guarantor with the promotion, in
cooperation with the local authorities, of
prevention and treatment projects. Piedmont Region is working to achieve the
objectives
set by DGR 39-4144 of 15 October 2001 concerning information and
training on children’s issues, including measures to combat
the abuse and
maltreatment of children, using funds transferred in accordance with Law
269/1998 and Law 285/1997
(5% of which reserved for training under Art. 2).
Table 20
Projects carried out using financial resources made
available
through Decree 89 of 13 March 2002
Forms
and types of action
|
|
Training and/or refresher courses
|
7
|
Public awareness-raising initiatives
|
6
|
Awareness-raising/workshops/social-emotional education initiatives for
school children
|
5
|
Nursery schools
|
4
|
Primary schools
|
5
|
Junior secondary schools
|
4
|
Senior secondary schools
|
4
|
Production of leaflets or informational publications
|
2
|
Organisation of conferences, seminars etc.
|
4
|
Awareness-raising campaigns through the media (TV, radio, newspapers, etc)
|
1
|
Support for the creation and enhancement of specialised local services
(e.g. advisory centres, teams)
|
5
|
Creation or enhancement of reception centres (e.g. communities, sheltered
housing, etc)
|
3
|
Creation or stepping-up of actions to combat prostitution
|
0
|
European projects
|
2
|
International cooperation projects
|
0
|
Creation of documentation centres/observatories
|
0
|
Setting up of study groups
|
1
|
Other
|
4
|
D. Social protection projects in application of Art. 18 of
Legislative Decree 286/1998
- Art.
18 of Legislative Decree 286/1998 (Consolidated Text containing provisions
governing immigration and the status of aliens) envisages the allocation of
financial resources for specific social protection programmes for the victims of
trafficking and exploitation
in the coercive prostitution racket.
- Since
1999, the Ministry for Equal Opportunities has been responsible for posting a
Call for Proposals for the distribution of the
funds made available pursuant to
Art. 18. From 1999 to 2003 four Calls were issued, which enabled 224
projects to be funded. The
funds support the work of local authorities,
associations, social cooperatives, social and health services and the police in
the
task of helping victims and combating the phenomenon. Those entitled to
submit applications are local authorities and private bodies
that have entered
into agreements with the local authority and are enrolled in a special section
of the Register of associations
and bodies acting in support of immigrants.
Notice 1 (1999): resources initially envisaged 10 billion lire; 49
projects authorised for funding amounting to 16,466 billion lire; number
of
victims of trafficking benefiting from these projects: 1.755; permits of stay
issued for social protection reasons: 833; victims
of trafficking contacted by
operators: 5,577; victims supported in contacts with social services:
3,381.
Notice 2 (2000): resources initially envisaged 7.5 billion
lire; 47 projects authorised for funding amounting to 8,849 billion lire; number
of victims
of trafficking benefiting from these projects:1,836; permits of stay
issued for social protection reasons: 1,062; victims of trafficking
contacted by
operators: 10,637; victims supported in contacts with social services:
8,801.
Notice 3 (2001): resources initially envisaged 7 billion
lire; 58 projects authorised for funding amounting to 9,442 billion lire; no
data yet available
on numbers assisted.
Notice 4 (2002): resources initially envisaged 2.84 million
euros; 70 projects authorised for funding amounting to 4,538 million euros, to
be initiated
or in progress.
|
- From
1999 to 2003 there was an increase of over 40% in the number of projects
eligible for funding. The projects in question have
a maximum duration of 12
months, but the Interministerial
Committee[32] for the
implementation of Art. 18 of the Consolidated Text has in some cases authorised
funding for “continuity programmes”.
- The
geographical distribution (by Region) of the 224 projects approved since 1999
shows a marked pro-active and project design capacity
in certain parts of the
country, which correspond to the areas where concern over coercive prostitution
and trafficking is highest.
- Piedmont,
Veneto, Tuscany and Puglia are in the lead, having obtained approval for more
than 20 projects, while Alto Adige brings
up the rear with just one project.
Graph 1
Regional distribution of Social Protection Projects
pursuant to Art. 18 of
Legislative Decree 286/1998 (Total of 224 projects
from the 4 Notices)
- The
evaluation of the activities at the end of each funding cycle pointed to a
growth in the level of professionalism in the actions
thanks to the possibility
for the proposing bodies to ensure continuity in projects between one Call
and another. With the Call
for 2000, for example, of 47 projects granted
funding, 33 were follow-ups from Call no. 1 of 1999. In effect, the timescale
of 2430
months makes it possible to consolidate experiences, which offers the
advantage of increased professionalism and expertise in the
personnel involved
and the possibility of following up the actions already under way – which
is all to the good of the beneficiaries.
- The
42 social protection projects approved under Call no. 2 were implemented
throughout the country, with 26 in the North, 7 in the
Centre, and 9 in the
South and Islands.
- The
activities in general are carried out in two distinct stages: the first focusing
on assistance and damage-limitation, with actions
such as the initial
“street” contact with victims of trafficking, listening to their
needs and accompanying them to the
different social services. The second stage
aims at social integration, as well as the physical and psychological recovery
of the
victims. This envisages various types of reception services, including
occupational training, help into employment and legal and
social advisory
services to obtain a residence permit.
- As
a result of the projects, 10,407 people were contacted through on-the-road
units, the antitrafficking freephone number, the police
and local services.
- A
reading of the data shows that the most widespread form of initial contact
involves the on the-road units, which generated 7,809
contacts, followed by
the police, with 776, and the freephone number, with 326.
- About
18% of the contacts developed into inclusion in a social protection project. In
the year under consideration, 1,836 people
took part in these, of whom 1,756
adults and 80 children (4.3%). When the beneficiaries are children, the
operators are required
to report the case to the judicial authorities, thus
opening a protection procedure for the child that also involves the juvenile
courts.
- An
analysis of the data suggests that the age of the girls from the countries of
Eastern Europe, especially Albanians and Rumanians,
who are entering the
programmes is decreasing. The number of under-18s was highest among the
Albanians, with 29 out of a total of
80 women and girls entering the social
protection programmes.
Graph 2
Nationality of the girls entering the social
protection programmes
- On
the 10,407 people contacted, 20% received initial help only (in the form of
information), while the remaining 80%, or 8,801 cases,
were accompanied to the
local services:
- − 6,671
to health structures;
- − 1,235
to legal advisory services;
- − 865 to
psychological counselling;
- − 30 to
other forms of help.
- Most
of the requests were for help in contacts with health structures, where the
women and girls asked for medical check-ups, especially
gynaecological.
Accompaniment to the services, an important element of the activities envisaged
in the first stage of social protection
projects, mainly responds to emergency
needs.
- The
possibility of gaining access to health assistance depends on the legislation in
force at any given time. At present, as far
as the national legislation is
concerned, matters have improved in terms of health assistance for aliens not
meeting the legal residence
requirements. The STD Code (Straniero
temporaneamente presente – Temporary Stay Foreigners) assigned by the LHAs
enables foreign
nationals to use the health service at no or reduced cost.
- The
first stage of the protection projects is intended to manage the emergency
situation and is the most delicate stage, on which
depends the insertion of
women victims of trafficking in social protection projects. The first step in
the process usually involves
the victim being given accommodation in sheltered
“escape houses”. An analysis of the projects points to a new type
of reception service, which tends to emerge once the protection project is under
way. This type of “local taking in hand”
involved 47 cases. It is
similar to the semi-autonomy now being offered by young people’s
residential communities to boys
and girls who, once they reach the age of
majority, cannot return home but are required to leave the reception centre.
- In
terms of social-employment insertion, 1,484 women and girls received some form
of education and/or occupational training using
study grants, and 994 entered
employment. Girls from Eastern Europe generally have an average-to-high level
of education (secondary
school), while many of the Nigerian girls have only
completed their compulsory schooling.
Graph 3
Number of beneficiaries broken down by sector of
employment
IX. HEALTH CARE FOR CHILD VICTIMS OF ABUSE
- The
Government’s strategy with respect to the promotion and protection of
children’s health is set out in the new National
Health Plan (NHP) for
2003-2005,[33] the scope of
which, however, is necessarily limited to creating the pre-conditions for the
adoption of more specific measures to
combat abuse and the sexual exploitation
of children.
- The
Plan is set against a background of important changes in the
political-institutional framework, with an growing “federalist”
decentralisation of powers from the state to the Regions. In the assistance
system the result of this has been an approach based
on subsidiarity between the
different institutional and social actors providing services to
citizens.[34]
- The
new framework leaves it solely to the state to “determine the essential
levels of services concerning civil and social rights
that need to be ensured
throughout the country”, known as Livelli Essenziali di Assistenza
(Essential Assistance Levels –
LEAs) (Art. 117). The state is responsible
for drawing up the fundamental principles underlying assistance policies, but
the implementation
of the principles and achievement of the objectives is the
responsibility of the Regions.
- As
the new NHP shows, in health matters the State has lost its former key role of
organising and running services, while it has retained
that of guaranteeing
equity throughout the country.
- In
other words, the state draws up the fundamental principles but does not
intervene in the way these principles and objectives will
be implemented,
because this has become the sole responsibility of the Regions.
- The
new NHP only sets out the objectives to be achieved in order to ensure the
Constitutional guarantee to the right to health, while
taking into account the
necessary coordination with EU programmes and objectives in health matters.
- Given
the new political-institutional framework, the effectiveness and efficacy of
the Plan will depend on the correct implementation
of the central
government’s objectives by the Regions, Provinces and
Municipalities, since it is these levels of local government
that have the
main task of transforming the objectives into specific projects and implementing
them.
- This
process, if properly implemented and taken forward, actually has a very real
influence on the objectives of prevention and providing
protection and
assistance for child victims of abuse and sexual exploitation. In this sphere
of action, health operators have been
given responsibility for the protection of
mental health, with specific reference to very young children, and the treatment
of the
traumatic effects of violence: objectives that are pertinent to primary,
secondary and tertiary prevention.
A. The priority projects of the NHP 2003-2005
- Of
the ten priority projects for change set out in the NHP, the Ministry includes
two that could have a significant impact in terms
of secondary and tertiary
policies for the prevention of abuse and sexual exploitation.
1. Implementing, monitoring and updating the agreement on the
essential
and appropriate levels of assistance and cutting waiting
lists
- The
services included in the LEAs are the “essential” level guaranteed
to all citizens, but the Regions can use their
own resources to provide other
services in addition to
these.[35]
- The
definition of levels of assistance has opened up a process of identifying,
evaluating and choosing priorities in which children’s
rights to health
and protection should not be sacrificed, while at the same time balancing the
costs and quality of the services
provided. The health sector remains crucial,
even if many of the services for the social and educational support of child
victims
of abuse and exploitation actually come under the social services, in
which sphere the definition of the future essential levels
of social assistance
will be decisive, including in the light of the Prime Minister’s Order of
14 February 2001 on Guidance
and Coordination in matters concerning
social-health services.
- Social-health
integration, as sanctioned also by Framework Law 328/2000, needs to move on from
drawing overly rigid borderlines between
Social and Health and
thus make it possible to identify the essential social services.
- In
this perspective, it is worth noting that the integration of the social and
health spheres is indicated in the Plan as one of the
priority objectives:
“Attention to the complexity of the relationship between the protection of
health and the social sphere”.
No health system, however technically
advanced, can fully accomplish its mission unless it respects the fundamental
principles of
social solidarity and social-health integration.
- Within
the agreement on the LEAs the evaluation and treatment work of health sector
professionals occupies a prominent position in
the protection and recovery
process for young victims of violence.
2. Promoting the local level as the primary level for
assistance
and for governing health and social-health pathways
- This
is another of the strategic projects set out in the Plan with which the Ministry
affirms its intention to reorganise out-patient
and hospital services and
develop a multi-centre approach to the health service that is closer to
citizens’ needs and able
to optimise resources, hospital stay times and
services.
- The
integration of the social and health aspects is a vital element in tackling and
managing cases of child victims of violence and
working with their families. In
this light the Plan considers as strategic the process of unifying health
and social services, continuity
between treatment and rehabilitation actions, the creation of integrated
assistance pathways, an inter-sectoral approach to actions
and the adoption of
innovative organisational and operational solutions.
- One
interesting feature is the reference to the possibility for patients to choose
their own paediatrician, who is required “to
play a more prominent role
than in the past”. The aim is to capitalise on basic assistance,
including that provided by the
paediatrician, who should be “restored to a
key role in the response provided by the health service and in governing health
pathways, while liaising with the other local services”, i.e. in a
multi-sectoral approach.
- A
constructive approach to the primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of
violence against children might be found in the proposal
to set up local General
Medical Units staffed by general practitioners and paediatricians based in a
single clinic or health centre
and covering the needs of several thousand
people. These Units would be required to provide uninterrupted primary
treatment, and
to liaise with the local “on-call” doctors and with
specialists who would provide additional expertise in the initial
diagnosis and
in specialist treatment. These structures, which would act as filter channels
to the Paediatrics Casualty departments,
should therefore become early contact
and interception points for problem cases linked to child abuse, sexual abuse
and physical
maltreatment.
- Linkages
with the social services and schools could be facilitated by a structure of this
type, if the duties of operators in the
Units included health education and
collaboration with multi-disciplinary teams providing advice to operators in the
local services
on cases of distress and suspected abuse.
B. Health objectives and general measures
- Drawing
on the strategic projects, the Plan sets out a series of objective and priority
measures to be pursued at the national and
decentralised levels. These include:
1. Support programme to combat the new pockets of
poverty
and marginalisation
- Mortality,
morbidity and degeneration of pathologies to chronic status are positively
correlated, as shown by many international and
Italian studies, with increased
levels of social disadvantage. The most frequent causes of illness are the
various forms of dependency
and social disadvantage, particularly difficult life
situations and poor quality health treatment. These situations have been
identified
as risk factors for the maltreatment and abuse of
children.
- The
recent National Plan to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion in Italy,
2003-2005 noted the presence of a specific risk to children. Therefore, the
attention paid by the NHP to the interaction between the well-being
and
health of the child and the socio-economic conditions of the family and the
social-cultural characteristics of carers are key
elements. Particular distress
is suffered by children in conditions of disadvantage and poverty, whom the
Plan identifies as being amongst the most vulnerable categories and
particularly exposed to social marginalisation. The improvement
of their
socio-economic and personal circumstances would be an appropriate strategic
objective to pursue through an alliance between
the local health and social
services.
2. The health of babies, children and adolescents
- Given
the need to continue pursuing the objectives of the Project-Objective for very
young and older children set out in the NHP for
1998-2000, the new Plan focuses
on a number of key aspects. These include the problem of teenage pregnancies.
It is useful to remember
in this context that early pregnancies are, on the one
hand, indicators of family problems and, on the other, a weak link in the
care
relationship that could expose the baby to the risk of child abuse. The aim of
promoting the primary prevention of unwanted
teenage pregnancies through
suitable sex education, which should involve all educators and social-health
personnel alongside families,
in the context of an education project focusing on
responsible procreation and the prevention of sexually transmissible diseases,
is therefore of particular interest.
- Some
of the priority objectives to foster the health of babies, children and
adolescents can be considered as synergic with the CICLOPE
Committee’s
objectives of combating violence and paedophilia, following the specific
approach set out in the Plan to combat
paedophilia:
- − Health
education for young people and their families, with a key input from schools,
local Authorities and social services,
with particular regard to the prevention
of the maltreatment, abuse and exploitation of children;
- − The
drawing up of clinical-organisational guidelines and diagnostic and treatment
pathways agreed at the local level with
family doctors and paediatricians;
- − Ensuring
the presence of a community paediatrician at the district level, with the role
of promoting children’s health
projects, including from the psychological
point of view;
- − Rationalisation
of the network of paediatric services;
- − Up-grading
of local and hospital out-patient and family planning services during the
pre-conception stage to actively promote
initiatives to reduce risks during
pregnancy and the pre- and post-natal period.
3. Mental health
- The
area of mental health, as covered in the NHP, directly poses the question of the
quality of the services provided to those suffering
the medium- and long-term
consequences of violence suffered during childhood. We know, in fact, that
between 30% and 50% of women
undergoing psychiatric treatment were subjected to
sexual abuse or serious physical maltreatment during childhood or adolescence.
- This
fact is also noted in the Plan which, to improve the assistance provided for
patients with mental health problems, sees as indispensable
the systematic
adoption of actions to ensure early diagnosis in childhood in order to detect
symptoms and behaviour that might develop
into chronic forms, with medium and
long-term consequences.
- Some
of the strategic objectives to be achieved within the general mental health
objective have strong connections with the issues
discussed in this report.
They are part of a tertiary prevention approach focusing in particular on
adolescence, through actions
for the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment
of mental disorders by establishing close functional links between health and
other
structures.
X. THE ROLE OF ITALIAN COOPERATION IN THE PROTECTION
OF
CHILD VICTIMS OF MALTREATMENT, ABUSE AND/OR
EXPLOITATION
- The
initiatives and programmes undertaken by the international community directly
involve Italy in the field of development cooperation
also. The very nature of
the sexual exploitation of children implies a need to focus on the
supra-national level since it includes
elements that are typically transnational
(child pornography, sexual tourism, etc).
- The
innovative guidelines drawn up by the Directorate General for Development
Cooperation (DGDC) date from 1998. In practical terms
these involve funding for
bilateral and multilateral initiatives in collaboration with the United Nations
agencies (UNICEF, ILO,
UNICRI, UNODCCP), NGOs (especially, in view of its
specific role in combating the sexual exploitation of children for commercial
purposes, ECPAT International), and the Italian Regions and local authorities.
The CICLOPE plan gives prime position to cooperation
initiatives that include
measures to combat paedophilia, an area in which the MFA plays a key role,
having for many years supported
international cooperation projects focusing on
the problem of the abuse and sexual exploitation of children.
A. The development cooperation programmes of the
Ministry of
Foreign Affairs
- The
main instrument through which the MFA operates in this sector is development
cooperation, which aims to eliminate the social and
economic conditions that
provide a fertile breeding ground for the sexual exploitation of children. The
Ministry places a particular
emphasis on the prevention of situations of
poverty, marginalisation, ignorance, discrimination, conflict and crime that
often involve
children in their countries of origin.
- The
funds earmarked by the DGDC in 2002-2003 to support projects to combat sexual
tourism and the trafficking in and sexual exploitation
of children amount to
16,650,000 euros.
- To
distribute these funds the DGDC draws up agreements, protocols of understanding
and conventions for each bilateral project to be
implemented directly with the
governments (direct management) or through NGOs, in partnership with Regions and
local authorities
(decentralised cooperation) or through UN agencies
(multi-bilateral).
Table 21
Outline of international cooperation programmes
supported
during the period under consideration
Project
|
|
UNICEF/Italian Cooperation/ECPAT initiative in collaboration with ECPAT
Italia, on behalf of child and adolescent victims of trafficking, abuse and
commercial sexual exploitation in the East Asia and Pacific Regional
Office
(EAPRO) area (Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand).
|
5 765 000 euros
|
UNICEF/Italian Cooperation programme in the Dominican Republic, in
collaboration with ECPAT, on behalf of child and adolescent victims of
trafficking, abuse, sexual exploitation and sexual tourism.
|
800 000 euros
|
UNICRI/Nigeria programme on collaboration with ECPAT against the
trafficking of women and children from Nigeria to Italy.
|
840 000 euros
|
IRC/UNICEF research programme against the trafficking of children and
adolescents in Africa (54 countries). 2nd phase of funding. The first
phase was completed with the publication of the study by IRC/UNICEF and its
presentation
at the Special Session (UNGASS) on Children and Adolescents
(New York, May 2002).
|
250 000 euros
|
ILO/IPEC (International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour)
Regional programme in Central America (Guatemala, Salvador,
Honduras) to
combat the exploitation of the worst forms of child labour, including sexual
exploitation.
|
2 500 000 euros
|
IOM programme in Mali-Ivory Coast against the trafficking of children
and the exploitation of the worst forms of child labour.
|
750 000 euros
|
UNICEF/Central American and Caribbean regional programme to prevent and
combat the trafficking of children (Honduras, Guatemala, Salvador, Mexico,
Belize, Nicaragua). The programme specifically addresses trafficking for sexual
exploitation.
|
2 680 000 euros
|
United Nations UNICRI/ECPAT Global Programme to combat the trafficking
of people: Action Programme against the trafficking of children and adolescents
for sexual purposes. Addition voluntary contribution 20032 to UNICRI
– AID 5115.
|
980 000 euros
|
Senegal/UNICEF programme to eliminate the worst forms of child labour,
including the exploitation of children through sexual tourism.
|
1 700 000 euros
|
Total
|
16 265 000 euros
|
- Under
the programmes funded by the MFA’s Directorate General for Development
Cooperation the following coordination bodies have
been set up:
- − The
Italian-Nigerian Task Force for the multi-bilateral project to combat the
trafficking of women and children from Nigeria to Italy, entrusted to the
United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI).
This Task Force envisages the participation
on the Italian side of the
National Anti-Mafia Directorate, the Ministry of Justice, the Public
Prosecutor’s Office and Questura
in Turin, and ECPAT Italia, and on the
Nigerian side, the Police, the immigration service, the President’s
special assistant
for measures to combat the trafficking of people, and the
Ministry of Justice;
- − The
Dominican Association of Tourism Operators and the Italian tour operators
and tourism industry to draw up and apply the
codes of conduct to be
applied by tourism operators in the Dominican Republic and Italy, as part of the
Multi-bilateral Project to Combat Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation and
Sexual Tourism in the Dominican Republic, entrusted to UNICEF;
- − The
Task Force composed of the National Anti-Mafia Directorate, the Ministry of
Justice, the Ministry of the Interior and
the corresponding ministries in the
various countries selected in the geographical areas where the Global
Trafficking Programme is
being implemented, entrusted to UNICRI and taken
forward in partnership with ECPAT International.
- As
regards participation in international coordination bodies, the MFA has taken
part in the international initiative to define the
EU-Africa Action
Plan on the trafficking of children. Italy, together with Sweden, as EU lead
country for human rights issues within
the EUAfrica Dialogue, coordinated the
meeting of the International Task Force in Stockholm in September 2002
for the definition
of the Plan.
367. The
MFA[36] illustrated the
Italian Government’s position on combating and preventing the trafficking
of people at the European Conference on Preventing and Combating the
Trafficking in People: a global challenge for the 21st century,
which took place in Brussels on 1820 September 2002. Italy’s
contribution included an overview of the key stages in its work
in this area,
and illustrated its main priorities for action:
− The promotion of respect for children’s rights and the fight
against all forms of discrimination and exploitation;
− The prevention and elimination of the exploitation of child labour, with
particular reference to the worst forms of slavery;
− The prevention and eradication of situations of systematic sexual
exploitation of children for commercial purposes and aspects
connected with
sexual tourism and pornography involving children;
− Support for the physical and psychological well-being of children
against all forms of violence, dependency, coercion and
torture;
− The prevention and combating of aberrant conduct such as the trafficking
of children, ethnic rape, the trade in organs and
the use of child soldiers.
- Drawing
on its past experience, Italy has also presented a number of recommendations on
how to make cooperation activities more effective.
In particular, Italy noted
that:
- − These
activities should also involve the countries of origin of the trafficking, at
both the institutional and local community
levels;
- − Development
programmes should aim to remove those social, economic and cultural factors that
allow trafficking to flourish;
- − The
emphasis should be on the “integrated approach”, in the form of
programmes that also envisage, alongside the
traditional actions for social
development and to combat poverty, actions to reinforce the institutional
capacities of the local
actors required to manage the phenomenon (police
officers, magistrates, etc);
- − Incentives
should be provided for the adoption in the countries of origin of laws and rules
that reinforce the legal position
of children, by seeking to obstruct practices
such as early marriage, the exploitation of child prostitution, etc;
- − The
traditional bilateral cooperation instruments should be flanked by specific
antitrafficking programmes;
- − And
finally, as in other sectors, research, data collection and the evaluation of
actions undertaken are of vital importance.
- On
the occasion of the Special Session of the General Assembly of the United
Nations (UNGASS) in New York on 8-10 May 2002, the Ministry
published Italy
for Children’s Rights 2002, an up-date of the previous document
produced for the Second World Congress on Sexual Exploitation at
Yokohama. The latest version, currently being produced, summarises the state of
implementation of the projects funded by Italian
Cooperation for Development
up to 31 December 2003. Again in the DGDC, a working group is
reviewing and up-dating the 1998 Guidelines
on cooperation as applied to
children’s issues.
B. Participation by local authorities in
international
projects and initiatives
- Another
area in which the Regions have been active is in EU initiatives. More
specifically, a number of regional authorities are
involved in the Daphne
European Project and are often required to provide local co-funding for the
costs not covered by the European
Commission.
- In
other cases, supra-national activities are the result of regional policies in
the field of decentralised cooperation.
- Tuscany
Region, for example, is coordinating a cooperation programme with Rumania that
involves social-educational structures in the
Brasov district. This project
envisages a programme of actions to prevent and combat the neglect, abuse and
exploitation of children.
Emilia Region is taking part in two European projects
(the Stop and Interreg programmes), both on the trafficking of human beings
for
the purposes of sexual exploitation. Outside Europe, in the context of
decentralised international cooperation, the Region is
also taking part in a
project in Brazil on the prevention of neglect and the reception and family
reintegration of children at risk
and victims of abuse. Valle d’Aosta is
taking part in the Daphne Project (DGR 220 of 28 January 2002) and in
the Hippocrates
Programme, which envisages initiatives for the prevention of
violence in schools.
- Piedmont
Region is taking part in the Kiriade Project, funded through
Daphne 2000/2003, which aims to set up services to inform foreign
children
and adolescents of the resources available locally and of the Italian
legislation on immigration, violence, sexual exploitation
and prostitution, and
to organise training courses for social workers.
C. Participation by civil society in international
cooperation projects and initiatives
- Civil
society in Italy is also involved in international cooperation projects. Terre
des Hommes has set up and runs about 40 projects
in Latin America, Africa,
Asia and the Middle East. The beneficiaries of these projects are street
children, the victims of psychological
torture, children living in slums,
bidonvilles and other disadvantaged areas, children in prison, and
children exploited through prostitution or child labour. The Comunità
Papa Giovanni XXIII association is taking part in a project for meninos de
rua in Brazil, Chile, and Bolivia and for street children in Zambia and
Kenya. ECPAT is taking part in the following projects: Multidisciplinary and
innovative approach to victim identification, rehabilitation of women and
children trafficked for sex slavery
in Vietnam and Prevention against
trafficking in children and child sex tourism in Cambodia.
- A
considerable part of the activities takes the form of initiatives for the
creation or reinforcement of actions to combat prostitution.
These include the
creation of reception centres and local specialised services and the
organisation of occupational training courses.
In this field the Gruppo Abele
has set up a legal advice contact point for the victims of trafficking.
D. Italian participation in European projects
- European
projects also play an important role in this context and the positive responses
Italy has received confirm our active participation
both in promoting these
projects and as a partner. In terms of NGOs, Terre des Hommes is promoting, in
collaboration with its International
Federation, the Please Disturb
campaign against sexual tourism, as well as Stop Child Trafficking,
a project through which a press campaign, a website and an international
conference have been set up. Telefono Azzurro has been
taking part in Daphne
projects to compare the operational arrangements used by the main European
helplines and to promote a listening
service based on the same principles of
quality and efficiency.
- ECPAT
Italia has taken part in projects to promote the Italian Tourism
Industry’s Code of Conduct for the protection of child
victims of sexual
exploitation in tourism, and in research activities such as the Joint East
West research project on trafficking for sexual purposes in Europe: the sending
countries, and Internet-based awareness-raising initiatives against child
pornography, with the Stop-It Internet Hotline against Pornography on the
Web. Save the Children is taking part in a number of European projects
including European Network against Child Trafficking (ENACT), co-funded
by the Stop II Programme. This addresses the trafficking of children in Europe
and the exploitation of child
labour, both of which have strong connections with
the sexual exploitation and abuse of children.
Notes
[1] The section of the
penal code relating to the alienation of human beings is also being reformed
with a new formulation of Art. 602,
according to which anyone purchasing,
alienating or selling a person in a condition of servitude or slavery should be
punished with
imprisonment of eight to twenty years.
[2] For a more detailed
analysis, please refer to the text of the bill and the explanatory note
contained in the Annex to this Report.
[3] The full text of the
report on paedophilia is included in the Annex to the present Report.
[4] The event in Lucca
concluded with the approval of a joint Declaration on the exploitation of
children for sexual purposes and in
employment. The Declaration confirms the
commitment of participating governments to effectively implement the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is taken as a key reference
framework, and to subscribe to the principles and lines of action contained in
the Stockholm Declaration
and Agenda, the Budapest Declaration and Plan of
Action, the Global Commitment approved at Yokohama, and ILO Conventions 138 on
the
Minimum Age for Admission to Employment and 182 on the Worst Forms of Child
Labour.
[5] The URL for this site
is: www.stopchildtrafficking.org.
[6] In Italy the code has
been signed by: AssoViaggi, Assotour, Assotravel, ASTOI, Interline International
Club, Adiconsum, Federturismo,
Fiavet, CGIL-FILCAMS, CISL-FISASCAT, PATA Italy
Charter, SIGMA Travel Group, “Visit USA” Committee – Italy,
Virgin
Express, Viaggi del Ventaglio, UILTUCS (ECPAT data).
[7] The Body, which meets
at least twice a year, is made up of one representative of ECPAT Italia, one
from each association subscribing
to the Code of Conduct, representatives from
trade unions and employers’ associations in the sector, two
representatives from
the institutions and one from Adiconsum (the
consumers’ association).
[8]
www.viaggiaresicuri.mae.aci.it.
[9] The call centre number
is: +39-06-491115.
[10] RAI’s Social
Action Department is responsible for company communication and social
programming, with a view to drawing up
communication guidelines and the
reference principles for the presentation of social problems by RAI, within the
service contract
between RAI and the Communications Ministry. The Department
defines, proposes and/or implements initiatives on social matters both
externally and within radio, TV and multimedia programming, in collaboration
with the competent associations and institutions. It
takes on board social
matters brought forward by the associations and institutions operating in this
field, by means of direct interaction
with them with a view to making the public
as aware of social problems as possible.
[11]
http://www.sas.rai.it/codici/pedofilia/indice_pedofilia.html.
[12]
http://www.sas.rai.it/codici/bambini_adolesc_paure/paure.html.
[13]
http://www.sas.rai.it/atelier/forum/pedofilia.html.
[14] The trade
associations subscribing to the code are: AIIP, ANFOV, FEDERCOMIN and
ASSOPROVIDER.
[15] The Working Group
met for the first time in February 2003 and began a study that follows four
thematic strands:
1. Primary prevention (families, schools and children);
2. Technical-IT prevention;
3. Legislative proposals and analyses;
4. Codes and controls.
[16] The results of the
survey were presented in Quaderno 26 published by the National Centre for the
Documentation and Analysis of Childhood
and Adolescence (Esperienze e buone
pratiche con la legge n. 285/97. Dalla ricognizione alle linee guida,
Istituto degli Innocenti, Florence, October 2002) and in the second report to
Parliament on the state of implementation of law 269/1998.
[17] The Decree allocated
the resources as follows:
− National Institute for Social Insurance (INPS), 678,279,253 euros;
− Autonomous Regions and Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano,
896,823,876 euros;
− Municipal authorities, 44,466,939 euros;
− Division for Social and Social Insurance Policies, 96,985,863 euros.
−
[18]
Regional Council Resolution 1165 of 17 December 2002.
[19] Progetto Veneto
(Regional Decree 4031/02) envisages a series of significant stages/areas
of action:
(a) Awareness-raising – information for parents, young people,
educators, teachers and operators;
(b) Setting up specialist-rehabilitation centres at the local level;
(c) Training at various levels for local social services and health
operators;
(d) The drafting of guidelines and procedures for inter-institutional
actions;
(e) The creation of a database of maltreated and/or abused children;
(f) The evaluation, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the
project.
According to the Region, the objectives can be achieved by capitalising on
the resources already available locally and at the same
time reinforcing the
network of services and fostering a shared, agreed approach to the rights of
children and adolescents.
[20] DGR 1294 of 12
February 1999.
[21] DGR 1929 of 28
October 2002.
[22] Thanks to funding
distributed at the provincial level (DGR 2068 of 23 December 2002), in Bologna
it has been possible to open a
multi-professional specialised centre called Il
Faro, indicated by the Region as an example of best practice. The project began
with the decision by Bologna’s provincial government to set up a working
group of health and social operators, which conceived
the organisational model
that gave rise to the Centre. The Centre is intended to ensure the correct
management of cases through
actions of high clinical, diagnostic and legal
expertise, to be implemented through a network-based approach with the local
services,
judicial authorities, hospitals and schools.
[23] Allocation of a
grant to Pisa University for the inter-regional Ad altezza di bambino
(Child’s Eye View) project designed to raise the awareness and inform
voluntary workers of prevention measures and the early detection of signs of
distress
in children (DD 171 of 17 July 2002); an information and training day
for operators in multi-disciplinary teams for the taking in
hand of cases of
abuse and maltreatment of children (DD 249 of 9 October 2002); Law 269/1998, on
the allocation of training activities
for multi-disciplinary teams with
responsibility for taking in hand cases of abuse and maltreatment of children,
in implementation
of the regional information and training campaign on
children’s issues approved through DGR 39-4144 of 15 October 2001
(DD
380 of 25 November 2002); Law 269/1998, commissioning of Cooperativa
Paradigma s.r.l. to print 3000 copies of a special issue of
the
informational periodical “Il Punto” on the regional information and
training programme on the abuse and maltreatment
of children (DD 382
of 25 November 2002); Law 269/1998. Commissioning of the Italian
Federation of Women in the Arts, Professions
and Business to produce
publications illustrating the results of experimental courses for the pupils of
secondary schools in Piedmont,
previously promoted by the Region in 2001,
on the prevention of violence against children (DD 11 of 28 May 2003); European
Project
Daphne 2000/2003, participation in the Study and sharing of good
practice to prevent the repetition of violence against children once
protection measures have ended (DD 115 of 6 June 2003); Law
269/1998, approval of participation in joint training courses for
judges/lawyers/operators from multi-disciplinary
teams with responsibility for
taking in hand cases of abuse and maltreatment of children (DD 135 of 26 June
2003).
[24] The most widely used
training methods, often in a mix that has proved to be more effective than a
single-method approach, can be
divided into three categories:
− Group training, generally based on lessons providing theoretical
information (what secrets are, good and bad ways of touching, the help
available, what to do if....etc) through group discussion and the use of books
for cognitive
learning exercises;
− Behavioural training using role play and dramatisations, with
simulations of situations in which they have to apply problem-solving strategies
and self-protection
skills;
− Video-training, using videos to present typical situations and
models and ways of behaving in risk
situations.
[25]
Prefect’s Decree 384/A. Soc. of 27 November 2000.
[26] The information
received for Campania Region concerns the Caserta ASC’s project.
[27] Quaderno 26
Esperienze e buone pratiche con la legge n. 285/97, National Centre for
the Documentation and Analysis of Childhood and Adolescence, Istituto
degli Innocenti, Florence, October 2002.
[28] The project was
called: Mimì fiore di cactus e il suo porcospino: chi mi stuzzica mi
pizzica (Mimì the cactus flower and her porcupine: meddle at your
peril).
[29] The topics discussed
in the national seminar were taken up and examined in greater depth
in a book soon to be published, which brings
together theoretical and
technical-operational articles and materials (abstracts and conclusions of the
parallel sessions) produced
during the seminar.
[30] We can add that the
representatives of the various departments involved directly in combating
paedophilia have also been acting
as teachers in training courses for operators
in the social, health, legal and educational sector both in Italy and abroad.
For
example, members of the Carabinieri have been teaching courses organised by
UNICEF for the police forces in sexual tourism destination
countries, such as
Senegal and the Dominican Republic.
[31] Moreover, it should
be borne in mind that, although the provisions adopted by the Government are
intended to eliminate the “clandestine”
presence of foreign
nationals, a proportion of foreigners still does not hold either a residence
permit or permit of stay, which
makes it difficult to assess how many foreign
nationals there are in the country. It is not in any case possible to quantify
the
numbers of foreign children affected by this phenomenon, because while
information is available on the population of resident foreign
nationals,
including the number of children, with respect to permits of stay it is not
possible to quantify the number of children
because only some of them have their
own permit, with others being included in their parents’. Finally, it is
obviously impossible
to quantify the number of foreign children present in Italy
illegally.
[32] Set up
pursuant to Art. 25 of Presidential Decree 394 of 31 August 1999 and made up of
representatives of the Ministries of Equal
Opportunities, Labour and Social
Policies, the Interior and Justice.
[33] Official Gazette 139
of 18 June 2003 – Ordinary Supplement 95: Presidential Decree
of 23 May 2003 concerning the Approval
of the National Health
Plan for 2003-2005.
[34] A crucial step was
Constitutional Law no. 3 of 18 October containing Amendments to Title V of
Part Two of the Constitution. This introduced the principles of concurrent
legislative power for the State and Regions and regulatory power for the Regions
in
matters concerning health. Other key steps were the State-Regions Agreement
of 8 August 2001 and the subsequent Prime Minister’s
Order of 29
November 2001 (Official Gazette of 8 February 2002), which set out the essential
levels of assistance, divided into three
macro-areas: collective health care in
living and work environments; district-level assistance, which includes
treatment for individuals;
and hospital care.
[35] The definition of
the LEAs, first through the Agreement of 22 November 2001 and then
with their adoption through the Prime Minister’s
Order of 29 November
2001, in implementation of Art. 6 of Law 405 of 16 September 2001 on the
Conversion, with amendments, of DecreeLaw 347 of 18 September 2001,
containing recent urgent measures concerning health expenditure, sets
out the actions to be paid for by the National Health Service (NHS) and
distinguishes between:
(a) “essential” services;
(b) “non-essential” services, that should no longer be delivered
using NHS funding.
[36] The Ministry’s
international activity also took the form of participation in a number of
seminars and conferences:
− UNICEF/IRC Steering Committee on the Global Programme against the
Exploitation of Child Labour, in Florence in February 2002;
− International Conference on Unaccompanied Migrant Children, February
2002;
− European Conference on the protection of children from commercial sexual
exploitation in tourism, April 2002;
− In May 2002 the MFA coordinated, together with the World Bank, the
conference on young people in the countries of Eastern
Europe, as part of the
“Balkan Initiative” Regional Programme for the development of
policies for the new generation,
funded by the DGDC through the World Bank. The
fight against trafficking for sexual exploitation purposes is an important part
of
this Programme;
− In May 2002, the MFA was included in the Italian delegation to the
Special Session of the General Assembly of the United
Nations (UNGASS) for the
tenth anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child; ?? Check
wording ??;
− The DGDC took part in the ECPAT International-Thailand annual conference
in September 2002;
− Summer 2002 and 20-21 March 2003, Child trafficking research workshop as
part of the Action Plan against the trafficking
of people in Africa (UNICEF-IRC,
Florence).
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