Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke in Parliament about “zero tolerance” for sexual violence against children, announcing a five-year national action plan for the protection of children from sexual abuse and exploitation with the establishment of a National Coordinating Committee chaired by Elena Rapti.
The National Coordinating Committee will be composed of executives from specific ministries and agencies. The project will be reported to the Ministry of State and headed by Elena Rapti with many years of experience at national and European level in child-centered activities.
On the occasion of the European Day for the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, the Prime Minister stressed that the protection of children is a national priority for the government, with a national action plan that will integrate and implement all our policies for this huge issue
“It is a national priority with which all the forces of parliament must be composed. “Firstly, it is a holistic action plan, secondly, it presupposes central organization and broad social acceptance, and thirdly, it is a broader shift to critical problems of the time,” he noted.
“The 11 axes of the plan restructure the existing structures and functions. The course of this plan will be overseen by the National Coordination Committee, which will be set up by executives of specific ministries and agencies. “It will be centrally subordinated to the Minister of State and will be headed by an MP with experience in actions related to the child, Elena Rapti,” he announced.
The National Child Abuse Management Protocol will clearly define the roles of all stakeholders from law enforcement to social workers.
The National Office for the Registration and Surveillance of Abused Children will facilitate the detection and monitoring of actions per incident. It will prevent the presence of people with a troubled past near minors. “From now on, all those who deal with children should have a criminal record for offenses of sexual violence, for example in sports. “It is incomprehensible why this is not happening today,” said the prime minister.
He reminded that the legal framework has only recently been strengthened. These offenses became crimes, their statute of limitations starts from the adulthood of the victim, the prosecution is ex officio, the rape of a minor leads to life imprisonment.
It is the obligation of all bodies in the following public and private to appoint a child protection officer in order to forward relevant complaints and take preventive action.
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