Council of Europe urges governments to ratify a Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Abuse

The Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse was adopted and opened for signature in October 2007, and since then has been signed by 28 of the Council of Europe's member states. It is the first international treaty to provide criminal penalties for those who sexually abuse children and a valuable tool for preventing and combating violations of children's fundamental rights.

While always keeping children's best interest in the forefront, the Convention covers a number of different aspects of the problem, including assistance to child victims and their families; intervention programmes for child sex offenders; new criminal offences, like grooming (the manipulation of children by adults online for sexual purposes), child-friendly procedures for investigation and prosecution; adoption of victim support programmes and setting up of telephone and Internet helplines for children.

To speed up the process of ratification and to raise awareness on the issue of child sexual abuse, the Council of Europe is organizing a series of regional conferences in member states.
The first of the conferences will be held in Copenhagen, on 21 and 22 May, in the presence of Danish Minister for Justice, Lene Espersen.

Source and the full text of the Convention