Atina: Sexually abused children are being inflicted irreversible damage once their identity is disclosed

Photo taken from the website: https://www.hindustantimes.com/

According to the latest available data from 2019 for Serbia, 64 percent of the victims of human trafficking are persons under the age of 18, while last year, following the statistical data, situation was similar – around 90 percent of them were girls”, Jelena Hrnjak from organization Atina has stated.

“Sexual abuse is one of the most severe forms of violence and most complex in terms of consequences it has on child’s health, psychological and social and development.  According to available data of UNICEF, at least 120 million of girls age 10 to 18 have been forced into a sexual intercourse or to participate in activities involving inappropriate sexual content. In nearly 90 percent of the cases, the abusers have been persons they had already known. On the other hand, global data show that almost every third victim of human trafficking underage and the girls constitute the far bigger percentage. In 82 percent of the cases, female victims of human trafficking are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation, girls in 72 percent, while only 10 percent of men and 27 percent of boys who are victims of human trafficking”,  Jelena Hrnjak has stated.

In order to mark July 30, the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, Atina – Citizens’ Association for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and all Forms of Gender-Based Violence, has shared a case study on breaching the right to privacy and data confidentiality of the children who are victims of sexual abuse and human trafficking in Serbia, named “Mankind owes to the child the best that it has to give”.

The study has been created within the project “Reclaiming Privacy: A Tool to Fight Oppression“ that has been implemented jointly by organization Atina, Partners Serbia, SHARE Foundation, A11, Da se zna and Belgrade Open School, with the support of European Union. 

This study has come of from the need to describe the life of a girl named Ana, a victim of human trafficking and sexual abuse, did not disappear upon the arrest of the trafficker, but increased due to inappropriate actions of the authorities responsible for protecting this child and their failure to take necessary steps to do so. A separate aspect of this study is focusing on numerous breaches of the rights of this girl, in particular rights to privacy and data confidentiality, touching down on unprofessional reporting of certain media in Serbia, that have inflicted irreversible damage by disclosing her identity and revealing details on the sexual abuse she had experienced.

The study shows the overview of the existing situation in practice where harmful actions keep reoccurring, such as information leakage from the authorized institutions, as well as disclosure of identity of the minor victims of human trafficking, as well as details of their sexual abuse to the broad audience through the media.

Being such, it calls for and reminds of the importance of maintaining integrity of the child’s personality, reputation, dignity, rights and best interest of the child as a victim; moreover, the children who have experienced violence should never be left without timely, adequate, criminal-justice, family law and social protection from violence, as well as from secondary victimization.

“Even though the study portrays the case of solely one girl, the victim of human trafficking and sexual abuse, sadly, this is not a single case. As a result of that, this study has been created; aiming at not only being the reminder and prevent these situations from happening again, but also to indicate to the professionals in Serbia that they are obliged to re-evaluate their actions, as well as to fully apply existing laws and enable children who are victims of sexual violence as painless as possible recovery from trauma, as well as successful and functional reintegration. To that end, this study provides concrete solutions, i.e. 12 steps to tackling causes and consequences that lead to breaching the right to privacy and data confidentiality of the minor victims of sexual abuse and human trafficking. It implies that we, as well as the mankind, owes to the child the best that it has to give”, noted Andrijana Radoicic Nedeljkovic, an author of the study from the organization Atina.

The study is intended for interested and professional public, i.e. everyone working on personal data protection, protection of the rights of the child, protection of the victims of human trafficking and the victims of sexual abuse, not only in Serbia but also across borders.  Moreover, this study can be valuable reference material for understanding this topic that can be beneficial to the civil society organizations, private sector, media, academic community and others. The study itself has an objective to remind professionals in Serbia that they are obliged to fully apply existing laws and enable children who are victims of sexual violence as painless as possible recovery from trauma, as well as successful and functional reintegration.

The original text can be found via the following link: https://www.nedeljnik.rs/atina-seksualno-zlostavljanoj-deci-se-nanosi-ne...