Photo: OHCHR website

NGO Atina is a civil society organization founded in 2003 by a group of women’s movement activists as a response to the gender-based violence and human trafficking, and the lack of adequate programs for long-term support of survivors in Serbia. At first, Atina opened a safe house for girls and women, and based on their actual needs and the fact that other services beside safe accommodation are important as well, a comprehensive social inclusion program has been created. Each survivor who entered the program has been able to access case management services, cultural mediation, psychological and legal support, safe accommodation, economic empowerment, (in)formal education, and support in all other important areas. So far, Atina has been successfully maintaining these good practices and supporting survivors, with a specific emphasis on children. According to the latest available data for Serbia from 2019, 64% of the victims  of  human  trafficking  were  persons  under  the  age  of  18, while in previous years, following the statistical data, the situation was similar, about 90% of them were girls.

Apart from providing direct support to victims of trafficking and gender-based violence, NGO Atina also has an extensive experience in advocating with various actors to improve the position of victims and persons at risk, such as women from economically deprived environments, migrant women, etc. Therefore, this input refers to the violation of the right to privacy and data confidentiality of children victims of human trafficking in Serbia and contains recommendations on how to mend and overcome such violations, which were in NGO Atina’s focus in 2021.

The violation of the child victim’s right to privacy

In the period from 2018 to 2020, a girl child from a village in northern Serbia was continuously sexually abused and exploited by her father, who was filming sexual relations with his own daughter and distributed them through the social network "Facebook". The father abuser also forced the girl to have sexual intercourse with other men, which he also filmed. In addition to being sexually abused, this girl has also been a victim of parental abuse and neglect for  a long time. Even though all relevant state institutions were familiar with this case, not a single one of them reacted adequately and timely to save this child. For more than a year and a half, neither the public prosecutor nor the competent center for social work initiated civil proceedings for the protection against violence in accordance with the Family Law, nor have adequate police measures been taken during the time when the girl was not available. In other words, during this long period of time, the child was not provided with sufficient, timely and adequate criminal, family law, social protection from human trafficking and protection from secondary victimization, despite the competent authorities that were aware of the case and a number of legally binding and strategic documents in the Republic of Serbia.

NGO Atina was informed of this case in 2019, and from then on involved in providing support services to the girl. She was provided with safe accommodation and case management, as well as other services aimed at her recovery and reintegration, such as medical assistance, psychological support and therapy, legal aid and assistance during court proceedings. Only after this period, there was a reaction from the police and the arrest of the father abuser. Unfortunately, the arrest did not bring an end to the child’s abuse, as the information on the arrest, as well as personal information of the child victim leaked into the media and became public.

It was not clear whether the police initiated media reporting on the case by publishing information on the arrest, or the prosecution provided such information to the media. Nevertheless, the description of the abuse appeared in the public and led to the explosion of media reports, both in printed and electronic media. In these reports, the information about the exact location of the child and her family became available, along with details on the abuse and exploitation of the child, and numerous photos which all enabled the child's identity to be revealed. Moreover, blurred images of the abusers also appeared in media reports, as well as photographs of the exterior of the child’s home. In addition to information that enabled identification of the child, and described sexual abuse, the media began publishing information from the court proceedings, which were due to the protection of the child conducted without the presence of the public.

Furthermore, some media published shameful statements which additionally and severely victimized the child, such as that she herself initiated sexual intercourses with the father and other adult men. By blaming the victim for the sexual abuse and exploitation she suffered, the media were providing a certain degree of public "amnesty" for abusers. Bearing in mind the gender of the victim and the abuser, such allegations also underlined gender insensitivity and gender stereotypes. Publishing this information not only causes the revictimization of the child, but also represents a flagrant violation of the right to privacy, data confidentiality, and security.

For this child, who was sexually abused for at least a year and a half, whom the state authorities did not trust, whom institutions and the legal system failed to protect, the media exposure and public attitudes about her abuse can only lead her to a conclusion that all of it is her own shame and fault. As a significant portion of the media content was published on the Internet, the footage of her sexual abuse remains recorded permanently, as does the girl’s stigmatization.

The case of media victimization of this girl is simultaneously a case of institutional victimization of the child who has suffered sexual abuse and exploitation for a long while. The institutional system of the Republic of Serbia failed to protect the child, provide her with protection, or prevent media abuse and multiple victimization due to the manner of reporting on this case. Having all this in mind, NGO Atina launched an initiative to protect the right to privacy of victims of violence and exploitation, especially if the victims are children, and informed all relevant actors in Serbia on this topic.

Concluding Remarks

The media that published information about the child victim’s identity, and stigmatized this girl in public, were not punished, nor were they warned by the court to discontinue with such practices. In regard to this issue, and having in mind the above-described experience of the girl victim, decision-makers and competent state authorities have to effectively protect the best interests of the child victims in regards to their personal data processing, as follows:

1. In order to stop the leakage of information from institutions, it is necessary to conduct consultative and advisory interviews with the spokespersons, but also other persons responsible (for placing information to the public or participating in the detection, identification, investigations, and protection of victims) in all competent institutions, especially in prosecutor's offices, in the police, health care and social protection system. As part of this process, it is necessary to create clear guidelines and recommendations on how press releases should be structured; these press releases should, above all, be based on the "do no harm" and "do no more harm" principles.