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6 Jan 2011 11:21:46
University of Bedfordshire experts led a UK delegation to present at the launch of a pan-European campaign to prevent sexual violence against children.
Run by the Council of Europe and held in Rome, the campaign launch focussed on the proposal that one child in five in Europe is thought to be a victim of sexual violence. According to the Council of Europe, in 70 to 85 per cent of cases children know their aggressors and in 90 per cent of cases, sexual offences are not reported to the authorities.
Jenny Pearce, Director of the Institute of Applied Social Research and Professor of Young People & Public Policy led a team from the University during the two-day conference in Italy.
The University team of Professor Jenny Pearce, Dr Lorena Arocha and Camille Warrington were accompanied by practitioners from specialist sexual exploitation projects across the UK and four young people or youth advisors who shared their experiences of involvement in work to combat sexual exploitation.
The UK youth advisors, who have been supported by the University, were among four of only five young people delivering presentations at the conference. The convention stressed the need for child involvement in the campaign and another young person from France also attended.
The group spoke about their experiences of working as youth advisors on sexual exploitation and highlighted both how and why young people should be involved in work to prevent sexual violence.
She said: “The young people were amazing. They wowed the audience with their presentation, answered complex questions about the value and purpose of young people’s participation and provided concrete examples of how young people can lead a campaign to stop sexual violence against children.”
The campaign hopes
to raise awareness among children, parents, teachers and other people in
contact with children about the scale of the problem and to provide them with
the knowledge they need to prevent or report sexual abuse.
Founded in 1949, the Council of Europe is made of up 47 member states who seek to develop throughout Europe common and democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human Rights and other reference texts on the protection of individuals, including children.
For more information on the campaign visit www.coe.int
Latest news» 2011» January» Experts from Uni speak at European child safeguarding conference
