People's Party CDS-PP

Parliamentary Group

Assembly of the Republic-Palace of S. Bento-1249-068 Lisbon-Phone: 21391 9233-Fax: 21391 7456 Email: gp_pp@pp. parliamento.pt

DRAFT RESOLUTION NO. 347 /X

It recommends the Government to undertake the establishment of a System

National of Alerting and Protection of Missing Children.

Exhibition of Motives:

Not being, unfortunately, a recent phenomenon, the

disappearance of children and young people, with or without motivation

criminal, has been taking on a growing importance in the

western societies.

The intense work of denunciation and alertness of Organizations No

Government; the constant exposure and interest that the

media has been dedicated to these cases; and globalization

of sexual criminality, put these tragedies in the order of the

day with huge impact and social alarm.

It is to be reflected that, by not existing a necessary causality between the

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disappearance of a child and sexual abuse or trafficking the

same, these realities are often associated and must

be addressed in an integrated manner.

The CDS-PP is not unaware of the different causes that contribute

for these disappearances, nor the different nature that

can take over. There is to be considered, even, the disappearance by

initiative of the child herself or young girl, in the classic escape from home.

But this escape, in turn, can put the smallest at the mercy of a

abduction or sexual crime.

And this diversity can, and should, be affixed to the level of typology

penal and the sanctionatory regime but, above all, in the search for the

prevention and solutions. The superior objective will always be to avoid the

disappearance of a child or a young man.

The same is said in relation to children or young people with

mental disability, lost or diverted from their path.

But in the face of a disappearance, and whatever your

cause, motivation or circumstance, there is an immediate objective:

recover the smallest in the best physical and psychological conditions

possible.

And the success of this rescue depends, always, on a common point:

the need for the state to possess mechanisms of intervention

quick to allow, regardless of the causes, a

quick location of a child or young person who has been

given as missing .

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Want to treat yourself to impulsive family revenge, whether we are

in the face of a case of sex trafficking, practiced by networks

transnational, highly sophisticated in the means used and

dangerously violent in the way of acting, rapid intervention

and effective is decisive.

According to the Judicial Police, a "disappearance" not

constitutes a crime, so whenever there is a founded

suspicion that such a situation is a consequence of the practice of a

criminal act, the concrete case is classified according to the crime

presumably committed and in such a researched scope. And not

being a disappearance a crime, one does not obviously meet

subject to the time limits for the limitation of criminal procedure, so

until it is resolved definitively, any investigation of

disappearance can be worked out, regardless of the

time elapsed since the event, being correct the assertion that

"a disappearance never archives".

In the face of this indefinition as to the procedure in concrete a

adopt, celerity is determinant for a happy outcome

as long as every minute that passes can be an opportunity

lost.

In that sense, many countries have already created their systems of

warning of missing children. By way of example, we highlight

the systems Amber Alert (US), Child Focus (Belgium), SOS Enfants

Disparus (France) or Missing Children (United Kingdom). Portugal

has, thanks to the Institute for Child Support (IAC), the number of

free phone 1410, which works 24 hours a day, in a way

permit the denunciation of a disappearance or an abuse.

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Very recently and, also thanks to IAC, we will have the

work the European number for missing children-the

116000.

But in the understanding of the CDS-PP there is still a lot more to do.

The Schengen Area and the successive enlargement of this space of

free movement of persons, constitutes one of the essential pillars of the

project of European construction, but also increases the risk of

easy and immediate disappearance to other countries. Increases,

for, the need for immediate intervention so that not if

lose the trail of the victim forever.

By its geographical location and its integration into Space

Schengen, Portugal is considered an internationally one

Country permeable to the abductions and sex trafficking of children and young people.

In fact, also the European Commission stands for not only the

urgency in the creation of national warning systems in the countries of the

European Union, such as the need for its networking to

that they can exchange, among the various countries, data from the

disappearances occurred.

A Parent is all the more hospitable to criminals and smaller

for its immediate network of alert and intervention.

How the first few hours after the disappearance are crucial

for the (in) success in the recovery of the child or young person, it is urgent

that Portugal create, too, its national warning system and that

proceed to protocols of cooperation with civil society and others

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countries.

The usefulness of an alert system is both larger and more

extended to be the network of alertness, information and acting in which it is

entered, being indispensable for technological compatibility

between the various communication systems not only within the

own country, as among the various countries.

In most countries with effective warning systems is

proven that its existence, by spreading the largest number of

data authorized by police forces, works as an element

deterrent of the raptor / abuser as this one knows it will have a number

unlimited from attic people and that your catch is more likely.

More so, it is proven that the number of children

recovered is quite superior in the countries that have system of

alert. By way of example, in the USA, the system Amber Alert already

helped save the lives of more than 350 children, from their

creation in 1996.

In order for the system to be effective and for its resources not

are consumed unduly, it matters to qualify

readily the kind of disappearance. For this, it matters to use

a few criteria-standard, according to what internationally

finds itself defined, specifically in the systems behind

mentioned.

Thus, it matters to search and identify a set of criteria

decisive in the assessment, qualification, treatment, collection and diffusion

of the information that you are advocating for, namely:

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 The existence of legal evidence that one is facing a

abduction;

 The likelihood of the child being at risk of injury or

of death;

 The existence of sufficient descriptive information about the

child, the presumptive raptor or his vehicle, so that if

can launch the alert;

 The fact that the person is up to 17 years or older, since

that particularly defendisability on the grounds of disability

psychics or physics;

 The alert released by the system is in the database of

all the forces of police officers. In this information should

record the circumstances surrounding the disappearance

of the child.

In these terms, and by the exposed, the Assembly of the Republic, in the

terms of point (b) of Article 156º of the Constitution of the Republic

Portuguese, deliberating to recommend to the Government that:

Proceed to the creation of a National Alert System and

Protection of Missing Children that works in net

with other countries in the European Union and the world.

Through, specifically:

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 From the elaboration of a National Collection Plan, treatment

and diffusion of information relating to minors over which

recalt strong evidence of having been a victim of abduction;

 From the organization, through the Judicial Police, from a base

of informative and up-to-date data concerning children

vanished, available in a site own and that result

in a common and specific system that works in a network

between the Judicial Police, the Public Security Police, the

Republican National Guard and the Office of Foreign Affairs and

Borders;

 From the immediate issue, in the cases where they are justified, of the

alert of the disappearance of children issued, in time

real, via radio and television, using the state channels for

disseminate the alert, and promoting the realization of protocols

with the private stations to join this programme;

 From the possibility of issuing alerts through systems

wireless and the internet, through the establishment of

partnerships with companies in the specialty, so as to be

issued the alerts of disappearances in system of

podcast and, on the internet, through windows pop up in the sites

more visited;

 From the constitution of an Advisory Board at the national level,

with representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry

of the Internal Administration, of the Ministry of Public Works,

Transport and Communications and the National Commission of

Protection of Data;

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 From the creation of a Support Mission dedicated to the families of the

victims; and

 The consecration of mandatory Advisory Board

and of the Support Mission are in permanent contact, with

intersecting of information, relevant to the

complementarity of their work.

Palace of Saint Benedict, June 2, 2008.

The Deputies,