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PORTUGUESE COMMUNIST PARTY
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BILL OF LAW No. 886 / XII-4.
NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND THE
SEXUAL ABUSE
The Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child was proclaimed by the United Nations to
September 20, 1959, and past 20 years has been celebrated the International Year of the Child.
However, in 1989 alone with the adoption by the UN of the International Convention on the Rights of the
Child (ratified by Portugal the following year) the child went on to be regarded as a citizen
endowed with capacity to be the holder of rights.
All children must be assured of the right to protection and special care, the right to
love and affection, by respect for their own identity, the right to difference and social dignity, the
right to be desired, to physical integrity, to proper nutrition, to clothing, to
housing, health, safety, instruction and education.
These rights are intimately linked to the happiness and well-being of families and those of the
surround, that is, to the effective fulfillment of civil, social, economic and cultural rights by
of the State, as well as by taking on the responsibilities to ensure in the practice of the life of the
children, the principles of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic and other international principles,
as that of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Portugal in the year 1990.
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Pese although the term of these fundamental rights in the form of law, the daily life of thousands
of children in our country is today marked by denial of rights.
The Annual Internal Security Report (RASI) of 2014, given to the public at the end of March
of 2015, indicates that there are more and more cases of sexual abuse to minors to be participated in the
organs of criminal police in Portugal.
According to the data of the RASI, the cases of sexual abuse of children, adolescents and minors
dependents rose by 17.7% percent between 2013 and 2014, maintaining an uphill trend that had already been
deteed in the previous years.
The Convention of the Council of Europe for the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and the
Sexual Abuse, signed in Lanzarote on October 25, 2007, entered into force for the Republic
Portuguese on the December 1, 2012, after approved, unanimously, for ratification,
through the Resolution of the Assembly of the Republic No. 75/2012 of March 9 and ratified by the Decree
of the President of the Republic No 90/2012 of May 28.
It is an important legal step that deserves the whole valorisation, given its importance in the
defence of the rights of children, specifically in the face of the scourge of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse,
equally deserving the entire enhancement to the perspetive of strengthening the protection of children against
any form of violence, abuse and sexual exploitation.
Precisely because this theme deserves the whole valorisation, it makes perfect sense to demand that
must follow up on this legal advancement, a firm advance in the realization of preventive action in
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Portugal, the adoption of concrete awareness-raising measures, and the strengthening of protection and security of the
children victims of trafficking and abuse and sexual exploitation.
It is considered that in order to realize effective and multidisciplinary combat to this scourge, it becomes
imperious to define a national strategy for the prevention and combat of sexual abuse to children, by the
that the strengthening of the material and human means of preventive intervention is indispensable.
In times of worsening poverty and exploitation, the creation of new forms of poverty, the
women and children are at the forefront of this reality. So, it is urgent to create new
mechanisms of action and prevention, mechanisms those that protect, effectively, the victims more
vulnerable, avoiding the revitimization, often promoted by economic and social policies
existing.
The harsh antisocial measures that are ongoing at the national level, aggravate the exploitation and increase the
poverty, decreasing wages and pensions, destroying essential public services, pushing for the
poverty thousands of people.
In this economic and social framework, it increases poverty among the most vulnerable, namely the
children. According to recent statistical data, it checks the practice of crimes against three children
per day, not being accounted for the social disprotection to which these policies have voted for our
children: the insufficiency of public infrastructure support for childhood, the problems of abandonment and
school unsuccess, the brutal incarceration of Education and, even, the growing hunger among children.
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For these reasons, it is understood that it constitutes an indeclinable incumbent of the Portuguese state the adoption
of preventive measures, through a specific National Strategy of prevention against the
sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, to raise awareness and citizen education in these subjects; the creation
of supporting structures; the assurance that, through Law and Justice, a new culture will be erecting
of the rights of the Child; the strengthening of policies against trafficking in human beings; the guarantee that neither
more of a child is a victim of any kind of abuse, protecting children in law and life.
Aware of this reality, the CFP presented in the past legislature, in the Legislative Assembly of the Region
Autonomous from Madeira, a legislative initiative proposing the adoption of a National Strategy for the
Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse. This initiative was approved by
unanimity in the Legislative Assembly, having given rise to the Proposal for Law No. 233 /XII submitted to the
Assembly of the Republic on June 6, 2014. This initiative was appreciated in the generality in 15 of
january 2015, lowered the commission without a vote for new appreciation, but lapsed due to the term of the
legislature of the proposing Legislative Assembly.
In these terms, the Parliamentary Group of the CPP considers it appropriate to resume the initiative in the Assembly of the
Republic, without having to wait for new initiative of ALRAM, so under the provisions
applicable constitutional and regimental, the lower-signed Deputies of the CPP Parliamentary Group
present the following Law Project:
Article 1.
Object
It is created by this Law the National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation and
the Sexual Abuse, hereinafter referred to as the National Strategy.
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Article 2º
Scope
1-A The National Strategy will implement throughout the national territory guidelines resulting from the
Convention of the Council of Europe for the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Abuses
Sexual offences, signed in Lanzarote on October 25, 2007, on the subjects reporting to the incumbents
of the Portuguese State.
2-A The National Strategy is aimed at intervening by contemplating the following strands:
(a) to prevent and combat sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children;
b) Protect the rights of children victims of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.
Article 3º
Definitions
For the purposes of this Law and in line with the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of
of the Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, is understood by:
a) "Child": any person under the age of 18 years;
b) "Sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children": all qualifying practices as infringement
penal law in the terms of the Portuguese Criminal Law;
(c) "Victim": any child affected by sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.
Article 4º
Goals
The National Strategy has as its objectives:
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a) Eradicating in Portugal the problems of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children;
b) Planify state intervention and the intervention of public bodies and the community in the
prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse of children;
c) Implementing effective intervention measures aimed at preventing the risks of acts of
sexual exploitation and sexual abuse against children;
d) Organize specific campaigns of education for the protection and rights of the Child;
(e) concretizing actions of diffusion of administrative measures, policies and social programs with the
purpose of preventing the occurrence of acts of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of the
children;
f) Developing awareness programmes of populations, through the media
social media, on the phenomenon of sexual exploitation and on the sexual abuse of children;
g) Ensuring dynamisation, particularly in the sectors of Justice, Education, Health and Action
Social, policies for the prevention of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children;
h) Establish and disseminate effective social programs of support for victims, their relatives
next and to any person to whom they are entrusted;
i) Reforce active social responses and multidisciplinary structures meant to provide support to the
victims, with the necessary protective and assistance measures.
Article 5º
Tutela
The National Strategy is defined, coordinated and developed under the tutelage of the Ministry of Justice, which
guarantees the physical, human and material means necessary for its implementation and assigns to it the
corresponding budgetary allocations.
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Article 6º
Monitoring unit
For monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of the National Strategy and of the specific measures to
implement in the framework of this Law, the Monitoring Unit is created.
Article 7º
Composition
The Monitoring Unit is composed of:
a) a personality to be indicated by the Prosecutor General of the Republic, who presides;
b) A representative of the Ministry of Justice;
c) A representative of the Ministry of Education;
d) A representative of the Ministry of Health;
e) a personality to be indicated by the ombudsman;
f) A representative of the National Commission for the Protection of Children and Young People at Risk;
g) A representative of Social Security;
(h) A representative of the Order of Lawyers;
(i) A representative of the Union of Misericordias;
j) A representative of the Union of Particular Social Solidarity Institutions.
Article 8º
Installation
The Monitoring Unit will be installed by the Ministry of Justice within 90 days of the entry
in force of this Law.
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Article 9º
Annual report
The Monitoring Unit elaborates and makes it public, in each year of implementation of the Strategy
National, the Report for the evaluation of the effectiveness of prevention policies and the protection of children against
sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.
Article 10º
Annual debate
The Assembly of the Republic carries out, annually, inserted in the commemoration of the "World Children's Day", 1
of June, a debate on the protection of children and, in particular, concerning measures to combat the
sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.
Article 11º
Regulation
The Government shall carry out the regulations of this Law within 60 days of its entry into force.
Article 12º
Entry into force
This Law shall come into force with the publication of the State Budget subsequent to its publication.
Assembly of the Republic, April 22, 2015
The Deputies,
RITA RATO; ANTÓNIO FILIPE; PAULA SANTOS; JORGE MACHADO; PAULO SÁ; JOÃO RAMOS; MIGUEL
TIAGO; DAVID COSTA; FRANCISCO LOPES; BRUNO DIAS; DIANA FERREIRA; CARLA CRUZ