The Government Delegation in the Canary Islands has today hosted a Training Day on sexual violence against children and adolescents aimed at promoting the specialization of professionals with direct responsibility in the prevention and detection of child sexual violence, as well as in the comprehensive care and protection of minors who are victims of aggression.
This day, organized by the Interprofessional Association for the Defense of the Rights of Children and Adolescents (AIDDDIA) and the Delegation of the Government in the Canary Islands, with the collaboration of Casa África, has been inaugurated by the Subdelegate of the Government in Las Palmas, Teresa Mayans, and by the president of AIDDDIA, Esther Martín.
“Two years after the entry into force of the Organic Law on the Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom, we are still working to implement, within the framework of the State Pact against Gender Violence, the mandate of the norm that leads us to develop training against sexual violence and for the care of victims of aggression. This training must be extended to a wide range of professional fields, from the educational and health fields to the police and the judiciary,” says the Government’s deputy delegate in Las Palmas.
“Training,” he adds, “is particularly necessary in the field of children, as has also been highlighted by the Organic Law on the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents from Violence adopted in 2021. On this day we want to focus on this group of victims, the most vulnerable, boys and girls, also focusing on the sports field, where there is also child sexual violence and where the figure of the delegate of Child Protection has to take on special importance.”
For her part, the president of the Interprofessional Association in Defense of the Rights of Children and Adolescents highlights the importance of organizing a day like this, interdisciplinary, that addresses “issues ranging from the field of the judiciary, to legal medicine, police or paying particular attention to such relevant perspectives as foreigners or disability.”
“That is our main objective, to organize a forum in which professionals from different fields, all involved in the fight against violence against minors and in the defense of the rights of children and adolescents, can contribute to the debate to improve the protocols, to guarantee the safety of girls and boys, to be aware of the problems and their possible solutions,” says Esther Martín.
Ten sessions on different aspects
The day has been structured into ten thematic sessions, which have addressed issues such as the consent of victims of sexual violence, legislative reforms in this area, the complexity of the identification and protection of unaccompanied foreign minors victims of trafficking and the protection of minors who are refugees in the context of forced displacement.
In this sense, sexual violence has also been analyzed in the context of traditional African culture, fundamentally how to deal with the culture of silence to assist unaccompanied migrant minors, the management of adolescent sexuality in digital times, early intervention and addressing the consequences of sexual abuse in childhood, child sexual violence in the LGTBIQ+ area and in that of people with functional diversity.
One of the round tables focused on the specific protocols for sexual violence in sport, a thematic area in which the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands launched in 2022 the campaign Share the message, not to sexual violence, with a video aimed at younger audiences to raise awareness about this problem.
Representatives of the National Police, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Administration of Justice, the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Las Palmas, the Island Sports Institute of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, the Inter-Island Football Federation of Las Palmas, the NGO CEGIO (Child and Family Counseling Center) and the Margenes and Links Foundation participated in this day.