A change of perspective in addressing cases of child sexual abuse and sexual exploitation online
On November 8-12, La Strada conducts a training workshop for trainers in the field of investigation and court examination of cases of online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA).
Through this initiative, we want to build and strengthen a community of professionals to promote the approach to these cases based on the needs of child victims and international standards in the field of child protection.
More than 20 judges, prosecutors and criminal investigation officers, lawyers and psychologists, after initial training by a group of international experts, will in turn become promoters of effective practices to fight online child sexual abuse and exploitation. It is a first experience of this kind for the community of professionals involved in the investigation, prosecution and court examination of sexual offences involving minor victims in Moldova.
After the training they receive this week, the workshop participants will develop and implement a training course for the beneficiaries of the National Institute of Justice. National trainers are to provide future trainees with the knowledge and tools needed to deal with cases of child sexual exploitation and abuse facilitated by information and communication technologies.
Here are some of the topics that are on the agenda of the workshop that is taking place these days:
- Definition, description and legal framework in relation to sexual offenses against children, facilitated by ICTs,
- International and national legal framework and standards on the protection of children against online sexual abuse,
- Analysis of the subjects involved in OCSEA cases,
- Investigation and judicial practice in OCSEA cases
- Presentation of OCSEA cases in court.
Ten international experts are involved in the training of the future community of trainers in our country. They represent leading institutions and organizations in the field of fighting child sexual abuse: the US Department of Justice (Steven Grocki and Charles Schmitz), the Legal Reform Commission, Ireland (Rebecca Caen); University College Dublin School of Computer Science (Michael Moran, Attaché of the Irish Embassy in France in the field of internal security); International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (Guillermo Gallarza); Geneva Police Department (Paul Galanthay); INHOPE (Samantha Woolfe); Irish police (Rory Harrison), Meta network (Yahya Ouzen), Tik Tok (Eoghan Kerins).
The national practice of investigating and prosecuting OCSEA cases was shared by experts delegated by the Prosecutor's Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases (Segiu Russu), Cyber Crime Investigation Division of the NII of the General Police Inspectorate (Iurie Roșca) and the International Center La Strada (Elena Botezatu).
The training of trainers is organized in the framework of the project "Strengthening Moldova’s capacity to address child online sexual exploitation and sexual abuse (COSESA)", implemented in partnership with the National Institute of Justice, International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), with the financial support of the U.S. State Department through the Embassy of the United States of America in Chisinau.
