CALL TO ACTION TO THE G7
Survivors of sexual violence in childhood and adolescence and their allies join forces to call on bold and transformative action from G7 leaders this year:
PRIORITIZE ENDING CHILDHOOD SEXUAL VIOLENCE
G7 leaders should include this issue on their agenda when they meet in June and make concrete and timebound commitments in their communiqué
G7 Interior and Security Ministers should meet in 2022 to drive forward their ‘Action Plan to Combat Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse’. This work should be informed by the G7 working group that was announced in 2021
DELIVER ON EXISTING G7 COMMITMENTS
New Commitments of $1 billion to the End Violence Fund housed at the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children to scale prevention, healing, and justice programmes in low and middle income countries
Commit to legislate on child-rights driven end-to-end encryption and end its use in childhood sexual violence
Publish the agreed G7 plan for coordinated engagement with industry ahead of the June G7 summit
ENGAGE WITH SURVIVORS
The G7 should establish a G7 Survivors Council as an advisory board which should help inform G7 policies and make sure that survivors’ knowledge is included in policy and practice
DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT NATIONAL ACTION PLANS/STRATEGIES
These should be embedded in existing National Action Plans to End Violence Against Children and should include:
A whole of government approach that is fully funded, and focused on large scale prevention, healing, and justice laws and programs
Training of all relevant state employees into how to interact with and support child and adult survivors of childhood sexual violence
Adequate support services for all survivors and national campaigns to destigmatize the use of such services
The abolition of Statutes of Limitation (SOLs) in cases of childhood sexual violence where that is not already the case
Community-based child-friendly approaches for responding to child violence and witnesses of child violence
Research into, and support programs to overcome, the psychological motivation of perpetrators of childhood sexual violence.
The abhorrent global crisis of childhood sexual violence has been largely invisible, in part due to the devastating stigma and societally induced shame that many survivors experience, which prevents them from coming forward. It occurs in families, schools, places of worship, communities, sports programs, online and in the context of dating relationships and child marriage. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the risk of online sexual abuse and exploitation as well as reduced access to prevention, interventions and response services for those who experience abuse.
It doesn’t have to be this way. As survivors and our allies, we demand prevention to protect this and every generation to come; healing for victims, survivors and their families; and justice for wrongdoers, the complicit, and the victimized.
HOW THE G7 CAN BUILD ON THEIR EXISTING COMMITMENTS
This is a global crisis which requires a multilateral response as well as a national one. Online abuse crosses borders and is facilitated by technology companies with global reach (many of which are headquartered in G7 countries). Abuse also occurs in organizations with global reach (many of which are headquartered in G7 countries). Trafficking of children and sexual exploitation perpetrated by tourists also require global action. And as the G7 have previously acknowledged, a multinational effort is required to raise funds to support survivors.
The G7 Summit will take place from 26 to 28 June 2022 at the Schloss Elmau castle in the Bavarian Alps hosted by Chancellor Scholz and the Government of Germany. At the summit the G7 should build on and strengthen previous commitments including G7 Interior and Security ministers 2021 Action plan to combat Child Sexual Exploitation and abuse (CSAE) and the G7 Heads of State 2018 Charleroix committment to ‘End sexual and gender-based violence, abuse, and harassment in a digital context’. The G7 Heads of States should implement the specific SDG target 16.2 to end all forms of violence against children.
Germany can build on its own platform which gives the country credibility to lead. Over the past 12 years Germany has invested in four critical initiatives: the Independent Commissioner for CSAE, the Survivors Council as a political advisory body, the Independent Inquiry into CSAE, and the German Stakeholder Forum on CSAE. All of these were welcomed by the German Bundestag, and the new German government has committed to doing more.
ABOUT THE BRAVE MOVEMENT
The Brave Movement is a new, soon to be launched, powerful and global survivor-led movement to end sexual violence against children. Supported by a $10M grant from the Oak Foundation, this advocacy movement is gearing up to become a powerful global force for change–beginning with G7 countries.
The Brave Movement is mobilizing survivor networks and survivor leaders from all G7 countries. This G7 Survivors Task Force has representatives from every G7 country and is chaired by two survivor leaders, Wibke Müller from the German Survivors Council, and Matthias Katsch, spokesperson of the Survivors Initiative ECKIGER Tisch and member of the Independent Inquiry into CSAE in Germany. Our mobilization and advocacy efforts will include an April Survivor's Summit and Global Call to Action.
Contact the Brave Newsroom
If you are a journalist or media outlet seeking further information about the Brave Movement, please contact our Brave Newsroom: press@bravemovement.org
Our Brave Newsroom supports the movement by disseminating survivor calls for action, recruiting advocates, and galvanizing supporters all over the world to end childhood sexual violence.