With regard to “amending certain laws relating to strict action against pedophile offenders,” we would like to recall that in July 2020, members of the NGO Child Rights Coalition initiated a petition urging holistic governmental actions to provide real and effective protection for all children in order to prevent them from sexual violence and their re-victimization and provide strong protection for children who have already experienced violence.

We welcome the fact that the Government ‘s intention announced last year can now be seen in the form of a bill, which is an important step in raising the profile of children’ s protection, vulnerability and victimization in political and public discourse.

In addition to stricter penalties, we also welcome the changing rules on exclusion from employment, which can help combat sexual abuse, but we also consider it important to change society’s attention to prevention and victim assistance and to launch a social dialogue on zero tolerance of abuse.

The register, which we believe is incorrectly called the “anti-pedophile” register, is not new, as the consideration of registering perpetrators of sexual violence for Member States has already been laid down for the Member States in European Union Directive 2011/93 / EU by stating that access to such records shall be restricted in accordance with national constitutional principles and relevant data protection rules.

In line with our previous petition, we will continue to initiate a consultation with government bodies, with the participation of ministries, partner authorities, NGOs and experts, on the development of detailed rules for a separate register of perpetrators of child sexual abuse convictions. The register must be primarily aimed at protecting children and must also comply with the requirements of the rule of law, ie necessity and proportionality. Due to the widespread international practice and the expected strong social impact, an impact assessment and wide-ranging professional consultation are strongly recommended.

As we stated in our petition last year, but we maintain it, given that no action has been taken in this area, we have formulated several recommendations.