- On Wednesday, in Getxo, in the Malakate Park, a massive meeting was held to denounce sexual abuse at European College and to support children and their families. Called by the Algorta Feminist Movement, they regret that violence against children is not an anomaly and recall that in Europe one in five minors is the victim of sexual assault. In view of this, they call for the establishment of safe and effective complaint routes.
The Algorta Feminist Movement today regretted that sexual abuse at the Getxo European College is not isolated cases. Providing data from the Basque Government, they explain that in Europe one in five minors is the victim of sexual assault and that most of the time they occur in the family or in the nearest environment. In addition, they stress that in 90% of cases the aggressor is usually a reference man, “and often this violence becomes permanent, not limited to sporadic actions”.
In 2016, in the case of minors attended by ANAR (Help for Children and Adolescents at Risk), feminist entrepreneurs have explained that 70.4% of sexual assaults have occurred in children's or family homes and almost 30% in schools. “Unfortunately, these data have also occupied our place, as the aggressor has been a professor of an educational center in our municipality,” they recalled.
They stress that these aggressions are “another example of the patriarchal system” because “aggressions to children are also male violence and, therefore, violence against children is also a sign of this violent and murderous system”. In this sense, they claim that the facts reported should not be ignored, because they are not isolated cases: “It’s cysheteropatriarchy.”
Concrete training, awareness-raising and prevention plans are therefore called for: “We need response protocols and, of course, we need a clear and forceful positioning of all institutions, political representatives and educational centers, as well as the judicial system, against male violence, but above all we need to commit and engage to overcome the situation of permanent violence.”
They reject the fact that on more than one occasion the victim has been questioned, that he has not been protected, that male violence has been treated negligently and that responsibility for the aggression has been placed on the victim. They also report that 85 per cent of the centres that have learned of sexual assault do nothing; that 70 per cent of children who report sexual assault do not receive protection, which inevitably leads victims not to tell what happened. “For lack of support, 1 in 4 rejects the intentions to denounce violence,” they denounced.