Sex abuse victims fight back
swissinfo March 1, 2006 12:14 PM Thursday 02.03.2006, CET 00:29
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=106&sid=6514524&cKey=1141211642000

The Marche Blanche (White March) association has handed in a people's initiative calling for an end to the current 15-year time limit on reporting sexual abuse.

The document, which gathered almost 120,000 signatures, was handed into the Federal Chancellery in the Swiss capital Bern on Wednesday.

This means that the issue is now likely to come to a nationwide vote.

"Children have too few rights in our society," said Chantal Besson from Marche Blanche, which fights against child abuse.

"More than 40,000 children are abused every year in Switzerland, but only around 330 people are sentenced," she told the Bern-based Bund newspaper.

The non-governmental association is calling for an end to the time limit on sexual abuse, so that those people who were victims as children can take legal action as adults.

At present, if someone who was abused as a ten-year-old doesn't take any action by the time they are 25, the perpetrator is off the hook.

Besson says this is unacceptable and must change. "We must give victims more time to have the courage to report their tormentors."

Priorities

Besson is aware how delicate the subject is – and admits sexual abuse is often hard to prove – but she doesn't believe the initiative will result in abuses of the law.

For her, the protection of children takes priority. "Many more children will be abused than innocent people sentenced."

She added that society must start taking victims of sexual abuse more seriously.

"Most child victims are abused within their families – and paedophilia and child pornography remain taboo," she told the newspaper.

Swiss law does not forbid the viewing of child pornography on the internet but punishes the downloading of images with up to one year in prison and/or a fine.

It is illegal to be in possession of child pornography and the sale of pornographic images of children can result in a prison sentence of up to three years.