Institutional incompetence leaves pedophiles on the streets23/10/2010 18:39:00

Rapists of children are walking freely because in many cases the police, the experts, social workers and prosecutors are not capable of providing solid proofs. Judges that have worked on such severe cases have complained about this issue. NGOs share the same conclusion – among other irregularities, they have pointed out that even the gynecologists untrained to properly document a rape constitute a reason why a court verdict cannot be made. 
 
“Often happens that an accused person is released because of lack of crucial evidence”, says Fadil Dzelili, a judge for cases involving minors in the Basic Court in Gostivar.

According to the criminal law, the minimum sentence for sexually harassing a child is 8 years, and the maximum sentence is a life-time imprisonment. But such punishments in most cases cannot be ruled, not only because of the incompetence of the people that gather the evidence, but also because of the judges themselves.

“Sometimes the judges are not familiar with the procedure on how to question a child-victim. When a child is confronted with the perpetrator, it is natural that it might modify the statement and that is why a lot of training and meetings are needed in order for a law to function and the children to be protected”, says Diana Ruseva from the Institute for social work and politics - Bulgaria.

In order for the investigation to be successful and to protect children from additional trauma since every investigation represents a repeated re-living of the rape, the children’s embassy Megjashi asks for shelters for raped children to be opened and also a larger number of foster families.

 “All psychiatrists point out that the first 72 hours are essential for the child-victim because of the pressure, taboos, silence from the family, etc. Unfortunately, in spite of the increase of the penalties from 8 years and above, we still have an increased number of cases involving sexual abuse and pedophilia, and this leads us to think that there is a lack of functional children protection by the country, state institutions, the public sector and especially the parents, since a lot of effort has to be put into enabling the parents to detect and recognize the signs of child abuse early.” – says Dragi Zmijanac – head of the children’s embassy Megjashi.

According to Diana Ruseva, apart from the foster care for the child and the prison sentence for the perpetrator, it is important to deal with the rapists themselves because after few months or years they will come out free and be among children again.

Frosina Pandurska – Dramikjanin

Source: http://alsat.mk/vesti/zemja/1453771.html

Translated by:

Dijana Janevska
volunteer at First Children’s Embassy in the World Megjashi