"Expensive rings, precious stones and a few hundred euros are enough to drown the shades of life in dark blue. It is not only a metaphor of colors, but the life of a girl, of a woman who is easily exchanged between two men's hands. One from the earth, one from the sky. The message is clear: the tutor stifles any strength to resist and any form of violence knows no age.”
Author: Dallandyshe Xhaferri
The most recent abuser to end up in prison on November 15 is a 53-year-old man who took advantage of the trust his two friends, a husband and wife, placed in each other and entered their home to sexually abuse the teenage girl. 11 years old. A. T behaved as abusers and maniacs behave, approaching adults and giving gifts to children, in such a way as to gain their trust. Then, when he abused the child, he threatened to kill her if she told others. The parents saw the frightened child, trying not to communicate until she broke down and told the mother: "Don't bring that person home again." The child is currently reported by the capital's police to be under specialized care. Under the care that the minor would not be identified, the Tirana court held the hearing against the accused AT behind closed doors. According to the file available to "Sinjalizo", the 53-year-old is accused of "committing sexual relations with minors", article 100 of the Criminal Code, and the process that awaits him will not only be a confrontation of evidence, but also a testimony of the victim. abused that due to the minor's age will not face it, but the testimony that the minor gave under the assistance of psychologists will be presented.
A sad story like dozens of others
"It was located below my apartment. He told me it was a coincidence and asked me to go for a walk. I refused, but he insisted and assured me that nothing bad would happen to me, so I accepted",- this is the testimony of another minor, age 14, who a year ago faced her abuser in the Tirana court. She fell into the trap of the maniac from the virtual life.
A friend request on the social network "Instagram" enabled the exchange of the first conversations between her and 20-year-old E. Dedaj, whose relationship within two weeks went to intimacy.
"The minor explains that the two of them went together towards a hill in the capital, away from people, and shows that while talking he started to approach her, she pushed him away but E* insisted and came closer, managing to touch her parts different parts of the body, then he lowered his pants and began to have intercourse by force", - it is stated in the file of this case in court, while the 20-year-old's testimony for refutation was rejected by the forensic examination that proved that the minor was deflorated for more than two weeks. In addition to sexual abuse, the minor also faced physical violence from her mother, who after asking the girl to confess about the incident "he slapped her and then both of them went to report to the police", - it is stated in the court file.
But this is not the only case of sexual abuse of minors that was registered in the Tirana court last year. According to the data provided through the written response from the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, it appears that during the past year 73 children were sexually abused. Meanwhile, 155 were involved in physical violence. The State Police announced through the language of numbers to "Sinjalizo" that "as far as the perpetrators of criminal offenses are concerned, 22 girls and 3 boys were found to be injured during the last year". Meanwhile, during the period January 1 - June 30 of this year, 9 girls/women and 2 boys/men were identified as injured.
Isolated and abused
According to the statistics of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, the cases of all forms of violence, whether physical, sexual or psychological, have increased in recent years. In the country, 29 children involved in sexual violence were registered during 2019, while a year later, when the country also went into lockdown, the number of cases has increased more than twice the previous year, reaching 65. The same trend is also observed in cases of physical and psychological violence. Specifically, during 2020 in Albania, 128 children were registered as physically abused, while in 2021, 155 minors were involved in physical violence.
Sociologist Ergys Mërtiri says for "Sinjalizo" that the lockdown has been mentioned as influencing the increase in cases of sexual abuse of minors in several countries of the world and may have also influenced Albania.
"One reason for the increase in cases of abuse may be the release of many prejudices that may have kept the events hidden in previous years", - says Mërtiri, emphasizing that the reduction of prejudices affects the increase of denunciations "unlike before, when the number of unreported cases could have been even greater".
"Another factor may be the trend of increasing perverse sexual behavior tendencies, due to the increased presence of sexuality in everyday life, as found in the increase in the presence of nudity and images of sexuality on screens, in advertisements , in everyday behavior", Mërtiri counts, underlining that the wide spread of social networks "has shortened the ways of contact between abusers and victims".
Meanwhile, for the psychologist Doklea Hadërgjonaj, the increase in declared cases is also related to "with increasing confidence in taking measures for the abuser". "Now a movement has started for the empowerment and emancipation of women, but it is little compared to what should be done".
Hadërgjonaj psychologist tells "Sinjalizo" that minor victims in most cases seek help too late. "The victim initially faces the emotional abuse that he "asked for it himself", causing him not to express himself and after some time, although he goes through tremendous pain", she says. The data of the disclosed cases show that abused children are spotted by psychologists.
"Children have behavioral problems, begin to get low results in lessons, fail to concentrate",- she adds, underlining that physical education teachers are the ones who can easily distinguish the signs on children's bodies.
"In the environment where I work, I manage to count 5-6 cases of sexual abuse per year. Among them are cases where children come from intellectual families ", says Hadërgjonaj.
Psychology emphasizes that there are higher cases when children are psychologically abused or when they are neglected by their parents. According to the data provided by the Ministry of Education and Sports through the response to the request for information, during the period January 1 - November 30 of this year, only two cases were detected by teachers and psycho-social workers in public school premises in the country. suspected of sexual harassment. "In both, the suspects are the teachers",- it is stated in the response of the Ministry of Education, which adds that the measures taken against the teachers may be suspension until the end of the investigation for suspected cases, as well as termination of the employment contract, reporting to the law enforcement bodies in cases where suspicions result truths from investigations.
"From the studies of my psychologist friends, it has been established that in areas where economic opportunities are smaller, where society is more closed and less educated, the cases are more numerous, almost 2-3 times greater than those that I have come across", adds Doklea Hadërgjonaj, who emphasizes that the lack of children's conversations with their parents about sexual relations still remains a taboo.
Before the start of this new academic year, in the official website of the Minister of Education and Sports, Evis Kushi, presented as an innovation the addition of psychologists to schools, helping the mental health of students. The Ministry of Education informs "Sinjalizo" that "in support of order no. 313, dated 22.10.2020 'On the organization and operation of the psycho-social service in pre-university education institutions and the procedures for appointment, suspension and dismissal in the psycho-social service -social', changed" the number of psycho-social employees has doubled, reaching 634 employees. But this figure is not convincing for the psychologist Hadërgjonaj.
"I have seen them being removed from school, offering their service in two schools in parallel and in these conditions I have seen them do a cursory job, they just show up and leave. They have no cases to refer to", she concludes, emphasizing that the work of a psychologist is to conduct routine interviews, track and be present from the beginning to the end of the learning process in schools.
Who protects children?
While state institutions count hundreds of cases of various forms of violence against minors, UNICEF through a report published in May of this year finds from the study carried out by them that "Children trafficked by family members and victims trafficked by an intimate partner appear to be at greater risk of being re-trafficked by the same perpetrator”, determining that trafficking mainly occurs with the aim of sexual exploitation. "However, through comprehensive support Services, victims can be helped to overcome the trauma and make the decision to end all contact with the trafficker, thus reducing their vulnerability to re-trafficking", the report states. But who protects minors in Albania?
Altin Hazizaj, one of the founders of the "Center for Children's Rights in Albania" tells "Sinjalizo" that the study "Voices of Survivors", realized by CRCA/ECPAT Albania and ECPAT International "showed that almost none of the children and adolescents who had survived sexual violence in Albania had access to professional Services for dealing with the consequences of violence or even information on how to protect themselves from sexual violence". According to this study, victims have received partial Services, not at all coordinated, often truncated or in a short time.
"This happens because there are no basic and mandatory protocols and standards for every institution and profession to implement, so cases are never followed the same way.", says Hazizaj who adds that "only a very small proportion of children receive the most basic Services. But not all the necessary Services that an individual needs to rehabilitate from the consequences that sexual violence and such crime causes to the child".
"From the monitoring of the data that we make of the reports that come from the NJMFs or the Police, it turns out that there are at least 100 cases of sexual violence against children and teenagers", - concludes Hazizaj, according to which "these figures are only the tip of the iceberg".
Marsela Allmuça from the "Strehëza Edlira Haxhiymeri" center says that sexual abuse is one of the forms of gender-based violence and most of the girls and women who are temporarily sheltered in the center come from families with such a reality.
"It is a camouflaged form that is often not accepted",- she says, adding,- "We have not had cases of children being sexually abused, but we have had cases of girls who have been sexually abused by family members or not. All children who come to the center come together with their mothers and we have an average of 30-40 children who receive residential Services at the center per year.", - says Allmuca, who emphasizes that since 1998, the center provides housing, psychological Services for women, girls and children.
State institutions still powerless to protect children, the problem starts with criminal legislation
"Child protection by law is provided by the Municipality, and if the Mayor has not established the Child Protection Unit and has not hired the right people, then he bears legal responsibility for this", says Hazizaj, who adds that there is still no serious work being done by the municipality and the police to protect children from sexual violence by raising preventive Services at the community level.
"Therefore, most of the reported cases are extreme cases, where the violence has been happening for years and many adults are involved in the sexual abuse of one or several children.", he adds, underlining that until now "courts manage to convict only 42% of sexual crimes against children".
According to Hazizaj, the problem of protecting children from sexual abuse in Albania begins in the criminal legislation.
"If for us as experts, sexual violence against children is considered any action that an adult undertakes using the child as an object for achieving his sexual satisfaction, for the legislator in Albania, sexual violence is considered only the violent penetration of the child", he says, adding that the institutions consider any other form of such acts as "shameful acts".
"The criminal law should place at its center the protection of the victim and not the perpetrator of the crime. In cases of sexual violence, the tendency of the Code is still to protect men - men including their sexual behavior", he continues. Hazizaj says that the Albanian code still lacks some new crimes, which are related to the virtual world and have been punished in Europe for years.
"The code still lacks some new crimes, which in Europe have been punished for at least 20 years, such as sexting (sending a child messages or images of a sexual nature), grooming (encouraging the child to enter into sexual relations) etc." ,- he concludes by showing that in 2016 the "Center for Children's Rights in Albania" has made these proposals ready, but the Assembly is still not ready to protect children from any form of violence.
Organizations for the protection of minors from sexual abuse: Institutions must change their approach to violence
"CRCA/ECPAT Albania has been asking the Ministry of Education for at least 3 years to change the entire approach that this institution has towards violence in general, and sexual violence in particular",- says Altin Hazizaj, who adds that it is also necessary to develop new policies by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Youth and Children, to provide Services wherever children need them.
"We have spoken closely with the Ministry of Health and they are very clear and understandable in this regard, but the lack of funds from the state budget prevents them from undertaking this reform so necessary for the protection of children", he concludes.
For Marsela Allmuçaj, state institutions are grateful for the service that civil society offers. "When we talk about Services for cases of domestic violence, in Albania, 80% of the Services are covered by civil society organizations. The contribution of civil society in addressing this issue is and has been very large", she says, adding that in Albania. One of them is the law on social Services. "This law stipulates the fact that the Albanian state must open an open procurement process where Services can apply to receive funding from the state. In that sense it is cooperative, but we still don't see a green light to get and fund these Services".
How are abusers treated?
State Services, in addition to not being provided in the right form to sexually abused minors, are almost not provided to the abusers at all.
"Abusers have mostly been abused once and if the person does not work with himself, it is difficult to get out of that circle. We, as a society, are not doing anything in this direction", says psychologist Deoklea Hadërgjonaj, who underlines that the prison system and the justice system leave much to be desired in this regard.
"If you have economic means, you can get out of prison earlier, and if you don't have economic means, no special treatment is given in prison to rehabilitate you in society.",- she concludes, adding that the names of pedophiles should be written in an official notebook. In a place where anyone can have access. But although such an initiative was taken by the actors of society two years ago, when petition was signed by 20 thousand citizens, nothing has yet been done officially by the institutions in this direction.
Media facing abuses and violent behavior
"Welcome to hell baby" was the 'welcome' that the minor abusers and another 65-year-old expressed to the teenage girl two years ago. Considered as one of the most serious incidents of abuse, footage from the minor's neighborhood was broadcast on national television, and not only, and her family members spoke publicly to the media.
"The media in Albania, in most cases, does not directly identify children who are victims of abuse, not publishing their generalities, but provides other data that can indirectly lead to the identification of the child",- says Emiljano Kaziaj, PhD, media and communication researcher with a focus on Human Rights.
"Protecting the privacy of child victims of abuse is an ethical (and legal) obligation of the media", he adds, emphasizing that the 5th section of the Audiovisual Media Broadcasting Code clearly defines what is not allowed to be broadcast, not only when children are victims of abuse, but also when they are witnesses.
Kaziaj tells "Sinjalizo" that what distinguishes a media that focuses on quality is the purpose of reporting.
"Media that focus on quality, in addition to reporting on the event ethically, also try to open a wider debate with the public and relevant institutions, to address the roots of the problem and the phenomenon.", he adds, stressing that the focus in reporting incidents of abuse of minors is not placed on the person who did it and in what way, but on addressing the systemic causes of the addressing.
"The second element that is more characteristic of Albanian online media is the 'fabrication' of news, especially those with hate speech, for the purpose of increasing clicks.", - says Kaziaj, who adds that in several studies together with "Historia ime" about the monitoring of hate speech in which he was a part in 2018 and 2020, it was noticed that most of the headlines were related to "fabricated events" by journalists.
How can we protect children?
According to sociologist Ergys Mërtiri, state institutions in cooperation with the social environment and the family should be careful when influencing the education of a minor.
"Institutions, schools, civil society, must make children and young people aware of the dangers, teach them to be careful, to be safe, not to communicate with strangers",- he says, while underlining that excessive, unnecessary use of mobile phones is dangerous.
"It is problematic to see today massively children who have 'smart' phones and navigate for hours on the Internet and various social networks"- he concludes.
Meanwhile, UNICEF sees as a way of protecting children the development of educational programs, which can improve the ability of young people to identify a negative relationship.
"Public health and education professionals should develop educational programs to support parents to talk to their children about relationships, whether healthy or otherwise.", says the study.
