Overall targets
Securing safe environments for children by reducing impunity in child sexual-abuse cases
Immediate targets
Immediate Objective 1: Reduced child sexual abuse impunity levels, through systemic remodeling and monitoring of the Special Prosecutor's Office for Children. Immediate Objective 2: Increased denouncements of child abuse cases from 125 child-focused institutions by improving their willingness and the ability to report CSA cases. Immediate Objective 3: To increase public action on reducing impunity and improving child protection, 5000 people in seven cities will be reached through two youth-driven Child Sexual Abuse advocacy and prevention campaigns and 5000 children will have received CSA-prevention training to recognize possible sexual abuse.
Target groups
Primary Target Group: SPOC as an institution. As the child unit under the Public Prosecutor’s Office, SPOC is responsible for leading criminal cases involving children. SPOC counts 28 prosecutors in Tegucigalpa, 14 of which directly investigate child-victim cases (from 0-18 years old). Maintaining a systemic approach to countering impunity, the intervention will engage all 28 with the aim of identifying current deficiencies and suggesting potential roads to improvements under the framework of the new Result Based Management Model (RBMM). The role of SPOC prosecutors: Active participation in training that strengthens SPOC performance, Advisory and technical assistance to the participating civil society organizations, Provide key information that assures the project development, Implementation and follow-up of the RBMM. Leaders from 125 civil society organizations, schools and churches working with at-risk children. In Honduras the male:female ratio when it comes to leadership positions, while there is an underrepresentation of men in the child-sector. As a reflection of this, partners expect a 60/40 ratio for this specific target group. Youth from the APJ Youth Platform. The youth platform counts with a 50/50 gender disaggregation among the 200 youth-leaders engaged. Socio-economically speaking, these youth come from lower-middle class and most of them are the first generation in their family to break the negative social heritage by entering university. Engaging youth in societal issues is crucial, not only because they represent the future of the country, but because children and youth are at the epicentre of CSA and violence . Secondary Target Group Victims of child sexual abuse and their families. A recent study made by ASJ-TI revealed that more than 1,000 cases of sexual abuse are reported annually to the Honduran authorities. 50 % of these cases are related to victims below 25 years old, with a vast majority of the victims being teenagers between 13-17 years old. While in the majority of cases, girls are the primary victims (over 60 %), recent cases have unveiled an increasing trend towards boys being victimized. In rape cases reported between 2015 and 2018, 57 % of the victims were boys. The same pattern is found in child pornography cases where 56 % of the victims were boys . While studies such as this underline the importance of establishing an effective response, experts still consider the numbers inconclusive due to expected under-reporting. At-risk children receiving CSA prevention training. 5.000 at-risk children will receive CSA prevention training by 140 caregivers and teacher receiving ‘training-of-trainers’ training. The 5.000 children are expected to have 50/50 gender ratio and be below age 15. The children are related to child-focused CSOs, schools, care-institutions or churches of which the caregivers and teachers represents. Recipients of youth-advocacy and awareness campaigns. 5000 people will be reached by the awareness and advocacy campaigns conducted by the Youth Platforms in 7 cities. The campaigns mainly target youth and young adults (concerts, streets cinemas, universities), but will also target adults through press conferences and by engaging with local stakeholders, authorities and politicians.
Resume
The overall objective of the intervention is “secure safe environments for children by reducing impunity in child sexual abuse cases”. To contribute to achieving the overall development goal the intervention applies a three-dimensional strategy. The strategy aims to reduce impunity and prevent child sexual abuse by 1) increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the Public Prosecutors Office in child sexual abuse cases 2) increasing reporting of abuse cases and 3) increasing public action and pressure for restoration of the rule of law and improved child-protection. The strategy has been operationalized into three immediate objectives guiding the intervention. The intervention will result in improved performance of the Public Prosecutor and leave behind a set of sustainable structures that enable civil society to continue monitoring and holding the Public Prosecutor responsible.