Protection for abused children
Greece is one of a group of countries mentioned in a report released yesterday by a European children’s rights group as needing to reform its legal system in order to provide child victims of abuse with better protection during investigations and trials. The report, «Child Abuse and Adult Justice,» was presented in Copenhagen during a seminar by the London-based International Save the Children Alliance. The findings, from a survey of 10 countries made since 1998, showed that northern European countries were better organized in their handling of these cases than Greece, Italy, Romania or Spain. Greece also came under fire, along with Spain and Italy, for its methods of questioning children. The report, compiled by Christian Diesen of Sweden’s Stockholm University for the rights group, recommended that testimony should be taken from children by closed-circuit television, rather than forcing them to appear in court and confronting the suspect. It also recommended that police officers receive better training in how to question children.
