Law to combat sexual violence against children

On 25 March 2021, the Bundestag finally negotiated and passed the draft law to combat sexual violence against children submitted by the CDU/CSU and SPD parliamentary groups.

The draft, which was originally formulated by the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection and then introduced into the Bundestag by the government parties, has already been submitted by FHK in September 2020 Position taken.

Unfortunately, the criticisms raised by FHK in its statement were not taken into account in the legislative process, so that the particular vulnerability of girls to violence continues to be ignored in the law and there is no reference to domestic violence.

It is welcome that the law establishes mandatory "knowledge of child developmental psychology and child-friendly communication techniques" for family court judges, youth court judges, and youth prosecutors. However, even these are not yet sufficient to ensure compliance with Germany's obligations under the Istanbul Convention and thus adequate protection against and judicial handling of domestic and sexualized violence for women and children.