Sofia Virta's child safety initiative brought MPs together across party lines
The purpose of the bill proposed by Sofia Virta, chair of the Green Party, is to enact a separate criminal offence for situations where a child is exposed to a crime. The amendment would safeguard children's rights if a child is exposed to violence, for example by witnessing it.
Sofia Virta, who chairs the Finnish Parliament's Anti-Violence Network, proposed a bill that would include the crime against child safety in the Criminal Code. Her proposal gathered a majority vote - more than a hundred MPs - which means that the bill carries more weight than usual and has a greater chance of progressing to law.
"The fact that a bill gathers a majority in Parliament is not commonplace. This proves that this is an issue that unites politicians across party lines. When talking about children's rights, it makes no difference who sits in the government and who is in opposition," Virta says.
As a result of the legislative amendment, a child exposed to domestic violence would be criminally granted the status of a victim of crime, which would improve his or her legal protection. As an injured party, the child has the right to a representative who looks after his or her best interests both in the pre-trial investigation and in the trial. The offence would apply to situations where a child close to the perpetrator or victim is exposed to violence between adults – i.e. sees, hears or is present when the crime is committed.
"No child should have to witness or experience violence of any kind. Still, many children have violence and fear constantly present in their everyday lives. The current legislation does not recognise this and thus does not protect children sufficiently, even though a child's exposure to violence can be just as traumatising as direct physical abuse," says Virta, who has worked in child welfare for a long time.
"Everyone understands that situations where a child sees their parent become a victim of violence or even homicide is traumatic. We should be able to prevent and combat such situations by all means, but when we do not succeed, the least we should do is identify the child as the victim."
Addressing the root causes of violence is most important
Virta points out that even if the legislative amendment is implemented, the most important thing is to address the root causes of violence. However, Virta hopes that, if implemented, the inclusion of a child safety offence in the Criminal Code could, at least in some cases, raise the threshold for an adult to commit violence in a situation where a child is present.
"A child's exposure to violence between adults can adversely affect a child's emotional, psychological and physical development. Unfortunately, the cycle of violence is also often intergenerational, and it is important to break this cycle," Virta points out.
Next, the bill will be the subject of a referral debate in the plenary session of Parliament, from where the initiative will be transferred to a committee.
"This was an extremely important bill for me in many ways. It gives me enormous hope that so many colleagues wanted to sign the initiative. Being a joint effort, I would like to sincerely and warmly thank each and every one of my colleagues who signed the initiative," Virta concludes.
The initiative has been supported by all parliamentary groups. Among the Finns Party, Mikko Lundén and Sara Seppänen joined in. Timo Vornanen and Harry Harkimo also signed the initiative.
Among the Conservatives, the initiative was signed by, for example, Heikki Vestman, Chairman of the Constitutional Law Committee, and Ben Zyskowicz. All opposition party leaders signed the initiative except Antti Lindtman (Social Democratic Party).
Original article in Finnish
Translated by Green Sisu
