One in five children in Europe falls victims of some form of sexual violence, Dr Charles Azzopardi said yesterday referring to statistics from the Council of Europe.

He was addressing a conference regarding the European Day on the Protection of Children. He said that 70-85% of such cases involve someone within the circle of trust of the child.

Dr Azzopardi mentioned that the Lanzarote convention committee in Malta, which he forms part of, has two roles. The first, is to ensure that the convention is implemented and the second regards sharing information between states.

He said that the next challenge is to identify what kind of abuse is most “fashionable”, stressing the need for further research in this regard.

Social Solidarity Minister Michael Farrugia also delivered a speech, and said that Malta must remain vigilant and must ensure that no child trafficking occurs in Malta.

“It happens everywhere,” he said. The minister emphasised that having outreach programmes through the Foundation for Social Welfare Services "allows us, if there is such abuse, to identify it straight away".

Pressed to say whether any cases of child trafficking in Malta, the minister said “If I know of any I would report them to the police”.

He spoke of the importance of education for adults and children on what constitutes sexual abuse.

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici also addressed the conference.

“Over the past months we introduced a number of amendments to protect children. While it is never enough, we have seen a number of legal initiatives”.

He stressed that the principle of protecting the child should be at the heart of every legislation.

Aside from increasing prison terms for cases involving the abuse of children, the minister emphasised the importance of the rehabilitation for the offenders.

The minister underlined the need to help minors anticipate situations of sexual abuse so that they would be able to avoid those situations.