The photo exhibition ‘Shame European Stories’ was opened on May 23 at the Espacio para las Artes y la Palabra O_Lumen in Madrid, belonging to the Dominican Order.
Prior to the opening of the exhibition, a panel discussion was organised at the General Council of Psychology, with the participation of leading medical and legal specialists. All emphasised the urgent and necessary commitment of public authorities in managing the defence of minors in their daily contact with social networks and the Internet, in order to promote safe spaces in cyberspace and prevent the alarming figures of sexual crimes from continuing to climb the crime scale.
In his speech in Madrid, Guido Fluri, president of Justice Initiative, the NGO that conceived the exhibition, thanked the authorities in charge of O_Lumen and the members of the General Council of Psychology of Spain for hosting the exhibition and emphasised the importance of creating a support network for victims throughout Europe, guaranteeing them truth, help and reparation, considering the necessary public policies in terms of prevention. “The exhibition should open eyes and pave the way for a just solution in Europe. The victims, those affected, the survivors, everyone must receive justice in life. ”
Juan Cuatrecasas Asua – the father of an abuse victim, a founding member of the National Association of Stolen Children ANIR and a Socialist Member of Congress – said that the collection of images captured by Italian photography professional Simone Padovani is “a good way to give visibility to the problem of the devastation that occurs when adults abuse children and adolescents, since, as in all crimes involving trauma, the ability to visualise the consequences and aftermath is almost always very difficult for society and public authorities.”
Fernando García Salmones, Pepe Godoy and Teresa Conde – three survivors of sexual abuse in different spheres of society – also encouraged society to take a step forward and sign the SafeForKids campaign petition calling for digital platforms to be obliged to remove all material with sexual content involving minors from the networks. Because every second counts and children and adolescents must be protected from these very serious attacks on their physical and emotional integrity.
