Sexual abuse of children, international protection and the Albanian legal order

This article deals with a very serious human right violation, sexual abuse, committed against a particularly vulnerable category of our society: children. The article intends to treat in a comprehensive way the phenomenon of sexual abuse of children and its consequences as well as the measures taken to prevent it at international level and within the Albanian legal order. Thus paragraph II provides an overview of the phenomenon, the collected data and the expert opinion of a psychologist in relation to the consequences of sexual abuse. The following paragraphs provide the detailed analysis of the legislative and administrative measures taken at international and Albanian levels. More specifically paragraph III is dedicated to the existing international documents regulating the matter, while paragraph IV provides the overview of the Albanian legal and institutional framework. Conclusions and recommendations developed in paragraph V provide the comparative analysis of the Albanian legislation compared to the international legislation and contain specific recommendations for legal amendments.