Prague, Feb 24 (CTK) – Experts call for the establishment of centres providing immediate support for victims of rape at Czech hospitals and these centres should be open 24 hours a day, daily Lidove noviny (LN) wrote on Friday.
“The victims need to cope with their reaction to the extreme experience, eliminate health risks, make an informed decision on whether to report the rape, regain their feeling of safety and the feeling that the world is a fair place,” Milan Simek, from the regional state attorney’s office in Hradec Kralove, told the paper.
The number of rapes reported to the police is growing, yet this is only a fraction of the sex crimes committed because it is very hard to tell somebody else about the trauma. The victims are afraid of the perpetrator and of the reactions of other people and they accuse themselves.
Experts dubbed the special centres “babyboxes for rape victims,” LN writes.
Petra Vitousova, from the White Circle of Safety NGO, said such centres would neither challenge the stories of the victims nor condemn the victims, they would treat them and secure evidence for a possible future reporting of the crime.
The victims would receive all necessary information on what they can do in their situation and psychological or other aid would be mediated to them.
All sexologists, detectives, state attorneys and lawmakers who took part in a seminar on aid to rape victims recently held in the Chamber of Deputies supported the idea of a network of centres operating at hospitals in all Czech regions, the paper writes.
“Such centres need not focus on the punishment of the perpetrator and the reporting of the crime at any cost. If promoted enough, the centres would provide support to victims who otherwise do not receive any,” sexologist Jaroslav Zverina said.
Though most crimes are committed by men on women, there are cases of rapes involving gays, lesbians and children of both sexes, he said.
Vitousova said one in five cases of rape occur in the home environment, which is also why many victims do not want to report the crime.
She said it takes at least one year for the victims to cope with the trauma.
The White Circle of Safety, which provides aid to all crime victims, has registered over 16,000 personal consultations with rape victims.
According to a report by the In Iustitia group, victims of rape who take their cases to court in the Czech Republic must prove that they defended themselves enough, LN writes.
Under the new rules, the rape victim has the right not to see the perpetrator in court, unlike in the past.
