Luxembourg Ranks Poorly in Report on Statute of Limitations for Child Sexual Abuse

A new report from Brave Movement and CHILD Global, two international advocacy groups for protecting children from sexual abuse, has ranked European countries based on the length of their statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse offences.

Criminal statutes of limitations are laws that limit the time within which legal proceedings may be initiated after a criminal offence. Brave Movement and CHILD Global have urged European leaders to completely abolish the statutes of limitations for crimes related to child sexual abuse.

The recent report called "Justice Unleashed: Ending Limitations, Protecting Children" features a "European Statute of Limitations Report Card" illustrating the tiered system of justice facing victims and survivors in the 46 Member States of the Council of Europe. The ranking grades countries from A to D (Grades A and B being the best, i.e. examples of "good practice", followed by Grade C for examples of "mediocre practice") and F (the worst ranking, together with Grade D, both representing examples of "poor practice").

The United Kingdom, Ireland, Cyprus, Denmark, Belgium and Georgia all obtained the best possible grade (A), for having no statute of limitations on all or most sexual offences against children. The lowest ranking (F) countries included Portugal, Lithuania, Finland, Slovakia and Bulgaria, among others.

Luxembourg also featured among the lowest ranking European nations, having obtained the second worst grade (D). According to current legislation in the Grand Duchy, victims who were abused as a minor must report the crime before they reach the age of 28, i.e. up to ten years after reaching adulthood.

Speaking to Chronicle.lu from personal experience, a British expatriate established in Luxembourg (whose identity has been anonymised here) said: "My son was abused by a serial paedophile, as were the sons of some friends and who knows how many young boys. […] People knew about him, including [a school head] a few decades ago. Instead of going to the police, he just banned this man from a certain perimeter from the school, as he used to approach boys to come to his office, where he would show them pornographic magazines and abuse them sexually. His sports coaching also gave him plenty of opportunity to abuse boys. If people had only spoken out and reported him, so many lives would have been spared the agony, shame, guilt, anger and distress he caused. The fact that men are so ashamed to admit sexual abuse, they rarely admit it before they are 40 or 50. The statute of limitations in Luxembourg means that this man is still free to abuse [others]. When I went to the police, the head of child protection was very angry that the 'law' prevented him from arresting this man. The statute of limitations here is a disgrace and needs to be abolished."

Note that the Chamber of Deputies (Luxembourg's parliament) recently adopted a bill introducing stricter legislation against child sexual abuse. In response to a request for clarification from Chronicle.lu, within the context of this new report, Luxembourg's Ministry of Justice confirmed that the new law will extend the statute of limitations as follows:

- no statute of limitations for rape of a minor over the age of sixteen (article 375; felony);

- no statute of limitations for rape of a minor under the age of sixteen (article 375bis; felony);

- no statute of limitations for incestuous rape of a minor (article 375ter; felony);

- ten years from the age of majority for sexual assault of a minor over the age of sixteen (article 372; misdemeanour);

- for sexual assault on minors under the age of sixteen (article 372bis; misdemeanour without aggravating circumstances, felony if aggravating circumstances): 20 years from the age of majority for misdemeanours and 30 years from the age of majority for felonies;

- 30 years from the age of majority for incestuous sexual assault on a minor (article 372ter; felony).

"With the new law, in most cases the statute of limitations will be extended beyond the 40th birthday of the victim," noted the ministry. "The new law should therewith improve Luxembourg's ranking."

Nevertheless, Brave Movement and CHILD Global have called for the statute of limitations to be completely abolished for all crimes related to child sexual abuse. "Effective access to justice for survivors of child sexual violence should not be an optional luxury but a fundamental human right. But all over Europe survivors are denied justice because of arbitrary criminal and civil statute of limitations," commented Miguel Hurtado, survivor, child psychiatrist and Brave movement co-founder. "We urge European nations to take this historic opportunity to endorse the gold standard for child protection: complete abolition of criminal and civil statute of limitations for the sake of future generations."

The full report is available on the Brave Movement website: https://www.bravemovement.org/2023/01/31/abolish-statutes-of-limitations/.