Opposition parties Most and Mozemo! have separately tabled amendments to the Penal Code which would repeal the statute of limitations for the sexual abuse of children and introduce harsher penalties, including at least five years in jail for perpetrators entrusted with child upbringing.

In 2021 and 2022, the abuse of children for pornography went up 20.6%, MP Marija Selak-Raspudic of the Most party told a press conference. Acquainting children with pornography has gone up by 105.6%, luring children for satisfying one’s sexual needs by 21.4% and procuring children by 166.7%, she said.

The current penalties are evidently not effective deterrents, she said, adding that the party is proposing no statute of limitations for the sexual abuse of children under 15.

Most also wants the children’s ombudsman to compile a special report on the sexual abuse of children.

The party is also proposing a minimum five-year prison sentence for sex with children under 15 for persons entrusted with child upbringing, MP Nikola Grmoja said, adding that the current penalty is from three to 15 years.

MP Sandra Bencic told another press conference that Mozemo! is also proposing repealing the statute of limitations for the sexual abuse of children and a minimum five-year jail sentence for the sexual abuse of children under 15.

The reason for the bill, she said, is a wave of suspicion as well as evidence on serious crimes against children, very often from persons close to or in charge of them. “We have seen that there is a very large number of covered-up criminal offences against children within the Church.”

Bencic said the number of undiscovered crimes against children was “extremely large” because children were unwilling to talk about it for a variety of reasons.

That’s why those crimes are discovered only decades later and they go unpunished due to the statute of limitations, she added.

Also, Bencic said, the state must clearly tell the Catholic Church that no delays will be tolerated in reporting crimes against children due to internal investigations within the Church. Those not reporting those crimes should be prosecuted also, she added.

Bencic expects the amendments to result in a much more effective protection of children from sexual abuse.

Proceedings can be effective only if the state interprets the Vatican agreements so that they cannot be above the constitution and the law and so that all crimes committed within the Church are immediately reported to the police, she said.