Photo of survivors at the Brave Movement Survivors Camp in Munich, Germany ahead of the G7 Summit.
by Suraiya Rahman
Last week at the Brave Movement’s Emergency G7 Press Conference, survivors launched the Ending Childhood Sexual Violence: #BeBrave G7 Scorecard – the first ever comparative assessment of G7 policies to tackle this crisis for humanity.
The #BeBrave G7 scorecard assesses Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States on how they are responding to childhood sexual violence at home and across the world. The scorecard delivers a scathing assessment of global leaders’ lack of progress to end sexual violence against children. In short, it demonstrates that the efforts of G7 governments are woefully inadequate and insufficient to end this crisis. Whilst some progress has been made, it is incredibly slow and more urgent action is needed. And now, with this scorecard that I produced with survivors from across the movement, we have clear evidence of what steps are needed to support survivors and how to prevent this from happening to another child.
Working with our friends over at the Brave Movement for the last several months has been incredibly inspiring, moving and transformational. Its survivor-centred and survivor-led nature has fuelled the fire of the movement, driving it to unprecedented heights. It has been an honour to be surrounded by such passionate and dedicated survivor leaders – the energy and the unrelenting drive they have brought to the fore of their every action has ensured survivor voices and demands are heard loud and clear for the first time. It has been nothing short of amazing.
As I write this, we are celebrating the first ever commitment made by G7 leaders to take action to end the global scourge of childhood sexual violence. This is a historic day for our friends at the Brave Movement, as well as for survivors and allies across the world who have been calling for urgent action for years.
But this is just the beginning. There is still so much more work to be done to ensure that all children grow up free from the threat of sexual violence. We’ll be looking to the G7 interior ministers’ meeting in October to see whether these warm words will in fact be turned into concrete actions…