In an open letter, youth care associations and citizens spoke out against a bill that would oblige care workers to report certain crimes against children and young people, La Libre Belgique reported on Monday.
The letter was signed by over 300 youth welfare and care associations, as well as over 2,800 citizens. It opposes a bill that proposes converting the existing “right to speak” into a “clear obligation to speak” for care workers.
The right to speak is an exception to professional confidentiality in the Criminal Code, allowing a range of professionals to alert authorities if they become aware of serious crimes against minors or vulnerable persons.
Opposite effect
While the intention behind the bill to protect young people is legitimate, the signatories believe that turning this right into an obligation could have the opposite effect.
Many situations on the ground are initially unclear, they explain. Vulnerable young people can sense when something is amiss, but they are often so caught up in relational and emotional issues that they are unable to articulate their difficulties directly.
A confidential setting allows them to build a trusting relationship and openly discuss the dangers they face. Disclosing this information without consent would cause “additional traumatic disruption” and damage the relationship of trust, the letter states.
Risk of silence
The signatories believe that if the possibility of disclosing serious crimes becomes an obligation, there is a risk that victims, witnesses or perpetrators of crimes will remain silent or no longer turn to services that are obliged to report them.
The bill was submitted by Sophie De Wit, Christoph D’Haese and Kristien Van Vaerenbergh, who are MPs for the Flemish nationalist party N-VA. The professional association of French-speaking clinical psychologists had previously voiced concerns about the proposal as well.
