Access to justice has an architecture that is as complex as it is inefficient in order to respond to child victims of sexual abuse: there is no single agency that has control over the process, but rather the State's response depends on the capacity of articulation of the civil justice system, the criminal justice system and various executive agencies. In CABA, a minimum of 44 instances intervene whose actions are not even coordinated by an inter-institutional action protocol. 

Victims are thus faced with a bureaucratic web that is difficult to access and understand, a multi-window state that often leads to further re-victimization and reinforces the belief that violence cannot be stopped. It is the most underreported violent crime in the country because of victims' distrust in the State's ability to protect them from their aggressor and provide a response. 

Sexual abuse has serious consequences on the life trajectory of victims. The WHO estimates that dealing with the consequences of violence in childhood takes between 5 and 8% of the global GDP, so States spend a large part of their budgets to mitigate the effects that last for 30, 40 or 50 years without even preventing them. 

With the pandemic, cases of sexual violence against children and adolescents grew exponentially, putting further pressure on an already poorly functioning system. This has created a window of opportunity for social innovation and systemic change: all CABA stakeholders are eager to incorporate new, more agile and efficient practices to improve their inter-institutional response capacity.

1. Inter-institutional and inter-jurisdictional working group: i) Convening of the 44 local actors that are part of the response system, ii) Creation of a meeting protocol for the general working group, iii) Creation of working groups to identify critical points along the route and opportunities for improvement, iv) Creation of a working group to identify critical points and opportunities for improvement.

2. Mandatory training program on violence and sexual abuse against children and adolescents for all system operators: i) Drafting of a mandatory training law for the 3 branches of government, ii) Development of a legislative advocacy strategy to shorten the time required to process and pass the law, and iii) Development and drafting of a training program with theoretical-practical modules.

3. Baseline of the current information system: i) Survey of the administrative and judicial sources available in the CABA and the Nation, ii) Survey of the information systems and case registry of the intervening agencies of the executive and judicial power, both local and national, and iii) Survey of the information systems and case registry of the intervening agencies of the executive and judicial power, both local and national.

4. Program of integral accompaniment to victims & Creation of a primary network for detection and early warning: i) Survey of territorial actors in contact with children and adolescents, training for referents with materials on how to detect and act when faced with a case, ii) Design of an accompaniment circuit anchored in the Public Guardianship Ministry to accompany victims and coordinate institutional responses along their critical route, and iii) Production of materials to improve access to justice.

Direct results 

• A diagnostic of the identification of obstacles, critical nodes, main shortcomings in the detection and approach to violence.
  
• Baseline of records on the prevalence of violence against children and adolescents.
• Proposal of unified registry indicators to be built within the CABA framework.
• CABA mandatory training bill presented.
• Training Plan (methodology, contents and first impact report).
• Creation of a community-based primary detection network so that all actors in contact with children and adolescents can detect and know how to approach and report cases of violence and sexual abuse (churches, dining halls, social referents, etc.).
• Elaboration of tools to improve access to justice (Manual of justice close to children and adolescents: the process explained to children and adolescents, Guide for access to justice for child and adolescent victims), 
• Design and validation with all the actors involved of the care, articulation and referral circuits necessary to start with the particular follow-up of cases. 
• Advisory Council formed and supported by both adults and adolescents.
• Final report on impact, scope and work proposal 2023.

Expected impact 

• Improvement of the inter-institutional articulation processes in the response system to violence against children and adolescents, which reduces the re-victimization of children and adolescents and improves the capacity and quality of the response of the local State.
• Victims have an accompaniment program that provides them with access to justice under a person-centered model, so that complaints increase by 10% in the first year of operation and their satisfaction with the process improves by at least 20%. 

• Guardianship Public Ministry of the City of Buenos Aires
• Government of the City of Buenos Aires
• Guarantor Body of Access to Information of the City of Buenos Aires 
• INSPIRE, Initiative to end violence at a global level

• Victoria Costoya, Director of research, management analysis and cooperation, Ministerio Público Tutelar, vcostoya@udesa.edu.ar - CABA
• Paula Wachter, Executive Director, Red por la Infancia, paula@redporlainfancia.org - CABA