“The Smile of the Child” co-hosts Missing Children Europe's 2024 annual conference | Athens 2024
31 October 2024
Press Release
Athens, 31 October 2024
“The Smile of the Child” co-hosts Missing Children Europe's 2024 annual conference | Athens 2024
“Cooperation between Civil Society Organizations and Law Enforcement Agencies: strengthening multi-disciplinary responses for missing children in Europe”
- Every 2 minutes 1 child is reported missing in Europe
“The Smile of the Child”, an active member of numerous European and international networks, joined forces with Missing Children Europe, a European organisation of which it is a long-standing member, to co-host the organisation’s annual conference. Each year Missing Children Europe's conference brings together actors working on an EU and national level in the field of child protection, such as policy makers, researchers, civil society organizations (CSOs) and frontline professionals.
This year, the conference took place on Monday, 21 October, at Zappeion Megaro in Athens with more than 100 participants from across Europe - frontline practitioners, members of MCE, law enforcement officials, researchers, policy makers, journalists and young people - and was entitled “Cooperation between Civil Society Organizations and Law Enforcement Agencies: strengthening multi-disciplinary responses for missing children in Europe”. Α General Assembly meeting of Missing Children Europe members followed the next day, Tuesday, 22 October, and was held at Smile’s Panhellenic Coordinating Operational Center for Direct Social & Medical Intervention "Andreas Yannopoulos".
The conference commenced with short addresses by representatives of authorities, namely, Mr. Panagiotis Stathis,(f) Lieutenant General of the Hellenic Police and Secretary General of the Ministry of Citizen Protection, Mr. Paschalis Syritoudis, Lieutenant General, Deputy Chief of the Hellenic Police, Mr. Tryfon Kontizas, Vice Admiral L.S., Second Deputy Chief of the Hellenic Coast Guard, and Mr. Theodoros Vagias, Lieutenant General, Chief of the Hellenic Fire Bridge, reflecting the close cooperation that has been established between Smile and the key law enforcement agencies in Greece, who have joined forces on the basis of formal agreements for the benefit of child protection and rescue.
Dr. Maria Herczog, President of Missing Children Europe, thanked all the attendees for their presence and their participation and stated: “I find it extremely important that we measure what matters, which is how our cooperation has been working. It is very important for us to work together with the Police, with the Authorities and all of those who are supporting the prevention of the disappearance of children, but also helping to find missing children and bringing them home as soon as possible”.
Mr. Costas Yannopoulos, President of the Board of Directors of Smile, stated that “The ‘Smile’, and its people, are making an effort to always do their best, with the main purpose of its actions having an impact on society and that is why, meetings like this one are held. The Missing Child Europe network was created with the desire to join forces and resources to prevent children from going missing. Initially, only a few countries were involved but today we have built a strong network that includes many countries and organizations that share the same mission: to return missing children to their families.”
In Europe, 1 child is reported missing every 2 minutes. In 2023 alone, the organisations managing the European Missing Children's Hotline (116000) handled 7.274 new cases of missing children, 837 of which are still ongoing cases.
During the first half of 2024, "The Smile of the Child" managed:
- 121 requests for support of search investigations for 112 missing children
- 1 disappearance per day
- Out of a total of 112 children
- 71 (63%) were related to teenage runaways
- 18 (16%) related to alarming disappearances of minors (Amber Alerts etc.)
- 13 (11%) involved parental abductions
- Mostly teenage children disappear, the majority being girls
The first panel was entitled “Legal and institutional framework to foster effective cooperation between actors working in law enforcement and civil society organizations”. Representatives from the Belgian Federal Police, The Swedish Police Authority, the National Police of The Netherlands and the Supreme Court of Greece participated in the debate and referred to the way of managing missing children cases in their countries (Belgium, Sweden, The Netherlands and Greece), referring to best practices as well as challenges they face in their cooperation with civil society. All panelists highlighted the importance of everyone knowing their role -NGOs, Authorities etc.-in the investigations, in order to facilitate the cooperation between them and the effective search for missing persons. Moderator of the panel was Mr. Coskun Çörüz, Director, IKO-International Child Abduction Center, Τhe Netherlands/ Member of the Board of Directors, Missing Children Europe.
The following panel highlighted “The role of Technology in paving the way for more effective child protection responses for missing children”, where the panelists -Cisco Greece, Balkans, Cyprus & Malta, INTERPOL, Child Focus and Missing Children Europe- talked about their unique ways of using technological tools to help their actions to support missing children, namely, the "Technology Team for Children" of “Smile”, Interpol’s colored notices, Cyber Squad of Child Focus, ReMUMber and CESAGRAM of MCE, and others. All speakers stressed, without exception, that technology should not be the only tool for finding missing persons, but a powerful ally at the disposal of the human resources struggling every day in the field of missing children, because the human work and passion is what brings results. The panel was moderated by Mrs. Aagje Leven, Secretary General, Missing Children Europe.
Impressive figures reported during the panel:
- Interpol: 20 Million searches are done per day at their 19 Databases
- Child Focus: 2022 cases of missing children, since 1998. Public appeals in 3,4 % of their cases
In the afternoon, two parallel panels were held. One raised the issue of “Human trafficking and exploitation”, with Mrs. Maryna Lypovetska, Head of Projects, NGO Magnolia, Ukraine/ Member of the Board of Directors, Missing Children Europe, as moderator of the conversation, and representatives from ASTRA, Nadja Centre and KOUTCHA as participants. On the other panel, the issue of “International parental abductions” was discussed with members of International Child Abduction Center, The Netherlands, Kaapatut Lapset ry Abducted Children Finland NGO, Hanze University of Applied Sciences and ITAKA Centre for Missing Persons, Poland as participants and Mrs. Sandrine Pépit, Director, 116000 Enfants Disparus, France / Member of the Board of Directors, Missing Children Europe, as moderator. Respectively, on both those panels, the speakers discussed the ways the countries cooperate, how and why is so necessary the synergy, the work each one produce, their goals and important cases they have managed in time.
The conference’s final panel, which rounded it off beautifully, was the Youth Panel. Members of the Youth Board of MCE from Belgium, Finland and The Netherlands and the Child Rights Team of Smile’s European Voluntary Student Network “YouSmile”, shared their own personal stories, the way the services failed to protect them, the shortcomings of their country's systems and also referred ways to prevent teenage runaways, to acknowledge the signs, and gave their own advice to better deal with similar situations in the future. This conversation was moderated by Ms. Naya Al Hosain, MCE Youth Board member, expert by experience in child matters & student in The Netherlands.
During their closing remarks, MCE Secretary General Ms. Aagje Ieven and Smile President Mr. Costas Yannopoulos, noted the following key messages and conclusions:
- Better synergy between all countries to facilitate international collaboration and coordination
- Training and exchange of knowledge, experience and best practices
- Use Technology as an ally to human work
- More Active Public Awareness
The next day, Tuesday 22 October, MCE’s General Assembly was held at Smile’s premises.
Missing Child Europe is the European Federation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children connecting 33 grassroot organizations in 27 countries across Europe. All committed to the same goals: to prevent that children go missing, and to protect children from any violence, abuse or exploitation that leads to or results from them going missing. MCE coordinate the network of 116000 missing children hotlines, and the Cross-Border Family Mediators network. In all of these ways contributes to more effective, holistic and integrated child protection systems across Europe. More here: https://missingchildreneurope.eu/
"The Smile of the Child" participates in numerous European and international networks as an active member, including Missing Children Europe (MCE), the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse & Neglect (ISPCAN), Child Helpline International (CHI), WeProtect Global Alliance to end child sexual abuse and exploitation online, Eurochild, and many others.
“The Smile of the Child” warmly thanks everyone who helped make this conference happen, the supporters etc. of the event for their valuable help and their undivided trust. The “Smile” thanks:
Photographic material from conference: https://hamogelo-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/danaekastani_hamogelo_gr/EpfzcP9pOEhCkVeoiTHnWDwBVOgC8pm28hFTQWIIMSA9xQ?e=TH8uC6
