The Israeli Independent Public - Abstract of the Inquiry Report - December 2021

The Inquiry’s Vision and Goals

The inquiry was established to promote a change in policy and services provided to child victims of sexual abuse and to adult survivors who were abused as children. The inquiry chose to focus on child sexual abuse based on the understanding that child sexual abuse is a serious social problem with high prevalence and severe consequences. It therefore requires study, intervention, the development of relevant responses, and improvements on the social and state level. The government and its offices should take steps to improve the identification of child victims and ensure that children receive adequate and appropriate services and fulfill their right to a safe existence in the State of Israel. The inquiry believes that the best way to learn from and rectify injustice is to listen to its survivors, understand and learn from their life stories, and raise awareness of their experience and suffering. Based on this moral vision, the inquiry’s goals are as follows: 1. Provide a respectful and appropriate platform for survivors of child sexual abuse in Israel to share their stories and the messages they deem important to convey to policy makers 2. Consider the different aspects of the phenomenon of child sexual abuse in Israel and raise awareness to it, in order to promote change in the social and public discourse on the subject 3. Identify, based on survivors’ testimonies followed by empirical analysis, the main issues relevant to changing and improving policy in Israel regarding child victims of sexual abuse. The inquiry focused on formulating recommendations for policy changes in the fields that it considered most relevant to the prevention and treatment of sexual abuse of children: welfare services, law, health, education, and social awareness.

The Israeli Independent Public Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

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