A DEBATE among specialists from both sides of the Atlantic on the mandatory reporting of child sex abuse will be a feature of a major international congress on child abuse to take place in Dublin next month.
The biennial congress of the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect will bring together paediatricians, psychologists, social workers, child care specialists, lawyers and police officers from more than 60 countries.
It will take place at UCD from August 18th to 21st.
The chairwoman of the organising committee, Dr Imelda Ryan, yesterday listed its principal themes as an international debate on mandatory reporting; the launch of a major new report on child labour; children growing up in the midst of war and political conflict; tackling child pornography and child prostitution; promoting children's rights and treating abusers.
The debate on mandatory reporting will involve a US prosecutor, two child psychiatrists and a World Health Organisation official.
Among the other speakers at the congress will be: Mr Sansaphit Koomprahant, who runs programmes in Bangkok for children who have been sexually abused, tortured and abandoned; Ms Nandana Reddy from India, chairwoman of the International Working Group on Child Labour; the writer Penelope Leach; Prof Michael Rutter from Britain; and Father Stephen Rosetti, an American priest psychologist who specialises in the treatment of clergy who abuse.