It reveals how gaps in certain Belgian laws put children, including boys, at risk of sexual exploitation. Our research included a comprehensive analysis of the Belgian legal framework which addresses various crimes related to the sexual exploitation and abuse of children, with a focus on boys. The legislative analysis used a standard checklist including approximately points and sub-points that was created by ECPAT International for the Global Boys Initiative.
The Belgian Criminal Code contain several provisions that criminalise the sexual penetration of minors aged below Encouragingly, these provisions are gender-neutral, meaning that boys and girls will be afforded the same rights and protection. However, girls benefit from additional protection and attention provided by several international treaties Belgium has ratified, such as the Istanbul Convention.
Belgian law stipulates that while minors aged between 14 and 16 may consent to sexual intercourse, it will still be criminalised, albeit on a lighter charge.
A concerning issue with this law lies in non-consensual cases, such as child sexual exploitation and abuse, where the burden of proof in determining the lack of consent falls on the child. Shifting the onus onto the victim can be highly detrimental and potentially lead to revictimisation of the child, exacerbating their trauma, and may deter them from reporting due to fear of reprisal or not being believed. Boys can be groomed through a wide range of in-person and online platforms, and trafficked or sold for sexual exploitation.
Although trafficking is the most documented form of child sexual exploitation in Belgium, there is no centralised database that provides disaggregated and comparable dataβparticularly by gender.
