Last August came into form the Child Victims Act, and thousands of Spanish speakers went of looking for information on this new legislation. This fact lead the organization Safe Horizon to publish on their web page a translation to Spanish so people can know about the protection it provides to one of the most vulnerable parts of our society: children.
Child Victims Act in New York
The organization Safe Horizon announced that more than 2000 Spanish-speaking users visited the web page looking for information about this law since it came into force. This number represents 1/3 of total amount of visits, reason enough to translate the Act so the information accessible in a clear manner for those interested.
In this regard, the ads of public services on the organization’s Social Networks received twice the visits that the English version (112,500 vs. 54,000, respectively); moreover, it is the most shared post. It has the most amounts of comment and reactions with emojis.
This new act gives sexual abuse victim survivors an extra five years to press charges against the perpetrators. On that note, the limit age for pressing charges for a sexual abuse case during childhood changed to 28 years old to establish a new “statute of limitations.”
As to civil procedures, survivor can press charges in a civil trial against their abusers, an individual subject, but also against any institution that had allowed the abuse to happen, no matter the how old the victim is or when did the abuse took place.
Thanks to the Child Victims Act coming into force, a retroactive window for victims that could not press charges, due to the time limit being over, can do so against their aggressors.
Safe Horizons works under the idea of the Hispanic community in New York knowing their rights, and they focus on campaigns to motivate people to get help or to talk about the abuses they suffered.
Invaluables Testimonies
To promote this initiative, Safe Horizon used the testimony, in Spanish, of a victim of child abuse: State Assembly Catalina Cruz, of Colombian origin and representative of the neighborhood with the highest Hispanic representation in Queens: Corona, Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights.
Cruz accepted to be part of the campaign to educate the community. She explained that fear and shame are associated to this topic, that is why many survivor keep silence, because they feel alone and afraid of the repercussions.
A Safe Horizon
The organization Safe Horizon is one of the most important service suppliers of protection and support to victims that suffered abuse and violence in New York City.
The organization’s mission is to support victims of crimes and abuse. They also work on preventing violence and promoting justice for survivors, their families, and communities. thus positioning as the main victim assistance organization in the United States.
All year long, Safe Horizon has a support hot-line with qualifies staff that can help in Spanish and in any other language. This line has councilors ready to help any given moment.
