Statement to ICAM training and fake SAP

The Observatory of Institutional Violence against Women (OVIM) expresses its profound condemnation of the Madrid Bar Association's organization of the training session for duty counsel, originally titled: "How to detect false allegations of child sexual abuse during a dispute between parents. Errors in pre-constituted evidence, in credibility reports, and false memoirs."

These types of activities reproduce and legitimize dangerous narratives that are contrary to the rights of children recognized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Organic Law 1/1996 on Legal Protection of Minors, the Organic Law 8/2021 on the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents from Violence (LOPIVI) and Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

These formations are based on theoretical approaches directly or indirectly linked to the discredited and false Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) and its variants.

As documented in our first report, SAP has no scientific or clinical recognition, has been rejected by international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and the United Nations, which have warned of its serious consequences for the human rights of women and children and adolescents.

On Annual Report on Institutional Gender-Based Violence in the Spanish State. 2024 We have already documented the impacts of applying these theories contrary to human rights:

• The dismissal of child sexual abuse complaints, forcing children to live with those they identify as their aggressors, despite existing complaints and evidence of sexual violence.
• The re-victimization of protective mothers, falsely accused of manipulation. The focus of children's testimony shifts to suspicions about the mother, discrediting her duty to protect and reinforcing gender stereotypes that portray them as manipulative.
• The consolidation of gender stereotypes, which present women as manipulative and minors as unreliable in their testimonies.

We are particularly concerned that this training is aimed at professionals on Duty Shifts, as this contributes to bias their initial and ongoing training, generating practices that undermine the credibility of victims and survivors and violate the right of children and adolescents to be heard and for their testimonies to be taken into account depending on their age and maturity (Art. 12 CDN, Art. 9 LOPIVI). This bias also compromises the effectiveness of criminal law and the judicial procedure itself.

La Organic Law 8/2021 on comprehensive protection of children and adolescents against violence, in its articles 5 and 15, as well as the Law 8/2021, of December 23, on Comprehensive Protection against Violence against Children and Adolescents in the Comunidad de Madrid, in its article 21, establishes the Mandatory initial and ongoing training for professionals who work with minors, particularly those in the judicial field.

Offering training that incorporates a perspective that focuses on suspicion and skepticism towards the testimony of the child runs the risk of reinforcing institutional practices that call into question the right of minor victims to justice. truth, the Justice and reparación, favoring the impunity of the aggressors.

We note that, although the name of the training session has recently been changed to "Psychology of Testimony in Minors, Expert Reports, and the Determination of Truth by the Judicial Body: Practical Problems," the trainer responsible has not changed. This professional has previously taught training sessions promoting these narratives, such as the one entitled "False memories in child sexual abuse: myth or reality?«The continuation of the same professional invalidates the entire workday, as it guarantees the reproduction of a biased approach incompatible with national and international regulations for the protection of children and women. 

From the OVIM we recommend and demand:

• Immediate review of the content of this training and withdrawal from the session if it does not comply with scientific evidence and international children's rights standards.
• Ensure the supervision and quality control of the content offered by professional associations, universities and training centers, in accordance with the provisions of articles 47 and 48 of the Organic Law 8/2021 (LOPIVI), article 15 of the Istanbul Convention and Article 25 of the Directive 2012 / 29 / EU, to ensure that all training for professionals in the legal profession, psychology, social work, and related disciplines is based on scientific evidence and international human rights standards, avoiding the dissemination and application of pseudoscientific constructs that violate the rights of women, girls, boys, and adolescents.
• Regulatorily strengthen the prohibition of the false "Parental Alienation Syndrome" (PAS) and all its variants in Spanish legislation, in line with the Children's rights convention (arts. 3 and 19), the Istanbul Convention (art. 15), the LOPIVI (arts. 5, 47 and 48) and the recommendations of international organizations such as the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and the WHO, which have warned of the serious risks that its use entails for the rights of children and women victims of violence.
• Explicit prohibition of including PAS and its derivatives in legal, psychological, social, and forensic training programs.
• Effective sanctions or corrective measures should be imposed on professionals and institutions that disseminate or apply theories without scientific support—such as the false "Parental Alienation Syndrome" and its derivatives—for constituting a violation of women's and children's rights. These sanctions should range from professional disqualification and exclusion from accredited training programs to disciplinary and financial liability for institutions that promote such practices, in accordance with Organic Law 8/2021 (Articles 5, 47, and 48 of the LOPIVI), Article 15 of the Istanbul Convention, Directive 2012/29/EU (Article 25), and the obligations arising from the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Articles 3 and 19).

We demand that ICAM and other training institutions align themselves not only with international human rights standards, but also with the obligations arising from current state and regional regulations avoiding perpetuating discourses that systematically question women and children.

The commitment to protecting girls, boys, and women who experience or report gender-based violence in intimate relationships must always prevail over any ideological bias or corporate interests. Guaranteeing their rights to safety, the credibility of their testimonies, and a life free from violence constitutes an inescapable legal and ethical obligation for all public institutions and professionals involved.

This fact confirms that the simple nominal change is not enough to address the content bias, nor does it prevent its further dissemination in institutional training spaces. a narrative that questions the testimonies of childhood and protective mothers.