How ChildX works with survivors

All our work is grounded in a rights-based approach and guided by our three core pillars: the child rights perspective, the survivor perspective, and the gender equality perspective.

Today, we lead two initiatives that aim to strengthen survivor inclusion – one national and one global:

More Than Survivors
Beyond Survivors

What Do We Mean by a Survivor Perspective?

The survivor perspective means that we base our work on the rights and interests of survivors (as victims of crime), and that their unique expertise must inform and shape all efforts to prevent and end the sexual exploitation of children.

Including and engaging survivors is not only a matter of justice – it is also a matter of effectiveness. Working from this perspective leads to higher quality outcomes and ensures that our initiatives are relevant to those most affected. It simply makes the work more effective, as it is rooted in lived experience and what actually works.

In recent years, we have seen a growing movement of survivors who share their knowledge and influence how laws, policies, and programmes are developed. Yet greater visibility does not always mean greater influence – and with increased visibility often come higher risks of exploitation, exposure, and harm.

We believe that survivors, with their lived experience of violence and exploitation, are experts in what needs to be done to prevent others from being harmed in the future. This expertise – not their trauma – should be at the center. Survivor inclusion must take place in a way that is safe, ethical, and sustainable, focusing on solutions and systemic change rather than on individual stories or symbolic representation. We strive for structural transformation rooted in the lived realities of those affected by the problems we aim to prevent.

Safe and Ethical Inclusion (Safeguarding Survivors)

That survivors should be included in efforts to combat child sexual exploitation is, to us, beyond question. What matters is how it is done. As actors in this field, we have a duty to ensure that all forms of participation and engagement take place safely and responsibly. This responsibility should never rest on the individual survivor.

ChildX actively develops trauma-informed approaches that place survivor expertise at the center. Through safe, ethical, and sustainable inclusion of survivor voices and experiences, we aim to ensure that children and young people who have experienced sexual violence are seen, heard, and that our work responds to their defined needs and priorities.

Survivor Perspectives in Sweden and Globally

ChildX works for safe and ethical survivor inclusion both nationally and globally. We integrate this perspective throughout our own organisation and advocate for it across sectors and partners in Sweden.

With support from the Swedish Inheritance Fund (Allmänna Arvsfonden), our ongoing project More Than Survivors has allowed us to develop and test concrete tools for survivor inclusion, in close collaboration with an expert group of young adult survivors. The goal is to create practical methods and frameworks that strengthen safe and ethical inclusion across organisations working to prevent sexual violence and exploitation of young people. Partners include Victim Support Sweden (Brottsofferjouren Sverige) and the National Operations Department (Nationella Operativa Avdelningen).

Our national work builds on and is inspired by our international experience from Beyond Survivors. Initially a network of survivor-led organisations from Sweden and around the world, Beyond Survivors has evolved into a global platform for knowledge and support focused on safe and ethical survivor engagement.

While conditions for inclusion differ between contexts, we work to ensure that the lessons learned at both national and global levels inform each other. Through Beyond Survivors, we make the tools and trainings we develop available in multiple languages – supporting both survivors themselves and the organisations and institutions that work alongside them.