Interview: Global Solutions for a Global Problem

United Nations ESCAP
HRD Section

SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN: INTERVIEW

Global Solutions for a Global Problem

FROM ESCAP HRD NEWSLETTER NO 10

Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn, of the Faculty of Law of Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, is an international expert and leading advocate of child rights. He was the General Rapporteur for the Stockholm World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. Professor Vitit served as the moderator of a panel discussion on child sexual abuse and exploitation, held on the first day of the Second Asia-Pacific Inter-Governmental Meeting on Human Resource Development for Youth in Bangkok. On this occasion, we spoke to him about what is being done to address the issue.

How did the Stockholm World Conference come about?

The Stockholm World Conference was the result of a mobilization process that started with the non-governmental sector being very concerned with the spread of child pornography, child prostitution, and child trafficking for sexual purposes. ECPAT, an NGO, put forward the idea and it was then taken up by the United Nations and other bodies. Thus there was a cooperative arrangement to bring countries together at Stockholm, which then led to a partnership building and legitimizing process to counter the sexual exploitation of children.

What were the major achievements of the Stockholm World Conference?

Over 122 countries came together, including government representatives and other representatives from the non governmental sector, about 150 counties altogether. They adopted the Stockholm Agenda for Action and Declaration which highlighted future actions against the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Principally it calls for the criminalization of commercial sexual exploitation of children to tackle the problems of child pornography, child prostitution and child trafficking for sexual purposes. It also calls for the non-penalization of the children themselves, that is to look upon the children as the victims rather than the wrong-doers. It further calls upon all countries to take more preventative measures, such as education, awareness raising, and alternative livelihoods for families, as well as more measures to aid the reintegration and recovery of the children concerned including counseling, welfare measures, judicial remedies and partnership building with the children themselves.

What has been the effect of the Stockholm World Conference on government policies in the Mekong subregion?

Stockholm was a promise to have national plans of action by the year 2000, as well as to set up databases, focal points, and national committees to tackle the issue, and some countries have begun such as Thailand which has a national plan of action against the commercial sexual exploitation of children. However, beyond the planning we need more concrete actions in terms of prevention, protection, and reintegration. Here we are witnessing certain concrete developments. For example, Thailand has been adopting more preventive measures through education campaigns and alternative livelihood schemes, as well as protection measures such as better laws, more effective law enforcement, and more child-sensitive procedures including the forthcoming law which will allow videotaped evidence to be used to prevent children from being traumatized by the judicial process. These initiatives are welcome, despite all the sad things that have been happening in the region.

What are your views on regional cooperation between countries of the Mekong subregion to fight commercial sexual exploitation of children?

nternationally we already have an instrument which calls upon all countries to cooperate, the Convention on the Rights of the Children, which is a treaty to which all the Mekong countries are party. Regionally we also have guidelines for cooperation, for example, the ASEAN plan of action for children which calls for all countries to cooperate against trafficking. However in addition to international and multilateral agreements, we are also looking to more bilateral cooperation which often takes place through informal cooperation. For example, if a child is trafficked from a neighboring country to Thailand, Thailand will try to send the child back without a formal agreement, because the formal agreement still doesn't exist, and so there are informal arrangements between police, NGOs, etc. In the future we look forward to having more formal agreements to enable the children to go back safely, as well as to enable mutual cooperation to take place more effectively.

What is the impact of tourism from Western countries on the commercial sexual exploitation of children, and what is being done about it?

We live in a globalized world which means easier travel of people and, sadly, the treatment of people as goods. This is complemented by the phenomenon that there are sex tourists and pedophiles coming from elsewhere into this region, as well as local customers, who are exploiting the children concerned. Many of the European countries are now adopting extra-territorial laws that will cover the misdeeds of their nationals if they go and do bad things to children in other countries. For example, a German national who sexually exploits a child in Thailand will now be covered under German extra-territorial law. Altogether there are about 20 countries worldwide which have these laws, most of them in Europe. The biggest number of cases I have found has been in Germany - 37 cases with about 6 convictions against the accused. Here we can see that it is not just the law making but also the law enforcement that is very important in setting standards against nationals who go and do bad things in other countries. Law enforcement also means cooperation between the countries which have the extra-territorial laws and other countries; for example we look forward to more cooperation between Germany and Thailand in gathering evidence against pedophiles and sex tourists and ensuring that there is cooperation against the phenomenon.

What is the role of the UN in combating the problem?

The UN has been very involved in standard-setting in the past few years, with treaties, guidelines, and the support of Stockholm. Now the UN should involve itself in terms of better implementation, such as more partnering between the UN itself, and with NGOs, government agencies, and the children concerned. This was really solidified at Stockholm with the formation of partnerships between all these agencies.

Some people say that certain forms of sexual exploitation of children has been going on for many centuries already. How do you react to this?

We have the traditional practices which have been going on for many centuries, and some cultural practices, for example the placing of girls into temples in South Asia. We also have new forms, such as via the Internet and cyber space. We are noticing, for example, thousands of images of children being relayed across the world by pedophile groups who are exploiting children via computers.

Has the UN or the Stockholm World Conference been able to take any effective action against the distribution of pictures of children on the Internet?

Increasingly yes, but the phenomenon is happening at a much faster rate than the UN can work because we are dealing with a kind of distorted private sector which is using technology for its own end. So a very important component of what we need is to work with the private sector, such as business groups, computer groups, user groups, and service providers, who are very important catalysts in countering the phenomenon. We now have a variety of initiatives on behalf of the computer groups, particularly software agencies and Internet service providers, which can help very much to counter the phenomenon. They are grouping together, adopting guidelines, self-monitoring and helping the police more.

What do you think of the initiative for an Internet police?

Whether or not the Internet should have police in uniform is an interesting question. What I would advocate is that the industry itself can help to self-police and self-monitor, and this is happening. For example, service providers in Europe and in the United States are now helping to monitor against child pornography being relayed via the Internet. Apart from that we also need constructive programs to counter the types of pornography being relayed, and we are at the juncture where computer programmes can be used to block certain types of information coming through. This is a very important link with parents because ultimately we have to form partnerships with not only the government sector but also the private sector and the families as a protective shield against child exploitation.

See also the feature on the panel discussion chaired by Professor Vitit.