VZCZCXRO4802
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHMO #0945/01 0980625
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 070625Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7504
INFO RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MOSCOW 000945
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
STATE FOR EUR/ACE, INL/AAE-KIMMEL, EUR/RUS-WATSON,
G/TIP-HALL AND BILLINGS, AND DRL/AE
DOJ/OPDAT FOR LEHMANN AND ALEXANDRE, OIA FOR BURKE,
CEOS ANDREW OOSTERBAAN
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM SMIG KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL OPRC RS MD
SUBJECT: SIX COUNTRIES AND USG UNITE TO FIGHT CHILD
SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED;NOT FOR INTERNET
DISTRIBUTION
This cable was co-authored by Embassies Moscow and
Chisinau.
1. (SBU) Summary: From March 10 to March 14, 2008,
delegates from Georgia, Russia, Armenia, Ukraine,
Moldova and Kazakhstan, accompanied by Department of
Justice (DOJ) Resident Legal Advisors (RLA) and
Embassy representatives met in Chisinau, Moldova, to
participate in a DOJ sponsored regional conference on
fighting child pornography and sexual exploitation.
Participants discussed effective legislative tools to
combat the sexual exploitation of children, and
investigate and prosecute effectively this
transnational crime. Child pornography and sexual
exploitation remains a serious issue in the region,
abetted by the growing use of the internet; this
conference should spur needed legislative reform, and
encourage closer law enforcement cooperation.
A Regional Problem
------------------
2. (SBU) None of the Eurasian countries invited to
this conference possesses comprehensive legislation
which can be used to combat the sexual exploitation
of children and child pornography (Note: such draft
legislation is pending before the Georgian
Parliament). We have evidence that countries in
Eurasia, particularly Russia, are rapidly becoming
havens for child pornography and sex tourism. The
United States Department of Justice, working closely
with INL and U.S. Embassies in these six countries
organized this conference in Chisinau, Moldova, for
police, prosecutors, NGOs, and parliamentary
representatives to address this growing problem.
Russia and Moldova sent the largest delegations to
the conference with a total of 11 delegates each.
The Russian delegation included a Duma Deputy,
prosecutor representatives, including a member of the
Investigational Committee, and a number of NGO and
academic representatives. Georgia's delegation was
the smallest consisting of a prosecutor and the RLA.
Moldova graciously hosted the conference and sent a
sizable delegation consisting of prosecutors, field
investigators and the lead national prosecutor for
the protection of children's rights.
3. (SBU) The U.S. Ambassador to Moldova, along with
the Prosecutor General and the Minister of the
Interior for the Republic of Moldova, opened the
conference, warmly welcoming the delegates to Moldova
and stressing the importance of the work of the
conference. The conference focused initially upon
necessary legislative tools to combat the sexual
exploitation of children. The conference then
addressed investigational, forensic and prosecutorial
issues that arise in the investigation and
prosecution of these cases, including the importance
of using a child forensic expert to work with
victims. Each country appointed a spokesperson to
discuss the issue from his or her national
perspective. Finally, representatives from the FBI
and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
described a series of successful investigations
completed with the assistance foreign law enforcement
to highlight the importance of international
cooperation.
Myths Debunked, Legislation Models Provided
-------------------------------------------
4. (SBU) Leila Ben Debba, an attorney with the
International Center for Missing and Exploited
Children in Brussels (ICMEC), outlined the need for
legislation with a global review of national child
pornography legislation in 186 Interpol Member
countries: 95 countries have no legislation to
address child pornography and of the remaining
countries that do, 55 have no definition of child
pornography; 41 countries do not criminalize the
possession of child pornography regardless of intent
to distribute; and only five countries possess the
MOSCOW 00000945 002 OF 004
minimum legislation deemed necessary by experts.
Critically, in the internet era, few countries with
child pornography legislation outlaw computer
offenses or regulate internet service providers,
despite the fact that the internet is now the primary
means for the distribution of child pornography.
Child pornography generates more than three billion
dollars in revenue annually, and is one of the
fastest growing businesses on the internet.
5. (SBU) Ben Debba debunked several myths about child
pornography that she encounters as she addresses the
need for effective legislation, ranging from the
claim that possession of child pornography is
harmless (each picture represents the victimization
of a child; with the internet, the pictures never
disappear and the victimization of the child
continues without end), to the claim that people who
possess child pornography are harmless.
6. (SBU) Ben Debba then reviewed a series of
international legal instruments which outlawed child
pornography, ranging from UN Conventions and
Protocols (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,
Optional Protocol on the Rights of the Child, the
Palermo Protocol, etc.) to Council of Europe
Conventions and European Community Law. Her
presentation, a copy of which was supplied to each
delegate, contained a legislative tool kit which set
forth definitions of child pornography, and model
statutes that delegates could follow or simply adopt
as they draft legislation to outlaw child pornography
in their countries.
7. (SBU) The legislative portion of the conference
concluded with joint presentations by Resident Legal
Advisor Roger Keller from Georgia, a representative
of the Georgian prosecutor's office, and Kerry Neal,
an expert on child exploitation issues and
legislative reform from UNICEF. They discussed their
experiences working with the Presidential
Administration and Ministry of the Interior in
Georgia to draft comprehensive child pornography
legislation. This completed package of amendments to
the criminal code has just been submitted to the
Georgian Parliament with the support of the Ministry
of the Interior. Neal also stressed the obligations
of each country under both UN and COE conventions.
He indicated that none of the attending countries had
met fully the obligations they had voluntarily agreed
to by virtue of their signature to various
instruments. In particular, Neal highlighted both
the COE's Convention on Cybercrime, which set forth a
variety of standards, as well as the Convention on
the Protection of Children against Sexual
Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, which was drafted in
July 2007 and it currently open for signature. The
latter Convention was created to harmonize the
protection and treatment of juveniles among member
states and sets forth detailed legislative standards.
In the upcoming months, UNICEF, partnering with the
World Bank, will launch an initiative to promote
member country compliance. Neal indicated that the
World Bank would be able to fund training as well as
the purchase of equipment needed to help bring
countries into compliance with their obligations.
Investigational Issues: Cooperate, Cooperate
---------------------------------------------
8. (SBU) The second portion of the conference
addressed forensic, investigational and prosecutorial
issues that arise in the course of a child
pornography investigation. DOJ Child Exploitation
and Obscenity Section (CEOS) lawyer Elizabeth Yusi
and DOJ Forensic Expert Richard Kaplan jointly
described how to build a child exploitation case for
prosecution, dovetailing the technical issues that
arise in seizing and searching computers with the
legal and procedural issues that arise during the
course of the criminal investigation and subsequent
trial. They gave examples from significant cases
that they had worked on, and emphasized that ? to be
successful - prosecutors and investigators must work
together at every stage of the investigation. Amy
MOSCOW 00000945 003 OF 004
Allen, a Child Forensic Interview Specialist with
CARE House in the US, discussed the importance of a
victim-centered approach when investigating these
cases and described effective forensic interviewing
techniques. Allen's presentation generated
significant interest and controversy among the
delegations as in most Eurasian countries, child
victims do not appear in court to testify against or
to confront their exploiter.
9. (SBU) Representatives from both the FBI and DHS
described criminal cases requiring close
transnational cooperation which they successfully
investigated with foreign counterparts. Audrey
McNeill, the Acting Unit Chief of the FBI Innocent
Images Task Force, outlined recent successes and
asked the delegate countries to participate in the
task force. Marshall Heeger, the ICE attach in
Moscow, detailed a series of child sex tourism
investigations in which he had participated in
Eurasia, pointing out that, absent close cooperation
between local and U.S. police, defendants who had
committed serious crimes escaped without punishment.
Two of the cases which Heeger worked on with police
from Moldova and Russia involved notorious sex
tourists who were well known to the delegates from
those countries.
Delegations Participate in Case Studies
--------------------------------------
10. (SBU) Each delegation spoke on the scope and
nature of the child exploitation issue in its
country, addressed the adequacy of legislation, and
shared insights on transnational cooperation and best
practices from their experience. Each delegation was
given a hypothetical criminal case as a problem to
discuss, and asked to describe potential areas of
legislative inadequacy ranging from the absence of
laws regulating internet service providers to
questions about how effectively to pursue and
conclude a criminal case involving solicitation of
a minor over the internet.
Closing Words from INL: A Long Way to Go
-----------------------------------------
11. (SBU) Peter Prahar, Chief, Law Enforcement
Section, Moscow, Transnational Crime Officer, INL,
closed the conference. Noting that only 5 of 186
Interpol member countries possessed adequate
legislation to address child pornography, he pointed
out that the ability of criminals to manufacture and
distribute child pornography far outstripped law
enforcement's ability to address the problem. It is
critical, he noted, to promulgate adequate
legislation which defines child pornography, outlaws
possession, regulates internet service providers,
criminalizes computer facilitated offenses, and
meaningfully criminalizes child pornography offenses.
The issue is global, he noted, and countries which do
not enact and enforce such legislation will become
havens for child pornography.
Comment: Multilateral Consensus on Law Reform
--------------------------------------------- -
12. (SBU) Comment: The conference was highly
successful and there was a broad consensus among all
delegations that there is a critical need for
effective anti-child pornography legislation. As
noted, Georgia is close to adopting a new law. The
Moldovan delegation said that the GOM had already
amended the criminal code to better address the
issue, and further amendments are planned to bring
Moldova into compliance with international standards.
Delegates agreed that anti-child pornography
legislation requires political will. Although the
Russian delegation broadly supported the need for
effective legislation, anti-child pornography
legislation in Russia is deficient, but the
Presidential Administration has stated that no
additional legislation is necessary. Reforms
introduced in the Russian Duma received no
presidential backing and therefore failed. Only time
will tell whether the delegates to the conference can
motivate their governments to make necessary
MOSCOW 00000945 004 OF 004
legislative reforms, and then use them to prevent
exploitation, protect victims, and prosecute
perpetrators.
BURNS