Asian Countries Report On Progress In Fighting Child Sexual Exploitation – UNICEF
Three years after Asian countries committed themselves to fighting the commercial sexual exploitation of children, new
initiatives in the region are leading the way in countering the scourge, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
said today.
Representatives from more than 20 East Asian and Pacific countries met over the last three days in Bangkok to report on
new measures and improvements to existing procedures designed to protect youngsters, help victims and punish exploiters.
The meeting was a follow up to the 2001 East Asia and Pacific Regional Consultation against Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children, which was held to provide input to the World Congress on that topic held later that year in
Yokohama, Japan.
Among the regional efforts is the world’s first multi-country Memorandum of Understanding against trafficking, which
covers the prevention of trafficking; the repatriation, rehabilitation and sensitive treatment of victims; and the
extradition and prosecution of exploiters. Participants in the agreement, signed last month in Myanmar, include
Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam.
Despite such progress, UNICEF said, the lack of reliable data remains a major obstacle to implementing well-targeted and
effective measures to stop the sex trade in children. New research designed to address this shortcoming and better
support the need for monitoring was also presented and discussed at the conference.
The meeting also considered strategies to stop the exponential rise in child pornography on the Internet, which, through
the development of new technologies such as digital cameras and mobile phones, has increased the spread of such images.