Call for stronger curbs against sexual exploitation of children

Date: 10/04/1997

CHILDREN'S rights campaigners are warning that the EU's single market has led to an increase in the sexual exploitation of youngsters.

Leading non-governmental organisations (NGOs) will tell the European Commission at a hearing tomorrow (11 April) that paedophiles have been among the first to take advantage of the freedom of movement for goods and people.

Kate Seymour of Euronet, the European children's rights and protection network, says the internal market is facilitating their activities. “The EU has a responsibility to put in protection measures. Paedophiles have always been very sophisticated. We would be kidding ourselves to think that they are not looking at ways to cross borders without showing their passports, for example,” she said.

Seymour cited a case currently before the French courts where a man charged with possessing child pornography is pleading not guilty and trying to use the single market as a defence, saying he bought the tapes legally in Germany.

The Commission has already acknowledged that sex tourism could soon develop within the Union as well as from outside. But some member states are taking action to combat the problem.

“Until now, society has been lenient with the problem of sex tourism. It has been especially great in the UK and Nordic countries and to some extent in Holland, Belgium, Germany and Austria. These are the countries that are providing sex tourists and they have been addressing the problem,” said Elis Envall, president of the International Federation of Social Workers.

At this week's hearing, representatives from children's organisations will discuss ways of preventing sex crimes against minors, the rehabilitation of offenders and how to improve cooperation between NGOs and public authorities.

They will also use the conference to put pressure on member states to do more to combat sex crimes against children.

National governments have already decided to criminalise all forms of sexual exploitation, extend the competence of the European Drugs Unit to include trafficking in human beings and increase cooperation between EU police forces.

But Euronet has criticised a proposed article to strengthen police and customs cooperation in the revised Union treaty which emerges from the Intergovernmental Conference negotiations as “a knee-jerk reaction” to the recent Belgian child sex scandals which fails to address the wider issues. It says any intergovernmental action to fight the abuse of children would be inadequate as it would have no basis in EU law.

The organisation is calling instead for a specific article on the promotion and protection of children's rights to be incorporated in the new treaty.

Diana Sutton, of the International Save the Children Alliance, said that although public concern about children was high after the Belgian scandals, the amount of Union money available to fight violence against children was “tiny”.

On the initiative of the European Parliament, 3 million ecu has been allocated in this year's budget for measures to combat violence against children, young people and women.