Summary of the Report

Sources of information: Our inost important sources were the reports of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, child Prostitution and child Pornography, prof. Vitit Muntarbhorn; the reports and other information from ECPAT (End child Prostitution in Asian Tourism); and material from Save the children UK, Anti- Slavery international, Radda Barnen, Brot fur die Welt, Terre des hommes and Interpol, as well as the report of the Brazilian Parliamentary Commission on child Prostitution in the Netherlands the 'Youth and Vice squad' of the Amsterdam Police, the 'Sale of Children Team' of the Rotterdam Police, and the 'Criminal intelligence Expertise Assault and Theft Unit' (CRI) provided us with their most recent information

This report is dedicated to the victim children. To a Thai girl, intercepted by a delivery van, as she was bringing the noon meal to her parents working in the fields, wakening up in a brothel in Bangkok. In the year 1995, a H.I.V positive time bomb is ticking in this girl. To a Brazilian girl who was sold by her parents to a restaurant owner looking for a waitress. In the year 1995, this girl is comforting drunken gold diggers in a camp in the Amazon region, under circumstanceS no grown-up prostitute would be prepared to suffer. To a little Polish boy, invited to Amsterdam last Christmas who was drugged, fled up to a bed within a few days of his arrival and sexually abused for a video recording. In the year 1995, many Dutch paedophiles find sexual satisfaction from this recording. And to a boy from Rotterdam, an incest victim, who was sexually abused by his social worker after he had been rescued from child prostitution. In the year 1995 there is no longer a place in society for this boy.

BRINGING TO JUSTICE In September 1994 the Nobel Prizewinners Initiative Childright Worldwide started to focus the public eye on the fate of millions of sexually exploited children. From an academic point of view nearly all the numbers mentioned in this report are unreliable. Many of the numbers are estimates or unverifiable speculations. Others are completely absent. We choose to quote these unreliable numbers to give at least an indication of the scale and seriousness of sexual exploitation of children, not only in the Netherlands, but also in the rest of the world. Internationally there is even very little consensus on what children are; the age definitions vary from country to country, as does the law.

In this report we take a stand against child sex-tourism. Thousands, possibly millions of children will fall victim to this new phenomenon. Prom the prosperous countries it is easy to take a cheap flight to poor countries. Everybody can go there to sexually abuse children and go unpunished. At home the abuse is considered as a serious offence. More and more 'ordinary' people, so-called 'opportunistic offenders' who deny any kind of paedophile tendency sexually abuse children. There can be many reasons: because it is possible; because it is allowed; because it is different; because they are not capable of having a relationship with an adult; or because they think having sex with a child means less risk of infection with Aids.

This report is a plea for these children: children who are oppressed by syndicates and forced to have sex with twenty customers a day. For these children, often only ten, eleven, twelve years old, three to four hours rest every twenty-four hours is common. Even four year old are being lured into this trap for the satisfaction of the Westerner and the profit of the exploiter.

Child sex-tourism is linked to other forms of sexual exploitation of children. Child pornography, child rape, child prostitution, child sex-tourism and child trade go hand in hand. In the press and in the legislation, nevertheless they are continuously considered as unrelated phenomenons. With this report ChildRight wants to plead for an integrated approach in which all the different forms of exploitation of children will be combined and related to each Other.

Sexual exploitation of children is not a 'Third World Problem', as many seem to believe. To illustrate this, we have related the worldwide problem to one 'rich' country. That we singled out the Netherlands does not indicate that the Netherlands are worse in this respect than other countries. Maybe we expected it to be better, because of its longstanding social reputation. In the Netherlands the 'tolerance' for the paedophile seems to prevail (maybe out of ignorance) at the expe nse of tens of thousands children in the Netherlands and in other countries. While the debate about whether sex with children should be punishable by law or not is still going on, foreign paedophiles who have abused Dutch children are quietly deported by the authorities.

This report finally makes a stand against the influential lobby of paedophile networks. They want to make us believe that there is a consent from the child. According to our information this is never the case. The child is always the victim! The world has to know how many children live in such miserable and hopeless situations.

THE VICTIM CHILD

Background

More than ten million children are sexually abused by adults all over the world. The number of victims of child rape, child prostitution and child pornography is increasing. Every year more than a million new children are being kidnapped, bought or forced to take part in the sex-market in one way or another. The children are getting younger and younger. As a consequence more and more children are being infected with the Aids virus.

Paedophiles and 'opportunistic offenders'

In a report of the ILO ("In the Twilight Zone') the paedophile is described as 'a grown-up using children for sexual purposes'. Sometimes the word is only used for men abusing little boys. In psychiatry coundess classifications are made of paedophilia. In this report we use the word paedophile for all adults who want sex with children, boys or girls. We do make a distinction between paedophiles, who only want sex with children, and 'opportunistic offenders' abusing children only when the occasion presents itself.

In most countries sex with children is an offence, in Florida it is a capital offence. This is why child abuse is always hidden. The underground world of paedophiles is highly organised and goes beyond geographic borders with many international divisions.

The image of the paedophile as a 'dirty old man' is hardly ever correct. In many cases paedophiles are nice people, often occupying a leading position in society.

Numbers of paedophiles and their victlms

The paedophile creates many victims. An American study of the Emory University concluded that 403 paedophiles had made 67.000 viCtims together; with an average of 166 victims per person. After the death of the Australian Clarence Osborn a lot of photographs, notes and tapes were found. They bore witness to the 2.500 small boys that he had sex with.

About the actual number of paedophiles little is known. Parker Rossman, an expert in homosexual paedophilia, estimates the number of active gay paedophiles at more than half a million all over the world. Apparently one out of eight men sometimes gets sexually excited about young boys. children are not only being abused by men, but women too appear to have a paedophile nature. Male and female partners together 'hiring' a child is a common feature in child sex tourism. Both Thailand and Europe mention the increasing amount of female paedophiles.

Paedophilia in the Netherlands

Information from Interpol and Dutch and British police indicates that the Netherlands play a big part in paedophile networks. The British police accuses the Netherlands explicitly as a leading country in European paedophile circles. According to Interpol the number of sexual assaults of children by grown-ups has grown tremendously in the Netherlands.

The actual size of child abuse in Amsterdam has not been investigated but the police suspects the number of paedophiles in the Netherlands to be higher than the accepted 10.000. The fact that many foreign paedophiles choose the Netherlands as a residence, because of it's tolerance towards 'different natured', makes it quite possible that more than 10.000 paedophiles are sexually active in the Netherlands. Tens of thousands of children must be sexually abused in the Netherlands.

The paedophile lobby in the Netherlands

In the press the paedophile lobby continuously tries to put paedophilia and sexual relations with children in a positive perspective in the Netherlands. They talk about the 'right of children to sexual self-determination' and deprive the child of any protection against paedophiles. The thought that children of their own free will agree to have sex with a grownup is unrealistic. No child will ever offer it's body to a grown-up voluntarily. Children who do seem to do this voluntarily are already damaged (battered, neglected or victimized by incest) and make an easy prey for the paedophile.

Sexual abuse as 'an offence prosecuted in case of complaint'

As a possible result of the paedophile lobby in the Netherlands, sexual abuse of children aged twelve and over, is since December 1st, 1991, merely 'an offence prosecuted in case of complaint'. This means that prosecution is started only in the case when the child (and/or the parents) report the crime. A legal inquiry may not be started without a victims complaint. In this way the abuser mostly goes free and is able to make new victims continuously. In Rotterdam a man was recently arrested who had been sexually abusing more than 300 children over a two years period. The man was provisionally set free because it seemed unlikely to the judge that he would repeat his actions.

Child pornography

Many paedophiles like to share their 'conquests' with their own kind. When this is not possible, then at least with a photograph or video tape. Child pornography is big business. There are thousands of child pornography collectors. In the Netherlands the possessiQn of child pornography is not an offence unless there is proof of distribution or exhibition.

The liberal principle beholds that a 'passive' paedophile, who does not engage in sexual activities with children but only reads or watches pornography, does not harm anybody. Yet, in order to meet the constant demand for child pornography, children have to be abused again and again. The demand for child pornography is directly responsible for the recruiting and abusing of an increasing amount of children. In 1992 the German parliament pronounced that 130.000 German children were being used for child pornography. This is even more remarkable since 80% of the children featured in German pornography are from Asia.

The damaging nature of child pornography

Child pornography damages the child's integrity. The child is publicly exposed by others and has no control over this exhibition. Apart from this, child pornography is used to blackmail children. In 1994 a group of politicians and industrialists were arrested for sexually abusing little girls in Bombay. Video tapes made of these offenses were not only used to blackmail the victims but also to force the girls to lure other children into the network.

Child pornography is broadly used to convince new children to join in. A current investigation of a Dutch psychologist shows that more than 20% of the victims were first pushed into sexual actions by being made to watch pornography.

There are indications that up to 30% of the abused children will grow up into being abusers themselves.

International criminal organizations

There are indications of international criminal organisations engaged in sexual exploitation of children. Interpol estimates that the number of child victims caused by child pornography could be as high as two and a half million.

Dutch involvement in criminal networks

There seems to be a Dutch involvement in international networks exploiting private paedophile hotels and other private resorts on the Philippines, Sri Lanka and in Brazil. In these 'safe' centres, paying guests are welcomed and pornography is made. In addition these networks are often involved in child trade. On the Philippines organised syndicates offer thousands of children to Western paedophiles and to the por nographic industry. Recent reports demonstrate a shift to Eastern-Europe. In Rumania and Poland, Dutch paedophiles have started their own sex resorts.

Child prostitution

One of the most growing 'child markets' is child prostitution. The United Nations assume that in Asia more than a million children are involved in child prostitution. This is considered as a rather conservative estimate. In Latin America high numbers of child prostitution are also reported. An official report of a parliamentary committee investigating child prostitution in Brazil starts from 500.000 child prostitutes. According to relief organizations this number is much higher.

The Thai police or the Brazilian police do not seem capable of stopping child prostitution. In both countries corrupt policemen and public servants are willing to protect exploiters of children. Policemen are often involved in child exploitation in brothels and on the streets.

In North and Central Africa' the Middle East, Eastern-Europe and the GOS-countries child prostitution is an increasing phenomenon. The commercial sexual exploitation of children has become a worldwide phenomenon.

Child prostitution in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands child prostitution appears in different forms. The young prostitutes are Dutch as well as from latin America, Asia and Africa. The number of child prostitutes in the Netherlands is estimated at more than a thousand. Most of them operate in private brothels, many of them against their will. As a result of the recent growth of the number of Eastern-European children in street prostitution the number of child prostitutes in the Netherlands is expected to increase.

The trade in children

Kidnapping organizations, parents or other family members sell children to brothels. Even in the remotest regions of Thailand people know that their daughters will bring in 25 times more money through the sex industry, than at home. In Nepal forms of slave markets are still being held. In India about 20.000 girls are being transported at any moment from one part of the country to another for child prostitution.

The international trade in children

Child trade goes beyond borders. Carpet factories in Nepal sell yearly thousands of young employees to brothels in Bombay. About 30.000 girls from Nepal work as a prostitute in India. About 10.000 Burmese girls work as a prostitute in Thailand. Reports indicate that the trade in women and children in the 'Golden Triangle' is now larger than the opium trade.

A human rights organization of lawyers in Pakistan assumes that 200.000 Bengal women and children are sold as slaves every year. The prices vary from 600 dollars for work in small businesses to 2.000 dollars per slave for prostitution.

Child trade is a lucrative business. Brothels in Thailand buy thousands of Cambodian girls for about 150 dollar each every year. Japanese middlemen buy thousands of Thai girls from child traders for about 14.000 dollar each. The girls are resold to Japanese brothels for up to 80.000 dollars. The girls have to pay back this 'investment' themselves. This is an impossible task. For this reason about 70.000 Thai 'hostesses' work as sex slaves with no rights whatsoever in Japanese bars controlled by 'Yakuza gangsters'.

As for the Netherlands, the trade of children from Eastern-Europe and other continents to European countries often goes through the Netherlands.

INTERNATONAL ACTIONS AGMNST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN

The recent campaign of ECPAT (End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism) has brought the issue of child-sextourism into public attention. The ECPAT network includes 250 groups in 22 countries, both home countries and countries receiving tourists.

As a result of ECPAT campaigns in 1994 the Governments of Thailand, the Philippines and Sri Lanka took measures to combat sexual exploitation of children.

Together with travel companies and airlines ECPAT tries to make the tourists aware of child exploitation in the countries they are travelling to, like Thailand and the Philippines.

Actions from the tourist industry against child prostitution

In countries like France, Switzerland and Sweden the tourism industry is educating tourists by distributing information.

Terre des Homme (Germany) has negotiated a deal with the 12 leading tour operators in Germany whereby they must obtain written assurances from their contracted hotels in Asia that child prostitution will not be tolerated on the premises. Hotels which do not conform to the 'acknowledgement' will have their contracts terminated (Coalition on Child Prostitution and Tourism, 1994) Prompted by the German action, Australian tour operators are now obtaining similar assurances from Asian hotels

Legislation in the rich countries

A number of Western governments has sharpened their legislation concerning prosecution of tourists sexually abusing children in foreign countries. Germany and Australia have improved their extraterritorial legislation. New Zealand will follow. In Sweden extraterritorial prosecution already exists. In July 1994 the United States enacted a law relating to Americans sexually abusing children overseas. Offenders of this crime can be sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. In France and Belgium. various organizations are lobbying for amendments of the law concerning prosecution of fellow-countrymen and country women sexually abusing children abroad.

Legislation on child pornography

In most Western countries the production and distribution of child pornography is now forbidden. The possession of child pornography however is not criminalised in some Western countries including the Netherlands, and in most Eastern European countries.

United Nations

The UN Commission on Human Rights has installed a study group, focusing on these issues, and appointed a Special Reporter on child prostitution, child pornography and the sale of children, prof. Vitit Muntarbhorn from Thailand, who has produced several extensive reports on these issues.

Interpol

The international police organization Interpol tries to map the production of child pornography and sexual abuse of children all over the world. Interpol acts as intermediary for information between national and international branches.

Statement

We have to stop the sexuat expIoitation of children, societies' most vunerable members, who are sacnflced for the sake of the economic aud sexual gratification of adults.

We, the undersigned Nobel Prizewinners, call for the Governments of all the countries of the World to criminalize any form of sexual exploitation of children, and to comply with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which specifically calls for measures against the inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful sexual activity (art. 19), and against the exploitative use of children in prostitution (art. 34).

It is unacceptable that children are seen as commodities traded on the street, that children's bodies are used as products, smuggled and sold and thrown away.

It is unacceptable that adults can possess pornographic materials for which children have been abused, debased or even tortured.

It is unacceptable that adults can engage in sexual activities with children, often from especially vulnerable backgrounds, without being held answerable.

It is unacceptable that citizens from rich countries can 'purchase' sexual activities with children in poorer countries, without being held answerable anywhere.

We urge those States from which child sex tourists come, to take legislative measures to ensure that their citizens can be convicted in their own courts for this crime, regardless of the place where it was committed.

We urge those States to which these tourists go, to take legal measures and to enforce the law to stop their children from being sexually exploited.

We urge the World Tourism Organisation, all national tourism organizations, travel organizations, airlines, hotel organizations and others who stand to profit from international tourism, to cooperate and devise practical measures to stop child sex tourism.

We urge States with military bases or troops stationed on foreign territory, to take all necessary measures to prevent the involvement of military personnel in child prostitution.

We urge those States that have not yet done so to enact legislation making it a crime to produce, distribute or possess pornographic material involving children.

We urge all States to adopt legislation to prevent the use of new forms of technology for soliciting for child prostitution or for production and distribution of child pornography.

We urge all States, Unions of States and International Organizations to maximize international cooperation and coordination in the worldwide combat to stop the sexual exploitation of children, to facilitate the provision of more research and information on this theme, and to enhance social measures and development assistance where necessary to end the sexual exploitation of children.

Finally we urge all States, Unions of States, International Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations to cooperate in the provision of shelter, health care, education, rehabilitation and reintegration for all children that have been sexually exploited.

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Last updated 29/03/2001 08:51:13