Action plan needed to curb child sex trade: Unicef

Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) reminded the Indonesian government on Tuesday to draw up a national action plan to tackle all forms of commercial sexual exploitation against children in the country.

Willem Standaert, Unicef's senior program coordinator, said that Indonesia still needs to do more to protect children from falling into commercial sexual exploitation.

"As a follow-up to the commitments made in Stockholm in 1996, there is an urgent need to draw a national agenda of action," Standaert said at a media briefing on the Second World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) in Yokohama, Japan, from Dec. 17 to 20.

Standaert explained that the first CSEC in Stockholm, with representation from 122 countries including Indonesia, called for three major actions by year 2000. One of them was the development of the national plans for action.

The commercial sexual exploitation of children is a violation of a child's fundamental rights as stipulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The sexual exploitation is defined as children (18 years or younger), both female and male, engaging in sexual activities for money, profit, or any other consideration due to coercion or influence by any adult or syndicate or group. Child pornography and prostitution are among such practices.

Unicef estimates that about 30 percent of 40,000 to 70,000 female prostitutes in Indonesia are below 18 years old.

Aris Merdeka Sirait, chairman of the National Commission on Child Protection (Komnas PA), slammed the government for its sluggish action, saying it showed the government is neglecting the growing problem.

"It's useless for the government to sign any international commitment if there is no implementation," Aris said.

He said that current criminal law also did not side with the children, who fall victim to such crimes because it treated them as perpetrators, rather than victims.

In addition, it only gives light sentences to the real perpetrators, he said.

Aris said that the government should revise the law to give a heavier punishment to the perpetrators.