Action plan needed to curb child sex trade: Unicef
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.