ASEAN tourist bodies, NGOs move to curb child exploitation
ASEAN tourist bodies, NGOs move to curb child exploitation
Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali
In a bid to fight the sexual exploitation of children, particularly in the tourism industry, a group of ASEAN tourism authorities and non-governmental organizations adopted on Friday the draft of the ASEAN Traveler's Code (ATC).
The ATC urges travelers to "help prevent the abuse and exploitation of people". It also states that "everyone has the right to protection from exploitation and abuse".
The code also urges travelers to "consider people's rights, particularly women and children --- be mindful of the activities you undertake and the businesses you support".
It warns travelers that sexual exploitation of children is illegal in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries and that laws were in place to prosecute travelers in their home country for sexual exploitation of children conducted overseas.
The code was adopted at the end of a two-day Tourism Think Tank Meeting on The Prevention of Child Abuse in ASEAN Tourism Destinations attended by high-level tourism officials and NGOs from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines.
The meeting was coorganized by Australia's leading child protection advocacy organization Child Wise and the Indonesian Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Funding for the meeting was provided by AusAID.
Copies of the ATC will be distributed to travelers through airlines offices and travel agents in various countries. It will also be posted at all immigration posts in the region.
"We hope that the ATC will prompt local governments in this region to immediately revise their laws on child abuse to cope with the present condition," the Center for Study and Child Protection's executive secretary Ahmad Sofian said.
Citing data issued by the Ministry of Social Affairs, Sofian pointed out that 60 percent of 71,281 registered prostitutes were girls aged between 15 years and 20 years old. Therefore, the number of child sex workers in the country may be as high as 40,000.
Moreover, up to 3,000 visitors from neighboring countries of Malaysia and Singapore visit Batam island each week solely to avail of the island's sex workers.
"Around 30 percent of a total of 5,000 to 6,000 sex workers on that island are children under 18 years of age," Sofian stressed.
Cases of child prostitution have been reportedly taking place in various areas across Indonesia, such as Medan, Pontianak, Palembang, Jakarta, Indramayu, Jepara, Pati, Surabaya, Makassar, Manado, Maluku and Papua. Batam, Bali and Pontianak were considered to be areas with the largest number of children prostitutes.
It its release titled Bali: A Mecca for Child Sex, Child Wise claimed that the recent arrest in Bali's eastern regency of Karangasem of an Australian teacher for child molestation was only the tip of the iceberg.
Child Wise National Director Bernadette McMenamin said in the release that: "There has been evidence of pedophiles traveling to Bali since the 1920s... This (Karangasem) is a very poor area of Bali and has always been vulnerable and since the bombing it is even more vulnerable to these crimes."
Data provided by Child Wise showed that over one million children were trafficked every year for sexual purposes and that child sex tourism was a major cause of child trafficking.