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.