Steps in International Law to Combat Paedophiles and Steps towards Children's Rights
| Author | Caroline Forder |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X9600300401 |
| Published date | 01 December 1996 |
| Date | 01 December 1996 |
| Subject Matter | Editorial |
Editorial
Steps in International Law to Combat Paedophiles and
Steps Towards Children's Rights
The European Union has thrown itself into the fight against paedophilia. The latest
document 'Joint action aimed at strengthening co-operation in the fight against sexual
exploitation
of
children' of Friday 11th October 1996 won the political agreement of all
fifteen Member States. 1The programme, the driving force behind which is, under-
standably, in the light of recent events, Belgium, propounds a coordinated and
multidisciplinary approach, involving encouragement and exchanges between the
Member States. The proposed joint action:
provides for a 'programme for the development of coordiated initiatives' that
will be addressed, during the period 1996-2000, to people who are compet-
ent in this field among judges, prosecutors, police services, public officials,
services responsible for immigration matters, social law and tax law and
public or private law firms which aim at preventing or fighting against these
phenomena, to help the victims of such crimes and to deal with those who
are carrying out such crimes. The programme will include training,
exchange programmes and courses, organisation of multidisciplinary meet-
ings/seminars, studies and research and the circulation of information.
No doubt the European Union wished to join in the castigation of the commercial sexual
exploitation of children expressed at the conference which took place in Stockholm in
September 1996. At the conference, attended by delegates from more than ninety
nations, UNICEF disclosed that more than one million children per year become new
victims of such practices. Not that the practice is at all new; the horrified reactions are
more due to the scale of the problem than to the fact itself. The objectives of the Stock-
holm conference are to strive for some uniformity in legislation against the sexual
exploitation
of
children in the world. Uniformity is necessary in order to discourage the
development of 'safe havens for those wishing to participate in the sexual exploitation
of children' which pop up like mushrooms overnight wherever legal regulation is slack.
1. EuropeNo. 6830 (n.s.).
MJ 3 (1996) 323
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