A4-0306/97

Resolution on the Commission communication on combating child sex tourism (COM(96)0547 - C4-0012/97) and the aide-memoire on the European Union's contribution to reinforcing the prevention of the sexual abuse and exploitation of children (C4-0556/96)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Commission communication (COM(96)0547 - C4-0012/97) ((OJ C 3, 7.1.1997, p. 2.)),

- having regard to the aide-memoire submitted on behalf of the Commission to the informal meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Ministers of 26-27 September 1996 on the European Union's contribution to reinforcing the prevention of the sexual abuse and exploitation of children (C4-0556/96),

- having regard to Article F(2) and Title VI of the Treaty on European Union,

- having regard to the motion for resolution by Mrs André-Leonard, Mrs Spaak and Mr Monfils, on the creation of an independent European centre for tracing missing children (B4-1237/96),

- having regard to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 20 November 1989,

- having regard to Resolution 94/210 of the United Nations of 23 December 1994 on the need to take effective measures at international level to combat trafficking in children, child prostitution and child pornography, and put an end to such practices,

- having regard to the declaration on the prevention of sex tourism adopted by the World Tourism Organization in Cairo in October 1995,

- having regard to the declaration and action programme adopted by the world congress against commercial sexual exploitation of children held from 27 to 31 August 1996 in Stockholm,

- having regard to the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,

- having regard to the Council of Europe Convention of 8 November 1990 on laundering, search, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds from crime,

- having regard to the recommendation R(91)11 adopted on 9 September 1991 by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the sexual exploitation of children, child pornography and child prostitution and on trafficking in children and young adults,

- having regard to the Council Decision of 23 November 1995 on the protection of witnesses in connection with combating international organized crime ((OJ C 327, 7.12.1995, p. 5.)),

- having regard to the agreement on the basis of Article K.3 of the Treaty on European Union on extradition between the Member States of the European Union ((OJ C 313, 23.10.1996, p. 12.)),

- having regard to the Council Resolution of 14 October 1996 laying down the priorities for cooperation in the field of justice and home affairs for the period from 1 July 1996 to 30 June 1998 ((OJ C 319, 26.10.1996, p. 1.)),

- having regard to the joint action adopted by the Council on 29 November 1996 establishing an incentive and exchange programme for persons responsible for combating trade in human beings and the sexual exploitation of children ((OJ L 322, 12.12.1996, p. 7.)),

- having regard to the joint action adopted by the Council on 29 November 1996 concerning the creation and maintenance of a directory of specialized competences, skills and expertise in the fight against international organized crime, in order to facilitate law enforcement cooperation between the Member States of the European Union ((OJ L 342, 31.12.1996, p. 2.)),

- having regard to the joint action adopted by the Council on 16 December 1996 extending the terms of reference of the Europol Drugs Unit ((OJ L 342, 31.12.1996, p. 4.)),

- having regard to the joint action adopted by the Council on 24 February 1997 on the basis of Article K.3 of the Treaty on European Union concerning action to combat trafficking in human beings and sexual exploitation of children ((OJ L 63, 4.3.1997, p. 2.)),

- having regard to the Commission communication 'The European Union and the external dimension of human rights policy: from Rome to Maastricht and beyond' COM(95)0567,

- having regard to the Commission Green Paper on the protection of minors and human dignity in audiovisual and information services COM(96)0483,

- having regard to the Commission communication concerning illegal and harmful content on the Internet COM(96)0487,

- having regard to the Commission communication on trafficking in women for the purpose of sexual exploitation COM(96)0567,

- having regard to its resolution of 13 December 1991 on the problems of children in the European Community ((OJ C 13, 20.1.1992, p. 534.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 8 July 1992 on a European Charter of Rights of the Child ((OJ C 241, 21.9.1992, p. 67.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 17 December 1993 on pornography ((OJ C 20, 24.1.1994, p. 546.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 18 January 1996 on trafficking in human beings ((OJ C 32, 5.2.1996, p. 88.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 14 March 1996 on Europol ((OJ C 96, 1.4.1996, p. 288.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 9 May 1996 on the Commission's communication on racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism ((OJ C 152, 27.5.1996, p. 57.)),

- having regard to its opinion of 9 May 1996 on the proposal for a Council Decision designating 1997 as European Year against Racism ((OJ C 152, 27.5.1996, p. 62.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 19 September 1996 on minors who are victims of violence ((OJ C 320, 28.10.1996, p. 190.)),

- having regard to its opinion of 25 October 1996 on the proposal for a Council Decision on a first multiannual programme to assist European tourism (Philoxenia) (1997-2000) ((OJ C 347, 18.11.1996, p. 430.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 12 December 1996 on measures to protect minors in the European Union ((OJ C 20, 20.1.1997, p. 170.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 12 December 1996 on improving the law and cooperation between the Member States on the adoption of minors ((OJ C 20, 20.1.1997, p. 176.)),

- having regard to paragraphs 144 to 160 of its resolution of 8 April 1997 on respect for human rights in the European Union (1995) ((OJ C 132, 28.4.1997, p. 31.)),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs and the opinions of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights, the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media and the Committee on Women's Rights (A4-0306/97),

A. whereas childhood experiences and the particular family circumstances and social setting in which individuals grow up determine to a great extent the course of their adult life,

B. stressing, in particular, the decisive role of the family and its stability in the harmonious and balanced development of children, and recognizing that the great majority of cases of abuse that come to light involve domestic abuse, in other words abuse within the family,

C. having regard to the important role that those within the education systems of the Member States can play not only in warning children against all forms of abuse but also in informing the appropriate authorities with the aim of recognizing cases of child abuse,

D. whereas children are one of the most vulnerable sectors of the population, whose specific needs must be met and who must be protected,

E. whereas a large number of international texts recognize that these needs give rise to a range of children's rights and corresponding obligations for parents, the state and society,

F. whereas information known or obtained about paedophiles is all too often not properly communicated,

G. whereas children represent the future regardless of their nationality (Member State of the European Union or third country) and therefore the protection of their rights and interests must underpin the action of all the institutions of the European Union and the Member States,

H. having regard to its commitment to respect for human rights, and particularly for children's rights, both inside and outside the Union,

I. whereas the European Union lacks a policy directly aimed at promoting children's rights,

J. whereas the declaration against commercial sexual exloitation of children signed by the Member States in Stockholm in August 1996 and the action programme that it contains have been implemented only to a modest extent,

K. whereas several million children across the world are forced into prostitution, exchanged or sold for sexual purposes or used for pornography,

L. whereas, although the prevention and prosecution of paedophile activities continue to be the responsibility of the Member States in connection with the implementation of their police powers, the European Union cannot ignore these problems, which are so closely linked to civil liberties,

M. whereas the sexual exploitation of children represents an important element of international organized crime (often in connection with other criminal activities such as false marriages and false adoption, illegal immigration, slave labour, drug trafficking, etc.), which is assuming increasingly alarming proportions in the European Union,

N. having regard to the role that Europol must play in combating the sexual exploitation of children,

O. whereas only closely coordinated activities on the part of judicial and police authorities at European level will ensure the effectiveness of determined efforts to stamp out the vicious trade to which children fall victim,

P. whereas traditional and new information and communications technologies can represent a threat to children, both because of the way in which they themselves have access to such technologies, and because of their potential misuse by third persons,

Q. whereas the Internet is being used increasingly to circulate child pornography and as an almost uncontrollable market for unimaginable perversions,

R. whereas audiovisual pornography and sexual tourism, by removing taboos, are practices which encourage the move to committing paedophile acts,

S. having regard to the need for more sustained efforts to identify and punish persons who promote or make use of child prostitution - regardless of whether the offence is committed outside the Union or within its territory,

T. having regard to the urgent need to adopt a non-punitive approach towards children who have fallen victim to sexual exploitation,

U. having regard to the central role of NGOs which play an active part in combating the sexual exploitation of children and which must increase their cooperation internationally,

V. whereas respect for human rights forms an essential element of the contractual relations between the Union and third countries,

W. whereas particular attention must be paid to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, both as candidates for accession to the European Union and because they are actual or potential sources of children taken to Member States of the European Union for the purpose of sexual exploitation,

X. having regard to the particular responsibility of all institutions in each individual Member State to protect children in the European Union, and in the light of the findings in the investigation of the Dutroux case in Belgium and the serious failings of the official authorities in Belgium which came to light in the course of that investigation and the personal responsibility of certain individuals in that connection,

Y. whereas the cases that have come to light in France involving the large-scale distribution of child pornography and the sexual abuse of children by persons in the teaching profession are not solely a French phenomenon; whereas similar cases possibly, indeed almost certainly, occur in every other Member State of the European Union,

1. Emphasizes that the European Union's action to combat the sexual exploitation of children must not only make full use of all Community instruments at its disposal but also stimulate coordination at Community level of the national measures that are urgently required to fight this scourge;

2. Calls on the Member States to take rapid action to harmonize certain concepts in their criminal legislation (in particular, the age up to which individuals may be deemed to be children with regard to sexual exploitation) and to classify as criminal offences:

(a) paedophile activities

(b) child sex tourism

(c) child pornography

(d) failure to inform the judicial authorities of paedophile acts or child abuse, or serious indications thereof, of which a person may have become aware, as failure to assist a person in danger,

and to incorporate comparable penalties in their respective criminal law;

3. Calls on the Member States to adopt provisions which prohibit persons who have been found guilty of paedophile activities from pursuing activities which would bring them into contact with minors;

4. Calls on the Member States to adopt legislation whereby penalties include medical and social therapy designed to prevent sexual offenders from reoffending, to ensure that, in the absence of a positive psycho-social or medical prognosis, those who reoffend receive long-term custodial sentences or are permanently committed to psychiatric institutions;

5. Urges the Member States to enact legislation to abolish the requirement of double incrimination for sexual offences against minors; in other words, there should be no requirement that the crime be punishable in the place where it was committed in order for a prosecution to be brought;

6. Calls on the Member States to set up appropriate databases at national level, while ensuring data protection, concerning persons found guilty of paedophile activities, to ensure effective protection of minors;

7. Calls on those Member States which have not already done so to provide financial support for the setting up of a free round-the-clock telephone help-line to enable children throughout the Union to obtain immediate help and information, and to provide the necessary assistance to publicize it;

8. Urges Member States which have not yet done so to adopt legislation to ensure that the limitation period after which crimes and offences against minors can no longer be prosecuted should not begin until the victim reaches the age of majority or dies;

9. Calls on the Member States to modify their rules of criminal procedure so as to make it easier for children to give evidence to courts without fear, e.g. by making it possible for children not to testify in public, permitting videos of their testimony to be used as evidence instead, and by having psychologists or specially trained officials in attendance whenever children are questioned;

10. Calls on the Council to extend the field of activities of the future European information system to combating the sexual exploitation of children by providing for the exchange of computerized data concerning the identity of missing children and also persons who have been convicted of criminal offences involving the sexual exploitation of children, criminal paedophile activities or trafficking in children;

11. Calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to promote the setting up of a European centre for missing children along the lines of the Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington, the main function of which would be to coordinate the activities of existing centres, or those in the process of being set up, in the Member States;

12. Stresses the need to establish criteria within the European Union for the reliable and foolproof identification of children which will make minimum security guarantees possible where minors are leaving their country of origin;

13. Calls on the Member States and the Commission to conduct European public information campaigns to denounce child sex tourism, increase awareness of this scourge and, in doing so, help to stem the flow of sex tourists from the Member States;

14. Calls on the Commission, in cooperation with the Member States, to take steps involving individual sectors of the tourist industry to ensure that effective action can be taken against travel agencies, airlines and hotel chains that encourage child sex tourism;

15. Calls on the Member States to ensure that the various sectors of the tourism and advertising industry refrain from any type of encouragement or advertising for sex tourism and to ensure that images of minors used in advertising respect the rights of children;

16. Considers that the budget line concerning measures to combat violence against children, adolescents and women (which was a European Parliament initiative) is very important, and in view of the considerable interest shown after a call for proposals in this field was published, calls for an adequate increase in appropriations in order to implement them;

17. Considers that those NGOs that are actively involved in the prevention and detection of the sexual abuse of minors or in supporting and following up children who are victims of sexual abuse should receive financial support, and that a leading role must be given to the NGOs in tackling the whole problem of child abuse, which will also involve the NGOs recognizing their own responsibilities in that area;

18. Stresses therefore that the Member States must grant child-protection agencies and NGOs the power to bring charges and to explain in criminal courts the contents of the charges in cases of offences involving child sex tourism;

19. Urges the umbrella organizations for advertisers and public relations companies to establish as quickly as possible a binding code of conduct for the industry with regard to the use of children in advertising campaigns by ceasing their portrayal in sexually ambiguous adult poses and images, as well as those which could encourage sex tourism;

20. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to bring the necessary pressure to bear on those countries that show a tendency to overlook the sexual exploitation of children in connection with sex tourism;

21. Observes that, in some third countries, the phenomenon of child prostitution is directly linked to poverty and therefore calls on the Community, as part of its policy to support development, and in cooperation with the authorities of the countries concerned, to make a contribution to the emergence of a healthier alternative form of tourism and sponsor actions for the protection and rehabilitation of the victims of child prostitution;

22. Calls on the Member States to ensure that the range of preventive measures to be deployed against the perpetrators of any crimes involving child prostitution and child pornography includes major financial penalties, such as confiscation of the proceeds of criminal activities and the use thereof to support child protection organizations or to care for victims;

23. Calls on the Member States to prosecute undertakings involved in child sex tourism for the crime of participating in a criminal association;

24. Calls on the Member States to adopt legislative provisions with extraterritorial, world-wide application, to enable persons who have engaged in the sexual exploitation of children abroad to be apprehended, prosecuted and punished;

25. Calls on the United Nations International Law Commission to add the offence of child exploitation to the Draft Code of Crimes against the Peace and Security of Mankind which was tabled last year and which is intended to provide the basis for the decision on a projected, permanent International Court of Criminal Justice;

26. Calls on the Member States to include in their criminal legislation provisions to categorize and criminalize the following:

(a) the use of minors for exhibitionist or pornographic purposes or spectacles, whether public or private, or for the production of any kind of pornographic material,

(b) the production, sale, distribution, exhibition and detention of any kind of pornographic material produced using minors, or the facilitation thereof,

(c) attendance at spectacles of the kind referred to in (a);

27. Calls on the Member States to ensure, in their measures to combat paedophilia and sex tourism involving child abuse, that strict anonymity is preserved regarding the identity of persons at the investigation stage; this is necessary because persons whose names have been linked to such crimes are regarded as socially stigmatized even when their innocence is proved;

28. Calls on the Member States to ensure that protecting children and young people against sexual exploitation, trafficking in human beings and paedophile activities becomes a central concern of the state and an essential task of all persons in public or private life, in view of which any persons who fail to fulfil their responsibilities to protect children satisfactorily should be dismissed from public or private institutions;

29. Considers that the priority that the Member States must give to protecting children and young people against sexual exploitation must have the effect of ensuring that, where serious negligence, mistakes or shortcomings have been established, those with political responsibility in these areas accept the consequences thereof and bear the responsibility for everything which was or was not done under their stewardship; considers, therefore, that they must ask themselves whether they may legitimately continue to fill the highest offices, or be candidates for such offices, at both national and European level;

30. Calls, accordingly, on Melchior Wathelet, judge at the European Court of Justice, to take account of the special demands that are made of a judge at that court and to resign his post; while his personal decision, as the then Belgian Minister of Justice, to permit the early release of Marc Dutroux, who has since been suspected of multiple child murders, was taken fully in accordance with Belgian law, it nonetheless had dreadful consequences, for which he must accept moral and political responsibility;

31. Recommends Member States not to isolate a child during an investigation, leaving it for weeks in a psychiatric clinic; if someone has to move away from the home and family, it should not always be the child;

32. Stresses that although the reintegration of offenders into society is unquestionably the very essence of prison law in the European Union Member States, the fundamental principle of the protection of minors must always take precedence; appeals, therefore, to all those who have to take decisions which may affect the safety or well-being of children to exercise the greatest possible care and take the maximum precautions so that protection of the legally protected interest constituted by childhood takes precedence over all other interests, however legitimate or important they may be;

33. Calls on the Member States to provide special protection for children who have been subject to sexual abuse by:

- setting up structures to provide care and counselling, and preventive structures,

- ensuring that children's rights and interests are upheld (confidentiality, privacy),

- the implementation of programmes in the field of professional training and social rehabilitation,

- protection of the family as the most suitable environment for developing the basic abilities of minors;

34. Underlines the need to involve the CEEC and CIS countries closely with the various actions undertaken in the European Union to combat this type of crime;

35. Insists that the Community's conclusion of agreements with third countries be subject to compliance by the beneficiary countries with the Convention on the Rights of the Child;

36. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States.