C S E C The Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/childprostitution/SriLanka.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking for
material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of child prostitution are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring how children got started, how they survive, and how
some succeed in leaving. Perhaps your
paper could focus on runaways and the abuse that led to their leaving. Other factors of interest might be poverty,
rejection, drug dependence, coercion, violence, addiction, hunger, neglect,
etc. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the manipulative and dangerous adults who control this
activity. There is a lot to the
subject of Child Prostitution. Scan
other countries as well as this one.
Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or
regions. Meanwhile, check out some of
the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. HELP for Victims International Organization for
Migration, IOM ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Pedophiles Prey On
Sri Lankan Children The Movement to
Prevent Child Prostitution (MPCP) - News Letter At one time this article
had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 25 July
2011] It is widely
acknowledged that most children involved come from marginalized communities,
where they live in very low-income households. What is also disturbing is that a growing
number of boys engaged in this trade are not from poor families. For them it is more of a part time
activity, whilst attending school, without the knowledge of their parents. ***
ARCHIVES *** ECPAT Country
Monitoring Report [PDF] ECPAT International,
2006 www.ecpat.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Global_Monitoring_Report-SRI_LANKA.pdf [accessed 8
September 2020] Desk review of
existing information on the sexual exploitation of children (SEC) in Sri Lanka.
The report looks at protection mechanisms, responses, preventive measures,
child and youth participation in fighting SEC, and makes recommendations for
action against SEC. Human
Rights Reports » 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 10, 2020 www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/sri-lanka/ [accessed 8
September 2020] SEXUAL
EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN - The law prohibits the commercial sexual exploitation
of children, the sale of children, offering or procuring a child for child prostitution,
and practices related to child pornography, but authorities did not always
enforce the law. The minimum age of consensual sex is 16. In June
UN-appointed independent rights experts said the scale of the country’s child
sex tourism industry has reached such worrying proportions that the
authorities should act immediately. The UN Committee on the Rights of the
Child said that the scourge was “very widespread,” particularly in the North
of the country. 2018 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor Office of Child
Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor
Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2019 www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2018/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 8
September 2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 1084] There are reports
of children being trafficked internally, including from tea estates, to
perform domestic work in Colombo. In addition, child domestic workers are subject
to sexual, physical, and psychological abuse, nonpayment of wages, and
restrictions on movement. (1,4) Children,
predominantly boys, are also forced into commercial sexual exploitation in
tourist areas as part of the sex tourism industry. (1,4,15) Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 6 June 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/srilanka2003.html [accessed 24 December
2010] [47] The Committee
welcomes the Penal Code (Amendment) Act No. 22 of 1995, which seeks to
protect children from sexual exploitation.
However, it is concerned that existing legislation is not effectively
enforced and that child victims of sexual exploitation do not always receive
adequate recovery assistance. This bedtime story
will wake you up! Steve Fernando, The
Sunday Times, July 06, 2008 www.sundaytimes.lk/080706/Plus/timesplus009.html [accessed 25 July
2011] I know we’re only
halfway through 2008, but I’m prepared to bet that Jake Oorloff’s
A Bedtime Story is probably the most stunningly original drama you will see
on stage this year. Our normal lives? On
a normal day in Sri Lankan there are, according to informed sources, more
than 40,000 children working as prostitutes. The majority are boys who engage
in homosexual and heterosexual sex with foreign tourists. Sri Lanka is, like
Thailand and Cambodia, a well established sex-tourism destination. A Bedtime Story chronicles the life of Kasun, a child prostitute, as seen through the eyes of
four individuals: his father, his mother, his teacher and his classmate.The narrators in turn take time to establish their
own personal context before exploring their relationship with Kasun. A poor uneducated father, with no permanent job, labouring hard to earn what
little he can for his caring wife and their quickly growing family. A loving
mother, striving to feed and look after her three children and support her
hard working husband, as they are forced from one town to the next in search
of work. Then the father receives an
unexpected offer from an acquaintance to earn a little extra money for the
family. All Kasun has to do was to play with some
foreigners who like children but have none of their own. Kasun
returns from his first day at work with the money that was promised, but also
with explanations and descriptions that a father cannot bear to hear. Yet the
die is so quickly cast. Kasun’s money provides
respite for the family’s daily financial struggles and he returns to play
with his foreign friends, again, and again, and again. Moves to eradicate
child prostitution in coastal belt Nadira Gunatilleke,
Daily News, www.dailynews.lk/2007/07/09/news40.asp [accessed 25 July
2011] The National Child
Protection Authority (NCPA) will educate children and their parents on
eradicating child prostitution in the coastal belt, Government Information
Department sources said. The sources
said the NCPA will raise awareness among children and parents through
documentaries, lectures and posters.
They will be educated on the negative impacts of child prostitution.
Steps will be taken to educate the whole community in the coastal belt. Educating children
involved in child prostitution and their parents is not successful because
they are not willing to take part in awareness raising programmes
and hardly participate in them, sources said. Concluding Observations
of the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights International
Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, www1.umn.edu/humanrts/esc/srilanka1998.html [accessed 19
September 2011] [13] The Committee notes
with concern the plight of hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankan women working
abroad as domestic helpers, many of them underpaid and treated as virtual
slaves. The Committee regrets that the Government has not made a serious
effort to assess the negative impact of this phenomenon on children who are
left in vulnerable and difficult circumstances without their mothers and to
take appropriate remedial measures. Five Years After ECPAT: Fifth Report
on implementation of the Agenda for Action ECPAT International,
November 2001 www.no-trafficking.org/content/web/05reading_rooms/five_years_after_stockholm.pdf [accessed 13
September 2011] [B]
COUNTRY UPDATES – SRI LANKA – Regarding prevention, Protecting Environment and
Children Everywhere (PEACE/ ECPAT Sri Lanka) has launched a youth leadership
program to strengthen the capacity of vulnerable children from
underprivileged families, who are at high risk of being lured into
prostitution, pornography or drug trafficking. About 60 children will benefit
from the program. Report
by Special Rapporteur [DOC] UN Economic and
Social Council Commission on Human Rights, Fifty-ninth session, 6 January
2003 www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0/217511d4440fc9d6c1256cda003c3a00/$FILE/G0310090.doc [accessed 25 July
2011] [67] The National
Child Protection Authority has formulated a National Policy to deal with the
commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking of
children. Legislation criminalizes those who hire, employ,
persuade, use, induce, or coerce any child for illicit sexual intercourse or
to appear or perform in any obscene or indecent exhibition, indecent
photograph or film, or who have possession of any such photo or
film. Concerning trafficking for the purposes of adoption, Sri
Lankan legislation criminalizes a comprehensive range of activities designed
to procure a child for this purpose. Prosecutions relating to the
sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography were made in 2001
and 2002; unfortunately, no details were available. Many
Children Still Abused And Neglected In Damitha Hemachandra,
Daily Mirror, October 8, 2003 www.tamilcanadian.com/article/4042 [accessed 25 July
2011] Child prostitution,
child labor, violence against children and general inconsideration of
children's feelings and views are evident in Protection Project
- Sri Lanka The www.protectionproject.org/sri_lanka.htm [access date
unavailable] The
Current Reality Of Street Children: A Geographical Perspective Child Hope www.childhopeusa.com/kids/geography.html [accessed 25 July
2011] Child prostitution
has become a serious problem in A Journalist's
Perspective Of The Problem In Ms Carol Aloysius,
UNESCO Expert Meeting on: Sexual abuse of children, Child Pornography and Paedophilia on the Internet: an international challenge, unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001147/114730eo.pdf [accessed 25 July
2011] It was a study by
PEACE, that shocked Sri Lankan society as a whole into realizing that far
from being a haven for tourists in search of the sun and our golden beaches,
our country was also attracting an unsavory tribe of tourist -- the
pedophiles who came here solely to gratify their
sexual needs on young children. Sri Lanka Cracks
Down on Pedophiles Dilip Ganguly,
The Associated Press AP, At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 25 July
2011] 18 percent of the
boys admitted having been sexually abused during childhood, and a majority of
them were abused by either a relative or a neighbor or even by a priest. "In some cases parents themselves have
sold their children. One parent told us that they were not worried because
their boys would not get pregnant," the investigator said. Movement to Prevent
Child Prostitution (MPCP) Sri Lanka Welfare
Fund (SWF) At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 25 July
2011] Child exploitation
in Sri Lanka is linked with the rapid growth of tourism since the 1970 s and estimates
around 100,000 children between the ages of 6 -14 are kept in brothels and an
additional 5000 children between 10 -18 are working in tourist areas. Legislation of
INTERPOL member states on sexual offences against children - Sri Lanka INTERPOL, National
Laws www.interpol.int/Public/Children/SexualAbuse/NationalLaws/csaSriLanka.asp [accessed 25 July
2011] I. AGES FOR LEGAL
PURPOSES/II. RAPE
- The minimum age of 'consent' in the offence of rape has been increased from
twelve (12) to sixteen (16) years. This means that the matter of 'consent'
arises only when the raped individual is above the age of sixteen (16) years. A 'child' means 'a
person aged under eighteen (18) years old'. Mandatory minimum sentences
have been imposed (10 years instead of 2 years in most cases) such as in case
of rape, gross sexual abuse and acts of gross indecency between two persons. Monetary
compensation for the victims of sexual abuse, acts of gross indecency, rape
and gang rape, will be imposed, the amount being determined by Court relating
to the injuries caused to the victim of the offence. Millions Suffer in
Sex Slavery United Press
International UPI, Chicago, April 24, 2001 www.tillhecomes.org/sex-slaves/ [accessed 16
February 2015] Ten thousand children between the ages of 6
and 14 are in Sri Lankan brothels. End Child
Exploitation - Faces of Exploitation UNICEF, Faces of
Exploitation, January 2003, ISBN: 1 871440 26 2 www.childtrafficking.com/Docs/unicef_2003__faces_of_explo.pdf [accessed 24
December 2010] [page 22] CHILDREN IN THE SEX
INDUSTRY
- Children may also work independently, offering themselves for cash, as do
many of the 10,000 to 15,000 boys selling themselves to sex tourists on the
beaches of ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** ECPAT Global Monitoring
Report on the status of action against commercial exploitation of children -
SRI LANKA
[PDF] ECPAT International,
2006 www.ecpat.net/A4A_2005/PDF/South_Asia/Global_Monitoring_Report-SRI_LANKA.pdf [accessed 25 July
2011] A distinct characteristic
of sexual exploitation of children in The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/sri-lanka.htm [accessed 24
December 2010] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - The government estimates that more than 2,000
children are engaged in prostitution. The majority of children engaged in
prostitution are victimized by local citizens, though there are reports of
sex tourism as well. Trafficking of children typically does not cross
national borders; children are trafficked within the country to work as
domestic servants and for the purposes of sexual exploitation, especially at
tourist destinations. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61711.htm [accessed 11
February 2020] CHILDREN
-
Child prostitution was a problem in coastal resort areas. The government
estimated that there were more than two thousand child prostitutes in the
country, but private groups claimed that the number was as high as six
thousand. Citizens committed much of the child sexual abuse in the form of
child prostitution; however, some child prostitutes were boys who catered to
foreign tourists. Some of these children were forced into prostitution (see
section 5, Trafficking). The Department of Probation and Child Care Services
provided protection to child victims of abuse and sexual exploitation and
worked with local NGOs that provided shelter. The tourist bureau conducted
awareness-raising programs for at-risk children in resort regions prone to
sex tourism. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
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