UN Is Asking Costa Rica Develop Plan Against Sexual Exploitation Of Minors
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has strongly criticized Costa Rica on how the country is implementing the provisions of the two Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

The UN is recommending that Costa Rica develop a national plan to prevent the sexual exploitation of children, by providing sufficient financial and legal resources, as well as curb the sexual tourism of minors, making it a priority in reducing the number of cases.

Committee Chairperson Jacob Egbert Doek, who acted as Rapporteur for the report of Costa Rica on children, said Costa Rica had ratified a substantial number of human rights treaties, and held a good record of implementation.

Presenting the report on the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Mario Víquez Jiménez, Executive President of the National Child Welfare Agency of Costa Rica said that, in the 1990s, Costa Rica had positioned itself to promote its tourism sector and now enjoyed a global reputation for its innovation in sustainable tourism. Unfortunately, it had also gained a reputation as an exotic destination with a tolerant culture regarding sexual tourism. To respond to that reality, in 1996, the National Child Welfare Agency had publicly condemned the situation, and had directed the formation of a National Commission to Combat the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents.

Committee Expert Kamel Filali, said in preliminary remarks that the delegation had demonstrated that there was a will to move forward on this issue – it was palpable. There were many projects and ideas coming forward to resolve the problem, also with regard to new challenges, such as cyber crime. He was reassured to see that Costa Rica was on the right path in terms of the ability to detect where the problems lay, and in finding solutions, including through bringing civil society into that process.

The Committee will release its formal, written concluding observations and recommendations on the initial reports of Costa Rica on the Optional Protocols towards the end of its three-week session, which concluded yesterday (02 February).

The UN Committee also lauded the efforts of the National Child Welfare Agency for launching large-scale campaigns to raise public awareness of the consequences of commercial sexual exploitation and to publicize the pertinent legislation.

The report said that measures have been taken to give parents greater control over their children’s access to the Internet, and the authorities have taken steps to regulate the presence of children in public places with Internet access, such as Internet cafes and video game arcades.

Strict controls have been introduced in the tourist sector and partnerships have been established with hotel owners, networks of taxi drivers and other stakeholders. However, the practice of purchasing sexual services from minors is widespread and enjoys tacit social acceptance, as shown in a recent study on adult men’s views of sexuality and their relations with minors.

Given the above, the authorities have decided to change their approach, to ensure that awareness campaigns stress that engaging in such acts constitutes an offence and is liable to severe punishment.

Víquez said that ten years ago, Costa Rica had been confronted with a problem that had been hidden, the commercial sexual exploitation of children. At that time, they had lacked the proper legal and administrative tools to deal with that issue and a clear conceptual position on the subject. Since then, social transformation and the entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of the Child had given a framework for dealing with such questions.

On prevention, between 2003 and 2006, four national campaigns a year had been carried out by all possible means throughout the country, Mr. Víquez noted. There was written information available in hotels and airports warning about this offence and the criminal penalties attached to it. There were 400 annual police patrols aimed at detecting victims. And some 10,376 people had been trained in various workshops. A programme called “Child Safety on the Internet” had been launched in 2003 to combat sexual violence, in particular child pornography, by means of the Internet.

Specifically regarding sexual tourism, there was a draft “Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children and Adolescents against Commercial Sexual Exploitation”. The goal was to have companies in the tourism sector sign the code and then to display signs showing that their businesses adhered to those principles.

In terms of judicial reform and legal action, the most important event was the reform of the Penal Code in 1999, Mr. Víquez observed. The new law completely revolutionized the old sexist and discriminatory provisions and defined commercial sexual exploitation and creation and dissemination of pornography, among others. In addition, an executive decree regulated Internet cafés to protect minors from injurious content.

In terms of prosecution, since 1999, of the 65 individuals that have been prosecuted for the crime of “paid sexual services”, 35 had been convicted.

With regard to assistance to victims, the National Child Welfare Agency had helped approximately 350 victims a year (356 in 2004, 315 in 2005). In conjunction with the University of Costa Rica, the Agency had also developed a new model for interviewing victims, and had established a training programme for those involved in the process.

In December 2005, the Coalition against Illicit Trafficking in Migrants and Human Trafficking had been formed, which has itself established regional offices for the repatriation of victims of trafficking; a protocol on inter-institutional coordination for the repatriation of trafficked children; and a protocol of the National Child Welfare Agency focusing on minors victims of trafficking.

Since 2000, some 65 cases of child pornography had been brought against disseminators of such material, and 21 producers of child pornography had been prosecuted.