Asia-Pacific, Headlines, Human Rights

SOUTH PACIFIC: Lax Laws Encouraging Paedophiles

Shailendra Singh

SUVA, Jan 18 2007 (IPS) - A prominent high court judge says weaknesses in legislation and child protection agencies are partly responsible for the ‘alarming degree’ of child sexual abuse and exploitation in five Pacific island countries, now highlighted in a United Nations report.

Justice Nazhat Shameem of the Fiji High Court said that the region has not kept up with the rest of the world in terms of legislation against child sexual abuse, which was a ‘real problem’ in the Pacific.

The UNDP report, titled ‘Child Sexual Abuse and Commercial Eploitation of Children in the Pacific’, is based on studies conducted between October 2004 and June 2005 in Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Justice Shameem, commenting during a recent panel discussion on the report in Suva, said the legislative deficiencies and inadequacies in the justice system to recognise these were a concern.

‘’The perception (is) that punishment given to child abusers is weak (and) the maximum sentence does not always reflect the actual sentence. Also, child pornography is not reflected in the law, nor is the commercial sexual exploitation of children,” she said.

The UNDP report says that in the countries studied children are sexually abused by family members and neighbours, and, to varying degrees, child prostitution and child pornography, early marriage, child sex tourism and child trafficking occur.

It adds that ‘’the ease of gathering such evidence over such a short period of time is an alarming sign that children are sexually abused and sexually exploited in the Pacific, and that the problem is already visible, particularly in some urban areas.”

The head of the United Nations Pacific operations centre, Herve Berger, said that all countries in the report showed a worrying, common pattern of abuse and that despite being widespread, the problem remained largely ‘’hidden” across the Pacific because of a ‘’culture of silence”.

‘’There is reason to believe that other countries which have not yet been studied will yield similar patterns,” said Berger.

The report confirms some incidences of abuse and exploitation by tourists and foreign workers.

This, according to the Fiji Women¹s Crisis Centre, is a looming problem as the region suffers from loopholes in laws dealing with child sex tourism and limited public awareness of the issue.

It was becoming more attractive for child sex tourists following a crackdown in child trafficking and prostitution in Asia, their former hunting ground.

Poverty, low status of women and children, and lack of educational and employment opportunities were the other contributing factors cited in the report.

The coordinator of the Crisis Centre, Shamima Ali, says that children and women became even more vulnerable to sexual exploitation during times of crisis.

She fears for Fiji, which experienced its fourth coup in 20 years last month, because of what was witnessed following the coup in 2000. Back then, because of the subsequent economic decline, many women were pushed into prostitution.

Ali said the studies they conducted showed that many children also dropped out of school because of economic hardships and were seen on the streets.

‘’They became very vulnerable and were preyed upon by adults such as taxi drivers and brothel keepers,” Ali told IPS.

Among the many case studies in the UNDP report is one of a network of young prostitutes with mobile phones operating out of a motel in Suva, with the motel receptionist acting as pimp.

In the Solomon Islands, the case was reported of a male child prostitute who has sex with foreign seafarers for two – three US dollars. ”It is very painful, but I need the money for food,” the boy told interviewers.

Another example from the Solomon Islands describes how a father rows his child out to fishermen to exchange sex for fish to sell in the market. Children in Kiribati recounted similar cases.

The report says that children who experience parental neglect and abuse, and who live without their natural parents were found to be at particular risk.

This was exemplified by a case in PNG, where a man from Sepik adopted his niece upon the death of his brother, and later insisted she go out and earn money. He eventually sold the girl to a man who made her his third wife and beat her up regularly.

Some of the concerns highlighted in the report include: – Port Moresby Hospital staff treating one or two cases of child rape every day. – Fiji Police statistics showing that of the 35 cases of child sexual abuse reported in 2000, 33 were committed by a trusted family member. – The Solomon Islands report showing sexually transmitted infections in children as young as one to three years of age. – The Kiribati study finding 15 official cases of defilement between 1999 and 2004 with four cases of child rape and one of attempted child rape between May and September 2000 alone.

The report adds that because of underreporting and inadequate data collection, the actual magnitude of the problem may be much higher. Justice Shameem shares this view.

‘’Sexual violence is infamously underreported and even reported figures are unreliable,” she said.

The report calls for the strengthening of law and stricter law enforcement, and open discussions at all levels as starting point for ‘’changing people’s values, attitudes, beliefs and practices towards children.”

This is to ‘’end the culture of silence that inhibits communities and governments from confronting, addressing and preventing sexual abuse of children”.