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Combating Child Sex Tourism in South-east Asia: Law Enforcement Cooperation and Civil Society Partnerships
- For policymakers
- Summary created: 2022
My research examines the legal opportunities for prosecuting foreign nationals (in countries of offence and through extra-territorial prosecution) that travel abroad to sexually exploit children. I argue for the importance of cooperation between civil society groups and law enforcement to get prosecutions to court.
Sexual exploitation of children in the travel and tourism industry is a massive problem, and a growing phenomenon. Southeast Asia is one of the regions that have been hit hard, and the problem must be addressed by both the destination countries and the offenders’ home countries. I found that there is a substantial amount of cooperation going on between civil society advocating for children’s right of protection and local and international law enforcement.
However, there is very little in the academic and legal literature on how they cooperate. What are the benefits of that cooperation and what are the risks of it? In what kind of cooperation do they engage?
I used a case study of an actual prosecution that took place against an Australian offender against Cambodian children. The prosecution was a cooperation between Cambodian police and Australian federal police where civil society organisations also contributed. I analysed how the evidence was brought to court, what kind of evidence they used, the sentencing, and the outcome of the case.
Insights
As NGOs are on the ground, they can play an important role passing important information to the police, and this significantly helps to bring justice for children that have experienced sexual exploitation
What it means
One of the major findings is that child protection organisations and the rest of civil society can work very cooperatively with law enforcement to bring justice for children that have experienced sexual exploitation. This is often because NGOs are on the ground, and thus they can pass on important information to the police.
In order to limit risks, it is important to establish best practice in the forms of cooperation; when NGOs work outside of the law, this is fundamentally detrimental to the rule of law of the country in question. As we see an increase in online offences, the importance of best practices also increases, in order to help the families of the affected children access the justice system.
Proposed action
It is important to map out the current cooperation mechanisms between civil society organisations, child protection services and law enforcement
Another recommendation would be to create dialogue mechanisms between child protection NGOs and local and international law enforcement
This research could be relevant for other high profile tourist spots where child sex tourism occurs, e
Acknowledgements
Thank you to ASEAN
These insights were made available thanks to the support of ASEAN, who are committed to the dissemination of knowledge for all.
Special thanks to Kirsti Sletten for preparation assistance
We would like to extend a special thank you to Kirsti Sletten, for their invaluable contribution in assisting the preparation of this research summary.
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