Survivors of abuse are the bravest fighters for child rights
(republishing, copying, no restrictions)
By: Father Shay Cullen
This month is the 5th anniversary of the passing of the UN optional Protocol against the exploitation of children in pornography last 25 May 2000. Since I last wrote on the urgency for all countries to co-operate and specially developing countries to address this serious situation of child pornography and cyber-sex, I had some important responses. Most expressed their outrage at the abuse saying it was the first time they had heard of such deviant behaviour. One person wrote to give total support saying she was a survivor of child sexual abuse and could hardly believe that this was allowed to happen live as if on TV. The lack of public awareness is a big part of the problem.
The public has a right to be astounded and I know that all survivors of child sexual abuse who are perhaps holding their pain and life long trauma in silence to bury it no more. Some of the bravest and most dedicated fighters for children's rights are courageous survivors.
Working to save children can't be a healing process and by all of us working together, more abusers can be brought to justice and the children can recover. I was verbally abused and physically slapped, boxed caned, and punched all through my school life and can never forget it. I do what I can so other kids never get beaten by cruel teachers or school yard bullies.
Some of our strongest supporters are survivors themselves. They know what it is like and they understand the damage it does to the lives of countless children who are sexually assaulted, abused, raped and even abducted.
The impunity of the Internet Server providers who host and register child pornography and enable others to access such deviant sites have to be held responsible when they know the contents. They claim that the material illegal as it is may be and placed stored on the rented space of their server computers, transmitted, imported or exported from there computers for sale or not is not their responsibility. There are some laws that uphold this but they are wrong on this point.
The convention on the rights of the child, which every country except the United States, has ratified explicitly, makes illegal "The exploitative use of children in pornographic performances and materials". This is extended in the Optional Protocol to the convention adopted by the general assembly in May 2000.
The protocol states that production, distribution, dissemination, importation, exporting, offering, selling or possessing child pornography are criminalized if any of those acts are for the sexual exploitation of the child. Another protocol states that an attempt to commit any of the acts, or complicity or participation in any of the acts must also be covered under the criminal law of the ratifying states.
The Philippines has signed and ratified this protocol. Likewise the Philippines ratified the Declaration and agenda for Action of the world congress against the commercial exploitation of children in Stockholm, Sweden in 1996. I was there myself to witness the Philippine vote. The protocol made it abundantly clear the intentions of the world community, ratifying countries would.
"Develop or strengthen and implement national laws to establish criminal responsibility of server providers customers and intermediaries in child prostitution child trafficking, child pornography, including the possession of child pornography and other unlawful sexual activity..."
The Internet Server Providers are up to their neck in empowering and enabling the pedophiles and child pornographers to do anything they want in exploiting and abusing children. There is a crime going on in their front room so to speak, and they are turning the other way.
We all have a moral obligation to protect children from such abuse. Business corporations who allow the criminals to peddle their deviant wares have much to answer for. [End]
