Action to combat child sex tourism: implementation of measures

The European Parliament adopted its resolution, drafted by Mrs. Eva KLAMT (EPP/ED, D) regarding combating shild sex tourism. Parliament welcomes the Commission's communication. It reiterates that child sex tourism and all forms of trafficking in human beings are incompatible with human dignity and worth and are criminal acts which constitute a serious violation of human rights. It calls on Member States and the applicant countries to check that their laws are consistent with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and to take account of this aspect when enacting new laws and to ratify the International Labour Organisation Convention on the worst forms of child labour. It also calls on the Member States and representatives of Parliament who are involved to incorporate into the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU which is to be drawn up provisions on respect for children's rights as guaranteed in the UN's 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Parliament calls on the Member States, when the next revision of the EC Treaty is carried out, to create a comprehensive new legal basis for Community policy on children so that the existing piecemeal child protection measures can be replaced by a coherent policy. The Commission is called upon to investigate more closely the extent of child sex tourism in Europe, both within the EU and in the applicant countries, including the practices employed and, in addition, the flow of 'consumers' of child sex tourism. The Parliament also wishes the Commission to assess fully the link between child pornography on the Internet and the increase, despite awareness and repudiation amongst the general public, of child sex tourism. It welcomes the Commission's cooperation with the tourism industry on the introduction of codes of conduct and calls on it to draw up two-yearly reports of their application. It regrets that the Council's views on the principle of extra-territoriality have developed hardly at all and reiterates that Member States must adopt universal extra-territorial provisions enabling them to investigate, prosecute and punish persons who have committed crimes involving sexual exploitation of children abroad. It calls on the Commission to draw up a survey of Member States' laws on child sex tourism, child pornography and trafficking in human beings and, if necessary, to put forward proposals for definitions of offences within the meaning of Art. 31 (e) of the Treaty which comply with the principle of extraterritoriality and abandon the criterion of dual criminality. Parliament also regrets that the Commission has not yet taken any action in response to its request to promote the setting up of a European centre for missing children; it therefore urges the Commission to create the conditions for the development of a European network for missing and abused children with the task of coordinating the activities of organisations in the Member States. The Member States are urged to ensure that limitation periods for crimes involving the abuse of children run only from the time when the children involved attain majority and to review their criminal proceedings in such a way that victims can giveevidence by means of video recordings, thereby reducing the risk of their suffering further traumatic effects. Lastly, the Parliament resolves to set up a committee of enquiry to monitor the progress of criminal proceedings involving cases of active and violent paedophilia.�