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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
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Results for child sex tourism (south africa)
1 results foundAuthor: Chetty, Kasturi Title: Child Sex Tourism in South African Law Summary: Child sex tourism is tourism organised with the primary purpose of facilitating a commercial sexual relationship with a child. It involves a segment of the local child sex industry that is directly connected to both an international and domestic tourist market. The increase of tourism has brought with it complications in that tourism is being used as a means for sex tourists to initiate contact with children. Aside from child sex tourists who are paedophiles, there are those who engage in the opportunistic exploitation of children while travelling on business or for other reasons. There are a number of social and economic factors leading to child sex tourism and the effect is that child victims are exposed to immediate harm, irreversible damage and even death. As South Africa's tourism industry expands into one of the country’s top earners of foreign currency, it is unfortunate to note that its child sex tourist trade is also on the increase. Reports show that sex tours are as easily organised as wine route tours in Cape Town. Commercial sexual exploitation of children is prevalent in South Africa and has become more organised in recent years. A comprehensive response to the problem is essential to ensure that South Africa does not become a “safe haven” for child sex tourists. Effective laws at home and the extraterritorial application of these laws to prosecute South African nationals for crimes committed abroad are imperative. Significant steps are being taken both nationally and internationally to target child sex tourism. South Africa has ratified several international instruments on children’s rights, trafficking in persons, child labour, and discrimination against women and young girls, all of which relate to child sex tourism. In doing so, South Africa has made an international commitment to uphold the provisions of these instruments and give effect to them. South Africa is therefore under an international obligation to create the necessary structures and apply mechanisms and resources to combat child sex tourism. South Africa does not have legislation that specifically prohibits child sex tourism at present. The Sexual Offences Act and common law, however, cover a wide range of offences relating to sexual intercourse and sexually indecent acts as well as the various facets of prostitution such as solicitation, procurement of females as prostitutes and brothel-keeping. Although these legal measures are in many respects commendable there are still too many loopholes. There are situations that are not adequately provided for and others that are not provided for at all. It is expected that the new Sexual Offences Bill containing specific provisions on child sex tourism couched in gender-neutral terms which apply extraterritorially, will go a long way to improving the present system for child victims. The issue of child protection is covered by South Africa’s Constitution as well the provisions of the Child Care Act and Domestic Violence Act. These legal measures ensure that the direct involvement in the commercial exploitation of children is prohibited, the conduct of parents who ill-treat or allow their child to be ill-treated is covered and the abduction or removal of a child is an offence. Despite these positive aspects, there is nevertheless room for improvement. The legislative provisions of the Children’s Act, which has been assented to by the President but not yet promulgated, comprehensively address the problem areas. Once enforced the Children’s Act will go a long way in improving the present system of child protection by holistically addressing the needs of children in respect of prevention of abuse as well as their care and protection. Other pieces of legislation which apply to child sex tourism are the Prevention of Organised Crime Act; Immigration Act; Basic Conditions of Employment Act; Films and Publications Act and the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act. They allow for the prosecution of sex exploiters and traffickers for offences related to child sex tourism, child prostitution, child pornography and various other forms of sexual exploitation of children. Overall the impact of these miscellaneous pieces of legislation on child sex tourism is praiseworthy. However, they bring to light the fact that there are numerous statutes, each dealing with one aspect of child sex tourism as opposed to a single comprehensive statute to refer to in handling such cases. Therefore there is still room for improvement in this regard. Details: Port Elizabeth, South Africa: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2007. 139p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 12, 2011 at: https://www.nmmu.ac.za/documents/theses/KChetty.pdf Year: 2007 Country: South Africa URL: https://www.nmmu.ac.za/documents/theses/KChetty.pdf Shelf Number: 123319 Keywords: Child ProstitutionChild ProtectionChild Sex Tourism (South Africa)Child Sexual ExploitationInternet CrimesOrganized Crime |