Statement by His Excellency Archbishop Silvano
M. Tomasi
Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the
United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva
“Report
of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child
pornography”
Geneva, 7 March 2013
Mr. President,
Far from abating, the scourge of human trafficking is
growing and it becomes more diversified with the increase of human mobility and
with the globalization of communication and trade. The focus on the sale,
prostitution of children and child pornography by the latest Report of the
Special Rapporteur underlines a global
trend of human trafficking. The latest Report by the U.N. Office of Drugs and
Crime on Human Trafficking (2012) paints a grim picture of the millions of
people trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced labor: they come from at
least 136 different nationalities and have been found in 118 countries.
Although the majority of such persons are women (55-60 %), the flow of children
is growing alarmingly quickly from 20% between 2003-2006 to 27% between
2007-2010. Among the total of trafficking cases identified globally,
trafficking for sexual exploitation accounts for 58%.
The Report of the Special
Rapporteur shows with accuracy how children can become victims of the sexual
fantasies of adults. The phenomenon is certainly not new, but recently it has
been unleashed by the liberalisation of sexual behaviour. Past and current
studies have made it clear that the goal of traffickers is mainly economic.
They seek to maximise their profit-making activities by using human beings as
“commodities”. The international community is confronted with a criminal market
that generates billions of dollars for the traffickers. When the risks of
engaging in such activity are low, high profits become tempting. The Special
Rapporteur’s Report shows that, in the case of trafficking children, risks are
low in many ways and in many parts of the world. There is a clear need to
update legislation, increase international and regional cooperation, share
information and good practices, combat impunity and corruption, enhance
judicial practices, care for the victims and provide ways to reintegrate them
into a normal and dignified life in society.
Mr. President,
As in every market, the
offer serves a demand. Child trafficking exists because there is a demand. To
disrupt the market, we need to confront and fight the “consumers” who are
willing to pay for the “services” of children. Such activities could be
effectively prevented by enacting and implementing legislation that
criminalizes the consumption of child pornography or the sexual abuse of a
child.
Legal measures, however,
are not enough. As the Report of the Special Rapporteur points out, prevention
also should address the consumerist culture that stimulates and promotes the
unhealthy and immature sexual desires that drive “consumers” to this market.
Legitimate questions should be posed about why many tourists seek such “services”
that cause such irreversible harm to children. Prevention should dare to ask
what has happened to the tourist seeking that kind of “service”. How is the
consumer market for sexual exploitation created in the first place? If the
understanding of individual freedom rejects the ethical boundaries imposed by
nature itself, the trafficking of persons and the violation of their innate
dignity will continue to occur, and the action of the State will be
ineffective.
The persistent economic
crisis, current wars and civil conflicts, the high prices of food, famine,
abject poverty and migration, political upheavals, failed States, these are as
many opportunities for human traffickers to prey upon vulnerable victims. The
predator practice of traffickers feeds on the weakest, people already in need
and therefore easy to kidnap, enslave and reduce to “commodities”. A concrete
example of human trafficking is the ring operating in the Horn of Africa and
the Sinai region: it offers a “real-life”
sample of the cycle of abuse that is unleashed by trafficking of human
persons. To prevent this scourge we must reinforce human security and address
the root causes that make people vulnerable. To combat this trade is to
discourage criminal groups from seeking out and exploit innocent victims.
Mr. President,
Among the shocking
practices of human trafficking, the case of children requires special and
urgent attention and action on both humanitarian and moral grounds. Identifying
survivors, providing them support, preparing them for a productive life free of
traumas and developing an effective prosecution of traffickers are the joint
tasks of the private and public sectors of society. Victims, however, will find
real protection if the prevention task is taken seriously by changing a culture
that justifies their exploitation and tolerates with impunity the violation of
human security, a breeding ground of human vulnerability.
Pope John Paul II, in a
Letter on the occasion of the International Conference on “21st Century Slavery—the
Human Rights Dimension to Trafficking in Human Beings,” stated that human
trafficking “constitutes a shocking offense against human dignity and a grave
violation of fundamental human rights. In particular, the sexual exploitation
of women and children is an especially repugnant aspect of this trade, and must
be recognized as an intrinsic violation of human dignity and human rights.”[1]
[1] Pope John Paul II, Letter to Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran on the
Occasion of the International Conference on 21st Century Slavery—the Human
Rights Dimension to Trafficking in Human Beings, May 15, 2002.
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