The situation will further worsen in the future, Vanickova, author of the book on children who are victims of commercial sexual exploitation that was presented to journalists today, said. The Czech Republic's entry to the Schengen area this night and the opening of borders will have a negative impact on the situation, she added. According to the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry's last year's statistics, 1630 cases of sexual abuse of children were registered last year. However, Vanickova Massive rise in Europe GM crops ...
Europe fights capital punishment ... said that it was only the top of the iceberg while the real number could be many times higher. Since 2004, the ministry has annually registered more than 1000 cases of abused children, but these are only reported cases and they should not necessarily reflect the real state of affairs. According to the ministry's previous statistics, at least 7500 cases of physical and psychological abuse as well as sexual exploitation of children were registered last year, Vanickova said. She said it was impossible to count all the children who have become victims of commercial sexual exploitation. As recently as a few years ago, experts believed that child prostitution does not exist either in the Czech Republic or Europe, but they have quickly become convinced in the opposite.
The comparison of the two world congresses on child abuse in 1996 in Sweden, and five years later in Japan confirms it, Vanickova said. "In Stockholm we were saying with a feeling of certain self-satisfaction: Prostitution? Child Prostitution? No chance. Pornography, the Internet are Europe's problems. However, five years later in Yokohama we admitted with a crestfallen expression that child prostitution has flooded Europe in an unbelievable way," Vanickova said. With the growing number of children who are victims of commercial sexual exploitation the age of these children is falling. While in the past, prostitution concerned 16-year-old children, at present 12-year-old or 13-year-old girls are often voluntarily prostituting themselves, Vanickova said. However, she warned against the use of the word "voluntarily." "Girls view prostitution as a career or a method of ensuring an above-standard living, but a disadvantageous family environment and emotional emptiness are behind most of the cases," she said. A team led by Vanickova pointed to seven types of child victims of commercial sexual exploitation in their book. The "traumatised children" are children who have experienced abuse or punishment in the family. They are unable to preserve emotional ties, marked with promiscuous behaviour and are willing to get involved in non-traditional and dangerous sexual practices, Vanickova said. Such children often become victims of sexual tourists, she said. Children from the "street" who are children who grew in institutional facilities for abandoned children and children's homes are the second category. They usually earn money through prostitution that they use to buy drugs, Vanickova said. The study that was initiated by the Health Ministry serves as the basis for the creation of preventive strategies. Czech Minister for Human Rights Dzamila Stehlikova (junior governing Green Party, SZ), who attended today's ceremony of launching the book, said that the out-dated strategy of fight against commercial sexual exploitation of children was being modernised today. A draft National Strategy of Prevention of Violence Against Children is to be prepared till the end of 2008, she said.
(Ceske Noviny)
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