The Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic

Security and prevention

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

In the Czech Republic the term Commercial sexual exploitation of children is understood - in accordance with the internationally valid definition adopted during the so called Stockholm Process in 1996 - as the following behaviour: “The use of child for sexual purposes with remuneration in cash or in kind to the child, a middleman, agent or a third person profiting from the trade in children for this purposes”. In concrete terms according to this definition we speak about child prostitution, child pornography and child trafficking for sexual purposes, when “child” is considered to be a person less than 18-year-old. The main policy tool in this area is the Report on the implementation of the National action plan to combat commercial sexual exploitation of children for 2002 - 2004 and its update for the period of 2004 - 2006 agreed by the Government in July 2004 (Government Resolution 718/2004) as already the third such document dealing comprehensively with the matter of commercial sexual exploitation of children. The first National plan was prepared in the year 2000 and by its adoption the Czech Republic obtained an institutional and policy framework to deal with this issue as well as for a co-ordinated action by the state administration against this phenomenon. The Czech Republic met its international obligations in this regard and, not least, it drew the attention of the state and regional authorities, including expert and general public, to this issue.

Apart from the Ministry of Interior also the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Public Health contribute to meeting the objectives in this area. The Report on the implementation of the National action plan contains an outline of current situation in the Czech Republic and the Assessment of fulfilment of the objectives set out in the National action plan to combat commercial sexual exploitation of children (2002 - 2004) as well as proposals of measures to take in the course of the upcoming period (2004 - 2006). When it comes to the implementation of the plan, the achievements were mainly in the preparation of new legislative measures. One of the important legislative acts is the re-codified penal code that classifies the mere holding of child pornography as a punishable offence and broadens the definition of the crime of human trafficking in a considerable way. The telecommunications bill is going to substantially strengthen the instruments that the criminal proceedings bodies have at their disposal when revealing and investigating cases of Internet criminality, including child pornography. (One of the new provisions is e.g. extension of the period over which the telecommunications providers are obliged to retain the data on effected connections. This will enable the Czech Police to investigate more complex cases of internet distribution of child pornography or to identify retrospectively a harmful web pages when requested for example by a foreign police service.)

Amendments to existing legislation are vital for an early detection of cases of commercial sexual exploitation of children and their prevention. The changes needed include the amendment to the Law on public healthcare (obligations for doctors to report a suspicion on maltreatment or abuse of children including sanctions for them when not doing so), amendment to the Law on social and legal protection of children (broadens the scope of notification obligations of certain entities toward the child social and legal protection authorities, again including sanctions in case of failure to notify facts suggesting a threat to the child), and amendment to the Law on support to educational activities in favour of children (the Law forbids the work with children or youth to persons with criminal record for previous youth related offences). The bulk of state administration activities have recently focused on further development of education and prevention activities. Progress was achieved also in setting up a framework for coordination of action of state central and regional authorities as well as interested non-governmental organisations when detecting, identifying and solving the cases of commercial sexual exploitation of children. It is fair to say that the biggest progress has been made by the regions that rank among the most endangered when speaking about the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Based on the situation analysis, effectiveness assessment of the measures taken and the identification of their shortcomings, new measures were proposed to be taken over the period 2004 - 2006. They concentrate primarily on further specification of tasks from the past period, their better effect on the target groups, development of the collaboration between state central, regional and local authorities and incentives to stimulate further efforts in the area of education and prevention. Among the most important tasks for the upcoming period, apart from the legislative measures that yet need to be put into practice, is to provide for the role of regional authorities in the area of social and legal protection of children, all within the context of public administration reform, and stabilization of the system at this - lowest but by far the most important - level.

From the point of view of the new penal and social legislative regulation it is vital to strengthen training activities so as to put into practice more effective methods of both social work and criminal recourse. A challenging task will be the development of a long-term care for victims of the commercial sexual exploitation, in particular how to support the non-governmental organisations that could provide the affected children with care and thus make up for an alternative to the state functions. Not in the last place it is necessary to promote the use of more sensitive methods by the police when detecting the cases of commercial sexual exploitation of children and other dangerous phenomena at the local communities' level. The experience has proved that it is at this level where the action by central and local state authorities and NGOs brings the best and most effective results.