Campaign launched to combat child sex tourism
Anjana Gamage
COLOMBO: A study has revealed that there are between 10,000
and 30,000 children victimised by Child Sex Tourists (CST) annually
which a large amount of these are from well-known tourist sites and down
the coastal belt.
This was highlighted at a high level Police advocacy meeting which
was held last week under the patronage of DIG Central Province, Nimal
Mediwake together with other high ranking police officers including SSPs
and ASPs at the Hotel Tourmaline in Kandy with Sri Lanka Tourist Board (SLTB)
officials and UNICEF representatives in Sri Lanka to explore methods for
strengthening the Tourist Police to combat 'child Sex Tourism' (CST) in
the country.
The aim of this meeting was to officially launch this campaign
spearheaded by the SLTB with technical and financial assistance from the
UNICEF.
Director-General of the SLTB, S. Kalaiselvam, Acting Officer in
Charge of the Children's Unit UNICEF, Sheema Sen Gupta and Consultant
UNICEF for SLTB, Mihiri Fernando, attended the advocacy meeting along
with all SSPs from Province as well as ASPs and OICs from various police
stations.
The meeting was focused on informing them on the importance of
eradicating CST from Sri Lanka, the necessity of improving preventative
methods currently in existence and establishing community links to
ensure that all children are protected from prospective local and
foreign sexual tourists.
Despite the current security alert, DIG Mediwake reiterated his
support for the campaign to combat CST and agreed to continue giving it
high priority. Police officers were also given an opportunity to voice
their own views.
"It is very important that we have received input from the police on
what we can do to improve the existing system", said the
Director-General of the SLTB, S. Kalaiselvam.
The event also gave the police officials to give their own update on
progress already made and Ms. Sheema Sen Gupta, the UNICEF
representative pledged UNICEF's commitment to protect children in Sri
Lanka. A national action plan with a firm resolve to combat child sex
tourism in Sri Lanka, zero tolerance on child exploitation in the
country is scheduled to launch at the end of May. |