Human Trafficking in [Costa Rica] [other countries]Street Children in [Costa Rica] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Costa Rica |
Child Prostitution The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children The Republic of
Costa Rica [map], located in Central America, is bounded by Nicaragua (N),
the Caribbean Sea (E), Panama (SE), and the Pacific Ocean (S & W). Its capital and largest city is |
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accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation
in ECPAT – On-line form for reporting child prostitution and other sexual offences against children Quick
Search for Missing Children - Select
Gender, Country ( U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - The commercial sexual
exploitation of children is a continuing problem in Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2005 CHILDREN - The government, security
officials, and child advocacy organizations acknowledged that the commercial
sexual exploitation of children remained serious problems. PANI estimated
that three thousand children suffered from commercial sexual exploitation and
street children in the urban areas of Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2004 CHILDREN - The Government, security
officials, and child advocacy organizations acknowledged that the commercial
sexual exploitation of children remained a serious problem. In 2003, the NGO Casa Alianza estimated
that of the approximately 1,500 children living on the street, 76 percent
were addicted to drugs and 29 percent survived by prostitution. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2005 [49] The Committee welcomes the
ratification by the State Party of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on
the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child
pornography, as well as the measures taken by the State Party to prevent and
combat sexual abuse and exploitation of children. The Committee further
welcomes the inclusive participation of Non-Governmental organizations in
this process and the development of a National Plan against Sexual
Exploitation of Children and Adolescents (2001). The Committee also welcomes
the direct initiatives in cooperation with hotels and the travel industry to
combat sex tourism. However, the Committee remains concerned at the low level
of coordination among institutions, the lack of assistance available for
victims of sexual exploitation, as well as information received by the
Committee whereby the number of children victims of sexual exploitation might
be increasing, in particular among street children. Costa
Rica toughens sexual exploitation laws Costa Rica toughened its laws
against sexual exploitation of children on Wednesday, banning possession of child
pornography and extending the statute of limitations for sex crimes against
minors. The reformed laws ban possession
of child pornography for the first time and make sex with children under 13
punishable by up to 16 years in prison. Police say efforts to crack down
on child prostitution has driven it underground into the control of criminal
organizations. ECPAT:
Fifth Report on implementation of the Agenda for Action [DOC] [B] COUNTRY UPDATES – COSTA RICA – In terms of protection, there
has been an increase in the number of pimps prosecuted. However concern has
been expressed that no exploiters have been prosecuted. A training manual has
been published by ILO/IPEC and UNICEF that teaches the police how to deal
with cases involving CSEC. The manual is being used in capacity building
workshops for the police. A capacity
building workshop has been carried out for officials of the judiciary. Three
workshops about reporting on CSEC have also been run for members of the
press. Every evening at 6 p.m. she walks
out into the streets of Sordid
Child Sex Trade Booms in Costa Rica Both kids dissolved in giggles. Then
the older one looks up, her face solemn. ''Thirty dollars for my little
sister, 15 for me," she says.
Meet Stephanie, 12, and Ivette, 13, two members of a fast-growing
Costa Rican work force: child prostitutes.
The girls say they've been working as prostitutes for a year, since
they were 11 and 12. Even then, they
weren't the youngest on the corner. That would be 9-year-old Iliana, who left
home after being repeatedly sexually molested by an uncle. STATISTICS AND CASES - As central America’s leading
tourist destination, Costa Rica is also believed to have the region’s largest
child prostitution problem. Commercial
sexual exploitation of children in UNICEF
Works To Eradicate Child Sexual Exploitation The studies revealed that there
are three types of factors that cause children to become involved in sexual
commercial exploitation: the environment of sexual commerce; the family
context; and their life histories, which make the children vulnerable to
mistreatment and victimization. Child Prostitution: A Growing Scourge A REGION OUT OF CONTROL - Costa
Rica is fast rising as the hemispheric capital of sex tourism. According to Casa Alianza, more than 3,000
girls and young women work in Child Prostitution a
Growing Problem "Because in Child
Sex Trade Rises In Central America David, a stocky, unkempt man who
insisted that only his first name be used, boasted of how he had arranged for
one of the many taxi drivers connected with the sex trade to bring a
13-year-old girl from her parents' home in a poor Costa
Rica's Principal Child Pimp Arrested Sinai Monge Munoz, 41, was
arrested on Thursday evening after a successful sting operation in the
Hatillo 3 suburb of the capital of Deaths Force
Costa Rica To Fight Child-Sex Trade But finally, because hers was the
second set of teen-prostitute body parts to appear along Protection Project - Costa Rica [DOC] FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE
TRAFFICKING INFRASTRUCTURE - Costa Rica’s popularity as a tourist destination is linked with its
reputation as a destination for sex tourists, many of whom seek to exploit
children. The problem of child sexual exploitation has spread from San José,
Costa Rica, to the coastal towns, where a large labor pool and growing cruise
ship industry provide a large customer base. Other conditions allow this
industry to flourish, such as an ingrained acceptance of sexual relations
between men and underage girls, public corruption, and lack of money for the
police and prosecutors. Investigations into sexual exploitation of minors
used to focus on San José, but now they more frequently involve coastal
areas, particularly Puntarenas and Quepos on the Pacific and Limón and
Sixaola on the Caribbean. There is less police control in these areas and
much local corruption. The port city of Limón is reported to have a child
prostitution ring involving cruise ship crews and operators: intermediaries
on the ships contact tourists interested in the sex trade and in having sex
with willing young people. Investigations and studies have found that child
prostitution and child pornography rings in Central America are linked and
that they also have ties to groups involved in the drug trade and in other
illegal activities Sex
tourism: Lessons learned in Costa Rica Ordinary Costa Ricans, from taxi
drivers to hoteliers, are taking official tourism classes as part of the
country's latest attempt to stop the abuse of children by international sex
tourists. Sex Tourism
Plagues Central America Street children who used to sniff
relatively inexpensive glue are now turning to crack, readily available in
the region as Central American military officials, no longer living high on
the hog from All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
Human Trafficking in [Costa Rica] [other countries]Street Children in [Costa Rica] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Costa Rica