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The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to 2025                                        gvnet.com/childprostitution/Poland.htm

Republic of Poland

Poland has pursued a policy of economic liberalization since 1990 and today stands out as a success story among transition economies.

Unemployment is falling rapidly, though at roughly 9.7% in 2008, it remains above the EU average. In 2008 inflation reached 4.3%, more than the upper limit of the National Bank of Poland's target range, but has been falling due to global economic slowdown.

An inefficient commercial court system, a rigid labor code, bureaucratic red tape, and persistent low-level corruption keep the private sector from performing up to its full potential.  [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Poland

CAUTION:  The following links and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Poland.  Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated, misleading or even false.   No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE

Students

If you are looking for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this page and others to see which aspects of child prostitution are of particular interest to you.  You might be interested in exploring how children got started, how they survive, and how some succeed in leaving.  Perhaps your paper could focus on runaways and the abuse that led to their leaving.  Other factors of interest might be poverty, rejection, drug dependence, coercion, violence, addiction, hunger, neglect, etc.  On the other hand, you might choose to write about the manipulative and dangerous adults who control this activity.  There is a lot to the subject of Child Prostitution.  Scan other countries as well as this one.  Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions.  Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources that are available on-line.

Teachers

Check out some of the Resources for Teachers attached to this website.

HELP for Victims

La Strada
Hotline:
22 628 9999
Country code: 48-

 

*** FEATURED ARTICLE ***

The Incidence Of Commercial Sexual Exploitation Of Children In The Baltic Sea Region

The Baltic Sea States Support Group, Prime Minister's Office, Stockholm Sweden -- Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the Baltic Sea Region, March 1998

www.sasian.org/legal/baltic/baltic2.htm

[accessed 11 July 2011]

POLAND - Police sources indicate that apart from occasional prostitution, the prostitution of minors working through specialized escort services is also growing. Girls and boys under the age of 18 working as prostitutes at the Polish-German border are kept like prisoners in barracks. There is a great demand for young pregnant girls.

 

*** ARCHIVES ***

ECPAT Country Monitoring Report [PDF]

Hannah Darton and Lara Green, ECPAT International, 2012

www.ecpat.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/A4A_V2_EU_POLAND.pdf

[accessed 6 September 2020]

Desk review of existing information on the sexual exploitation of children (SEC) in Poland. The report looks at protection mechanisms, responses, preventive measures, child and youth participation in fighting SEC, and makes recommendations for action against SEC.

Human Rights Reports » 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 10, 2020

www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/poland/

[accessed 6 September 2020]

SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN - The law prohibits sexual intercourse with children younger than 15. The penalty for statutory rape ranges from two to 12 years’ imprisonment.

Child pornography is illegal. The production, possession, storage, or importation of child pornography involving children younger than 15 is punishable by three months’ to 10 years’ imprisonment. During the year police conducted several operations against child pornography and alleged pedophiles.

According to the government and the Children Empowerment Foundation, a leading NGO dealing with trafficking in children, trafficking of children for sexual exploitation remained a problem.

Concluding Observations Of The Committee On The Rights Of The Child (CRC)

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 4 October 2002

www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/poland2002.html

[accessed 19 December 2010]

[48] While noting the increased efforts of the State party to cooperate in regional programs to prevent trafficking and repatriate victims, the Committee is nevertheless concerned that Poland continues to be a country of origin, destination and transit for children trafficked for sexual exploitation.

Five Years After Stockholm [PDF]

ECPAT: Fifth Report on implementation of the Agenda for Action

ECPAT International, November 2001

www.no-trafficking.org/content/web/05reading_rooms/five_years_after_stockholm.pdf

[accessed 13 September 2011]

[B] COUNTRY UPDATES – POLAND – Trafficking victims from Bulgaria, Ukraine, Lithuania, Byelorussia and Romania are forced into prostitution in Poland. Poland may be either their final destination or a transit country to Western Europe, Turkey or the Balkans. Boys are also victims of trafficking: Romanian boys can be found at the train station in Krakow and Polish boys are being prostituted in Germany.  There are cases of child sex tourism involving German men.

Poland's Female Trouble - Violence, Prostitution and Trafficking Soar

The Gully online magazine, JAN. 12, 2004

www.thegully.com/essays/gaymundo/040111_poland_rights_women.html

[accessed 11 July 2011]

CHILDREN VULNERABLE - Since the border guards and police may regard trafficking victims as criminals who have violated passport laws, victims were afraid to turn to officials for help. Victims have no legal status, and there were no public resources available to assist them. Victims usually were deported as soon as possible to avoid any expenses connected with keeping them in detention.

Trafficking in Children for Sexual Purposes

ECPAT International Newsletters, Issue No : 33  1/December/2000

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 17 September 2011]

EASTERN EUROPE - Hungary and Poland are receiver, sender and transit countries for the trafficking of children for sexual purposes. Romania is a sender and receiver country but Bulgaria is only a sender country. Hungary and Poland receive children from Romania, Ukraine and Russia. The main destinations for children trafficked from and through Poland are Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium. Many of the victims are boys. Furthermore, in Poland students voluntarily prostitute themselves in Germany over the weekends in order to earn money.

Statement by Poland at Special Session on Children of the UN General Assembly

Ms. Krystyna Tokarska-Biernacik, Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and Head of the Polish Delegation, 8-10 May 2002

www.un.org/ga/children/polandE.htm

[accessed 11 July 2011]

In 1978 Poland initiated in the UN Commission on Human Rights work on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the General Assembly adopted in 1989. Although the history of international pronouncements on the rights of the child goes back to the 1924 League of Nations Declaration, yet it took until 1989 for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to come to fruition. It has been ratified by a record 192 countries. Poland was among the first countries to ratify the Convention. In 2001 Poland signed its Optional Protocols on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. I should mention, that two persons who have greatly contributed to the birth of that Convention, Professor Adam Lopatka and Professor Maria Lopatkowa are in this hall with us today as members of the Polish delegation. I wish to salute them for their efforts.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children [PDF] - A report on the implementation of the Agenda for Action adopted at the first World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Stockholm, Sweden, 28 August 1996

ECPAT International, August 1997

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 11 July 2011]

[4] NATIONAL ACTIVITIES - Police have uncovered Poland's largest child sex ring with the arrest of a 40-year-old local government official and former army officer. As the organizer of a pedophile ring, the man had over 1000 names of both victims and clients on his computer. Several arrests have followed.

Report on the Situation of Non-Denominational Citizens and Humanist Organizations

Polish Humanist Federation Polish Humanist Association

slovakia.humanists.net/poland_reprt.htm

[accessed 11 July 2011]

Next, on 21 July 1998, the Council of Ministers adopted a document entitled "Report on the Situation of Polish Families", which is seen by the authors of the pro-family policy as a major contribution to the shaping of governmental policy. Violence in the family is discussed in a sub-section on children and teenagers and pertains mainly to child beating. Incest or sexual abuse in the family is not discussed at all. In the authors' opinion, the only existing sexual abuse of children occurs in child prostitution, and the abusers are mainly the so-called sex tourists "particularly of German origin." Characteristically, in discussing child prostitution, the report only mentions girls, although it is a well known fact that the problem concerns male teenagers as well.

The Diagnosis [DOC]

The Robinson Crusoe Foundation, August 29, 2005

www.childcentre.info/projects/institutions/poland/dbaFile12064.doc

[accessed 11 July 2011]

Young people raised in orphanages are condemned to failure.  They are condemned by their low level of education, by their perceived helplessness and by their lack of self-confidence. They are condemned by the financial situation of orphanages struggling to survive, and which therefore do not consider guiding their charges towards maturity and independence a priority. The Robinson Crusoe Foundation wants to change this.

 

*** EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE ***

 

ECPAT Global Monitoring Report on the status of action against commercial exploitation of children - POLAND [PDF]

ECPAT International, 2006

www.ecpat.net/A4A_2005/PDF/Europe/Global_Monitoring_Report-POLAND.pdf

[accessed 11 July 2011]

SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF BOYS - September 2002 saw a major police operation against the sexual exploitation of boys that was taking place in Warsaw’s Central Train Station. Young boys - mainly escapees from institutions which also receive child victims of sexual exploitation, as they are sometimes regarded as offenders – were being abused in return for money, alcohol, food and computer games. The abusers were between 34 and 70 years old, and included a businessman, a doctor, a manager in a large company, a psychologist in a reformatory, a researcher in a scientific institute and a priest. Most of the accused were married, some also had children. sccp

The Department of Labor’s 2003 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor

U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2004

www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2003/poland.htm

[accessed 19 December 2010]

Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL Worst Forms of Child Labor

INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - There are also reports that girls are trafficked to and from Poland for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Girls trafficked into the country are generally from the Eastern European region, and include countries such as Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine, and are disproportionately Turkish and Roma minorities. Other European countries, including Italy, Germany and the Czech Republic, tend to be destination states for children who are trafficked from Poland. The commercial sexual exploitation of boys by males visiting from Denmark, Germany, and Sweden is an increasing concern.

Human Rights Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006

2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61668.htm

[accessed 10 February 2020]

CHILDREN - Child abuse was rare. The law prohibits violence against children, and anyone who physically or psychologically abuses a juvenile may receive a prison sentence of three months to five years. However, abuse was rarely reported, and convictions also were rare. Police reported 1,697 cases of the sexual exploitation of children, 158 cases of child pornography, and 70 cases of child abandonment. Schools did not have procedures to protect children from physical or psychological abuse by teachers, and the teachers' work code provides legal immunity from prosecution for corporal punishment in the classroom.

Trafficking in children, primarily for the purpose of sexual exploitation, was a problem.

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