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| Colombia / |
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In July 2009, Protect opened its doors in Colombia, with an initial focus on the city of Cartagena de Indias, to investigate, identify, and bring to justice foreign sex offenders who threaten the physical and psychological integrity of vulnerable minors.
With 895,400 inhabitants, Cartagena de Indias, a tourist destination par excellence, visited annually by about 500,000 Colombian tourists and 80,000 foreigners, is a place where wealth and poverty converge. According to national and local government statistics, about 500,000 people in the city live in extreme poverty. This can be expected, given that Colombia is the only South American country that continues to live in the midst of an armed conflict, more than 40 years in the making, that has caused forced displacement, high unemployment, and poverty. In addition, as indicated by the Third Formal Report of Colombia to the Committee on the Rights of Children 1998-2003, the conflict has increased the vulnerability of girls, boys and adolescents to commercial sexual exploitation. These figures show that approximately 4 million girls, boys and adolescents work in areas directly linked to their sexual exploitation, according to data from the Fundacion Restrepo Barco, which supports the children and youth of Colombia.
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The high rates of unemployment and concentrated poverty in Cartagena de Indias have unleashed the proliferation of child sex tourism. The crimes are perpetrated in most cases by foreign citizens who come to the city as sex tourists, attracted by tourism packages that take advantage of the many vulnerable minors via organized networks operating since 2003, not only in Cartagena, but in other cities including Barranquilla, Santa Marta, San Andrés, Medellín, Armenia, Pereira, Cucuta, and Cali.
According to data from the Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar (ICBF), the Colombian Family Welfare Institute, the sexual exploitation phenomenon of minors in the city of Cartagena de Indias ranges in scope and can be divided into three parts: the immediate social environment, the prostitution rings, and commercial sexual exploitation, where the common denominator is the complacent attitudes of the families involved. We have found cases in which a child comes to be hired for sexual purposes in exchange for a meal for their family.
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The minors involved in child sexual exploitation, both in Cartagena and in the cities where this phenomenon is increasing, are children of low income, who have no educational opportunities, and are often driven by their own families to pursue activities, mainly sex with foreigners, for money and food.
Thus, the social needs of the population combine with the purchasing power of pedophile tourists, who come not only to sexually solicit children and teenagers in general, but also girls who are between 4 and 6 months pregnant.
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| SOCIETY AND GOVERNMENT |
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In 2005, Colombia developed the National Action Plan for the Prevention and Eradication of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, initiated by UNICEF and the Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar (ICBF), the Colombian Family Welfare Institute - the government body responsible for the protection of childhood and family.
They had the support of ILO-IPEC, The International Programme for the Eradication of Child Labour of the International Labour Organization, and specialized consultants from Fundación Renacer - ECPAT Colombia (a network of organizations working for the elimination of commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents).
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Colombia has strengthened legislation on the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents to provide greater protection and guarantees for victims of child sexual abuse, and also to improve the protection for those actively engaged in defending and restoring these rights.
Recently, law 1329 of 2009 clarified that there is child sexual abuse when the victim is under 18 years of age. The law also criminalizes this act with minors by imprisonment from 14 to 25 years and a statutory fine equivalent to 67 to 750 months income at the minimum wage. In addition, it penalizes the demand for sexual exploitation with a minor under 18 years with imprisonment from 14 to 25 years. This penalty is increased from a third to a half if the offender is a domestic or international tourist; marries or cohabits with the child; if the offender belongs to an armed group outside the law; if the victim is under 14 years of age; or if the abuser is a member of the family of the victim.
In addition, Congress passed the law 1336 of 2009, which strengthens the law 679 of 2001, in the fight against exploitation, pornography and sex tourism concerning children and adolescents.
Some of the provisions of the law 1336 serve to regulate tourist and hospitality services, to further policies that would help to prevent and avoid the abuse and sexual exploitation of minors.
This law also punishes, with four to eight years of prison time, those who manage, organize or promote tourist activities that include sexual abuse of minors, and the penalty increases by half when the offense involves a minor under twelve years old.
In regards to pornography involving minors under 18 years of age, the law says that anyone who photographs, films, records, produces, distributes, provides, sells, purchases, possesses, transports, stores, transmits or displays, by any means, for personal use or exchange of real representations of sexual activity involving minors, will face a prison term of 10 to 20 years and a statutory fine equivalent to 150 to 1,500 months’ income at the minimum wage. Moreover, the penalty is increased by a third to a half if the offender is a member of the family of the victim.
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