All stakeholders in society need to work together in order to reduce child exploitation, experts said at a cross-border consultation yesterday.
Online platforms have given child abuse a new dimension and created more challenges in addressing exploitation, they added.
The a cross-border consultation titled “Combat Sextual Exploitation of children through SAIEVAC” was arranged at a local hotel. Terre des Hommes Netherlands and INCIDIN Bangladesh jointly organized the program under the “Building Back Better in times of Covid-19, fighting sexual exploitation of children on the rise” project, funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and implemented by INCIDIN Bangladesh and Ain o Salish Kendra.
INCIDIN Bangladesh Executive Director AKM Masud Ali chaired the event attended by participants from India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Government officials, members of the Rescue, Recovery, Repatriation, and Reintegration Task Force, child-representatives, and representatives NGOs and civil society were among those in attendance.
The participants discussed emerging trends of sexual exploitation of children in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and ways to solve the issue.
Chief guest Nasima Begum, chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, said: “Although it is extremely difficult, it is our aim to eliminate child abuse. To achieve this goal, we all need to work together so the intensity of child exploitation can be reduced. There is a need for strong coordination among stakeholders, or success will never be achieved.”
She said children and youths play an important role in creating awareness against the sextual exploitation of children.
While delivering the keynote, INCIDIN Executive Director Masud Ali spoke about loopholes in the preventive measures to combat child abuse and gaps in the SAARC convention.
Advocate Salma Ali mentioned that the government should take hard measures to prevent sexual exploitation of children.
About the implementation of policies, TdH Netherlands Bangladesh Country Director Mahmudul Kabir said fighting exploitation of children needs cooperation from all, including government and nongovernment organizations.
Thangaparemal, country director of TdH-NL India and Nepal and co-chair of SACG SAIEVAC; Manbendra Natha Mandal, ATSEC chair in India; Dr Abul Hossain, national consultant, UNDP (NHRC); and Shiv Nath Roy Additional, secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, also spoke during the consultation.
The session adopted the Dhaka declaration 2022, which called upon the government to reform the SAARC convention on trafficking, activate the committees formed under treaties, and work through SAIEVAC for speedy repatriation, protection and integration of victims of child trafficking.
The declaration also called to reform and harmonize laws to decriminalize the victim and ensure speedy prosecution of trafficking cases.
