SENATOR Mary Henry has urged women delegates attending a world conference of parliament members in Beijing to help stop the organisation of child sex tours by adopting legislation similar to that which she proposed in the Seanad.
Speaking at a Women Parliamentarians' Meeting on the eve of the 96th Inter Parliamentary Union conference in the Chinese capital, Dr Henry said that child sex exploitation was an "appalling spin off from mass tourism." "Because of AIDS, some men think that by seeking younger and younger prostitutes they will be safe," the independent senator said. "I urge other women parliamentarians to bring forward such legislation."
Dr Henry's Child Sex Tours Bill (1995) seeks to make it an offence for any person to arrange or to organise travel, inside or outside the State, on behalf of any other person with the intention of facilitating the commission of child sexual abuse. It was given an unopposed second reading in the Seanad in February. Thailand and Brazil are among the countries where officials are trying to fight the abuse of children.
The conference was opened yesterday in the Great Hall of the People by President Jiang Zemin, who highlighted China's role in maintaining world peace and said that Chinese people believed in democracy.
The focus of the conference is human rights and food issues. "The right to food is the right to life itself and without securing the right to life, no other human right will hold any significance," said IPU president Mr Ahmed Fathy Sorour. The forum provides the stage for the first open debate on human rights by foreigners in China since the UN sponsored Women's Conference last year.
The 633 parliamentarians from 120 countries, including eight members of the Oireachtas led by the Ceann Comhairle, Mr Sean Treacy, voted down an emergency proposal from Baghdad to debate US attacks on Iraq.