UNICEF has urged the Government to make good its promise to make action against sex tourism, trafficking in children and the proliferation of child pornography a priority issue during Ireland's EU Presidency.
At a press conference in Dublin, UNICEF joined with the End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking (ECPAT) campaign to call on EU justice ministers meeting in Dublin this week to make a co ordinated response to last month's first World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Stockholm.
They also asked for the "prompt enactment" of the Fianna Fail private members' Bill which would ensure that Irish people who commit sexual offences against children abroad can be prosecuted in Ireland for those offences. Such legislation already exists in 12 countries, including the US, Britain, Sweden, Australia, France and Belgium.
Fianna Fail's Mr John O'Donoghue TD, who, with Mr Eoin Ryan, proposed the Bill, said he hoped it would be on the statute book before the end of the year.
UNICEF and ECPAT also called on the Government to indicate during the EU presidency "its firm support for the inclusion of children's rights in the revised Maastricht Treaty".
The executive director of UNICEF Ireland, Ms Maura Quinn, said: "The European Commission and Parliament initiatives to combat trafficking in children through the extension of the Europol mandate are most welcome.
However, both she and Ms Muireann O Briain, of ECPAT, emphasised the need for co ordination not only between European police forces but also those in other parts of the world to ensure that exploited children did not "fall between the two stools" of international police networks.
The two organisations said they also supported the call from the Interpol working party on offences against minors that possession of child pornography should be criminalised. "For every pornographic image of a child, there is tangible evidence of an offence having been committed. Many countries have already criminalised the possession of child pornography and the Irish Government should follow suit as a matter of urgency."
Mr O'Donoghue said that Fianna Fail hoped to publish a Bill outlawing possession of child pornography, in addition to its distribution.
Ms Quinn said that they were urging Internet service providers to introduce effective self regulation, particularly on child pornography. This would "clean up the Net as a source of child pornography".
They welcomed the formation of an ad hoc working party of Ireland's leading Internet service providers to study the problem of offensive material on the Net and expressed the hope that the Irish service providers would follow the example of their British counterparts in setting up effective self regulation procedures.