Human Rights Council: 43rd Regular Session
Salle XX, Palais des Nations
03 March 2020
Agenda Item 3: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on sale of children
Speaking time: 1 min. 30 sec.
Thank you, Mister Vice-President.
My delegation welcomes the report of the SR. We acknowledge the important work of the SR in flagging about the issues and trends related to her mandate including those in the contexts of online sexual exploitation, travel and tourism, sports, peacekeeping, child marriage, illegal adoption, and surrogacy, among others.
We share the concern of the SR on how the expansion of digital technology has, on the negative side, facilitated conditions that enable the exploitation of children. We hope that the forthcoming General Comment of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the digital environment will help provide the needed guidance in this regard.
The Philippines believes that our efforts to protect children from sale, sexual exploitation, and trafficking should benefit from enhanced coordination and linkage between the work of UN treaty body, human rights mechanisms, and regional intergovernmental bodies such as ASEAN. In this regard, the Philippines has been hosting the annual ASEAN Dialogue on the General Comments of the CRC with a view to facilitating the implementation of state obligations, and we are pleased to share that this year’s Dialogue will feature a session on online sexual exploitation and the new General Comment on the digital environment.
Ms. Buquicchio, you mentioned that the magnitude of the sale of children is generally unknown yet emerging trends can be noted in various industries. Could you share good practices in involving private sector actors in combating sale of children in a systematic manner?
Thank you, Mister Vice-President. END.