Fight sex tourism and support victims
Final document of VI World Conference on the Pastoral Care of Tourism in Bangkok
Vatican City (AsiaNews) The full power of the state should be used against sex tourism, but it should also be used to help in the rehabilitation of its victims. Such is the main thrust behind the Catholic Church's final document of 6th World Conference on the Pastoral Care of Tourism held in Bangkok between July 5 and 8. Released today the document condemns in no uncertain terms sex tourism and lays down some guidelines for fighting it.
As its premise the document acknowledges that tourism should be an opportunity for dialogue between countries and cultures, an approach to natural resource use that is environmentally-friendly, an activity that helps local communities grow economically and in other ways, and a tool "to fight all forms of exploitation and discrimination."
It is within this context that participants "view the pastoral care of people exploited in the sex tourism industry as an important priority of the Church. Women, adolescents and children are certainly the most vulnerable and needy of these people. Children are especially at risk and in need of special attention and protection."
From the above, the Conference agreed to certain recommendations so that the most vulnerable "receive compassion, legal protection, and the necessary help in regaining their human dignity."
Among the recommendations:
● children should not be criminalised in cases of violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children, for instance, in cases of sexual abuse;
● government authorities should give priority and urgency to the fight against the trafficking in and economic exploitation of children, especially in the sex tourism industry;
● they should coordinate their actions at both national and international levels to establish a legal framework that would protect children from sexual exploitation and grant them the power to prosecute offenders;
● local dioceses and communities should develop the appropriate pastoral care for sexually-exploited children and increase awareness in the wider society as to the gravity of their situation and inform people about the nature of this social scourge and the strategies to fight it;
● local dioceses and communities should set up as a priority structures for the pastoral care of children as part of their evangelising mission and cooperate with local authorities in the fight against their sexual exploitation;
● local dioceses and communities should support existing structures or create new ones in order to care for victims with compassion and love as well as provide them the necessary legal aid and medical assistance for re-entering society, and for Christians, returning to their own communities of faith;
● national and regional conferences on pastoral care for victims of sex tourism should be organised in which local officials could learn how to implement the recommendations of the Congress.
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28/02/2018 16:29
