Project CHILDHOOD : Transnational Cooperation and Identification of victims and perpetrators My presentation will be on how Project Childhood can help transnational cooperation in South East Asia and conduct to the identification of victims and perpetrators of Child Sexual Tourism Child sex tourism is an hideous crime : offenders take advantage of child innocence, poverty, and relative lack of punishment in destination countries Due to the cross border dimension of this crime, transnational cooperation mechanisms must be effective, and Project Childhood is aimed to implement and facilitate those mechanisms.

An initiative against Traveling Child Sex Offenders Project Childhood An initiative against Traveling Child Sex Offenders 4 year program (2010-2014) Funded by the Australian Government Project Childhood is an Australian Agency for International Development initiative to combat the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism in the Mekong Sub-Region. This project is a 4 year program (2010-2014), and aims its focus on 4 countries of South-East Asia : Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam.

The project is a cooperation between UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the Australian NGO World Vision and INTERPOL. Annethe AHLENIUS , a Sweedish police officer, is the Project Coordinator for Project Childhood in INTERPOL. She works in INTERPOL’s Liaison Office in BANGKOK.

UNODC & INTERPOL World Vision Protection Prevention UNODC & INTERPOL World Vision The project is built on two complementary pillars approaches: the Prevention Pillar and the Protection Pillar. Prevention Pillar : implemented by World Vision: works with governments and communities to prevent children from becoming victims of sexual exploitation in tourism , by raising awareness and help building community resilience. UNODC, in partnership with Interpol, are responsible for the Protection Pillar: protect the children through adapted legislative response, increased knowledge of law enforcement and stronger regional and international cooperation.

“Enhance law enforcement capacity Protection Pillar Objectives UNODC & INTERPOL “Enhance law enforcement capacity for national and transnational action to identify and effectively act upon travelling child-sex offenders In the Mekong” The general objective for the protection pillar is ENHANCING LAW ENFORCEMENT CAPACITY 1- enhanced legal framework, 2- capacity building and training, 3- national and regional cooperation, 4 - operational support. Assessments or desk studies : to inform the strategic approach for the project (baseline study in the four countries on the situation of CST, a review of legal framework and an assessment of training delivered to Police Officers regarding CST) The target group is not only the police, but also prosecutors and judges, to bring a more global and complete approach. Protection Pillar is implemented by UNODC in close partnership with INTERPOL. To summarize their role : UNODC is responsible for technical assistance to fill gaps regarding legislation, training, and cooperation, and INTERPOL for operations which combine international and regional investigative resources to target travelling child-sex offenders Enhanced Legal Framework Operational Support Capacity Building And Training National and Regional Cooperation

Legal Framework (Objective 1) The first outcome : to ensure that domestic legislative frameworks meet international standards for prosecuting those offences. Weak frameworks encourage demand for the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Two successive steps : 1- a legislative review 2- elaborate clear and practical recommendations to governments. (UNODC hired one international legal expert to review the legislative framework in the four countries, during consultation workshops with the government stakeholders of each country)

Capacity building (Objective 2) Second outcome : conduct training and capacity building, in order to scope informed and capable front-line law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges . 1- police officers located in police units identified in 4 countries to provide them equipment, technical assistance (training activities and development of SOP) 2- frontline police officers, prosecutors and judges. Prerequisite is an assessment of needs. -trainings are being delivered and institutionalized :Training programs on Investigating Sexual Exploitation for target units and frontline police officers : modules drafted after workshop and contextualized) -Internet facilitated crimes against children training was recently conducted by ICMEC. -Next step : deliver and install priority equipment packages in the selected national units (standard office equipment, furnishing of a incident/meeting room, child friendly interviewing room with recording techniques and equipment to support investigations, exhibition rooms and procedure for seized goods) The INTERPOL coordinator advises UNODC on suitable equipment for investigative activity and support training needs assessments.

Regional Cooperation (Objective 3) Project Childhood Coordination Committee (PCCC) 1st meeting 10 July 2012 South East Asia Working Party of the INTERPOL Specialist Group on Crimes against Children meeting Bangkok 19-21 March 2013 Third objective : enhanced cross border cooperation between criminal justice Meetings and workshops organized to boost cooperation and networking, and to enhance communication mechanisms (4 countries engaged in national and regional forums) - In July 2012 Project Childhood Coordination Committee had its first meeting. The goal is to facilitate cooperation within government officials. - In March 2013, 1st South East Asia Working party of the Interpol Specialist Group on Crimes against Children meeting (Sub-group). Organized with 4 countries - Multi-disciplinary meeting (LEA, researcher, academics, NGO, private industries) - Will aim to meet annually to share evidence and best practice in investigative methods and law enforcement strategy in combatting CST Interpol can also cooperate with foreign police liaison officers based in Bangkok, and support local police and police liaison officers with swift information exchange.

Operational Component (Objective 4) Support to operational team Establish or strengthen team Focus on team located in an identified “hot spot” area Fourth objective : give support to operational teams in the region, by reinforcing operational teams in existing specialized police units identified in the 4 countries Currently, in the process of identifying one unit in each country from the baseline study identified hotspots and chosen by national police Initial statement (establish joint investigations teams) changed to “support to operational teams” and cross-border cooperation encouraged between those teams. The idea is to develop a good module that later can be replicated to other units; Training needs: will be undertaken for the team chosen for operational support. Equipment needs (standard office equipment, furnishing of an incident/meeting room, child friendly interviewing room with recording techniques, equipment to support investigations, Exhibition rooms and procedure for seized goods) Standard Operational Procedures (SOP) and best practice.(guidelines enhanced/developed in close cooperation with the police units, International standards but also develop a long-term sustainable working methodology with consideration to national and regional specifics) Cases : Ongoing technical support to operations in the project countries Cambodia: the central unit Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department (AHTJPD) of the Cambodian National police in Phnom Penh Lao PDR: not identified yet Thailand: Child Women Protection Centre, Provincial Police Region 2, Banglamung Chonburi (Pattaya area) Viet Nam: Team in Vung Tau for operational support. Vung Tau is a touristic area with extensive beaches located in the southern part of Viet Nam

INTERPOL’s support in transnational cooperation International information exchange Interpol Global Complex for Innovation Notices i-24/7 secure network General Assembly resolutions International Operations Databases (ICSE) INTERPOL’s major transnational cooperation mechanisms can support Childhood when relevant: 1 - Interpol databases and information exchange : gateway : CCC (operating 24/7, platform for sharing criminal information, monitoring message traffic and media sources, coordinating exchange of info among member countries and Issuing notices) The INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation in SINGAPORE 2014 (cutting-edge research in cybercrime, innovative trainings to tackle this challenges, a CCC) 2 - Notices : Red notice : seek arrest or provisional arrest of wanted persons with a view to extradition, Blue notice : collect additional information about a person’s identity or illegal activities in relation to a crime, Green notice :warnings and criminal intelligence on persons who have committed criminal offences and likely to repeat those crimes in other countries (CSO are high risk group for re-offending) 3 - Secure communication network walled i-24/7: world largest International Police organization (190 countries connected to i24/7 through their NCB) 4 - INTERPOL resolutions promoting international cooperation with regard to sexual exploitation of children, child abuse material (ICSE) and traveling child sex offenders: Moral commitment of the countries (2011 : recommendation for the countries to adopt appropriate legislation to combat Child abuse on the internet) 5 - International Operations : INFRA-SEA (exchange of information internationally concerning whereabouts of sex offenders who have left their national jurisdiction and who are believed to be residing abroad and espcially in SEA region) 6 - Databases (nominal data on criminals, fingerprints, DNA, stolen/lost travel documents, stolen vehicles, stolen works of arts) but also CAM with ICSE (remote access via i24/7, 36 countries connected, 2980 victims identified) : ICSE promotes international cooperation and exchange of information in crucial when investigating international crimes (data collected from the internet, chat rooms…) Thailand and Vietnam will be connected soon!

Thanks for your attention Adèle DESIRS Criminal Intelligence Officer Crimes Against Children Team INTERPOL General Secretariat a.desirs@interpol.int Annethe AHLENIUS Project Coordinator Project CHILDHOOD (Protection Pillar) INTERPOL Liaison Office for Asia and South Pacific a.alenius@interpol.int