LEGAL SYSTEMS PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE ACROSS THE COMMONWEALTH

The sexual exploitation and abuse of children is a threat from which no child, community or country is immune. Despite significant work being done by governments and the global child protection community to tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA), millions of children across the Commonwealth of Nations (the Commonwealth) remain at significant risk.

This report, facilitated by TrustLaw, analyses the protection of children from CSEA across 21 Commonwealth Member States from four regions: Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Pacific. To determine whether, and the extent to which, children are currently adequately protected against CSEA throughout the Commonwealth, this report analyses the criminalisation of CSEA, gaps in the prosecution of CSEA offences, gaps in the protection of children, and efforts made towards preventing CSEA.

TrustLaw connected It’s a penalty with legal experts in over 10 countries including lawyers from CMS and Clayton Utz who acted as the international coordinators of the report. It’s a Penalty also worked with law enforcement agencies and child rights’ advocates from each country to provide concrete and actionable recommendations that can be implemented to improve the protection of children from CSEA.