Members of parliament from Burkina Faso, Canada, Kenya and the United States of America held a panel discussion on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on 23 October to share their national experiences in promoting legislation on violence against girls, including sexual abuse and exploitation, and to foster a more robust international parliamentary response to this scourge. The event was jointly organized by the IPU, UNICEF and the US Congressional Human Rights Caucus.
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Congressman Tom Lantos (US), Chairman of both the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Congressional Human Rights Caucus opened the discussion, which was followed by a captivating performance by Sarah Jones, UNICEF Spokesperson on Violence against Children and Tony Award-winning playwright, actress and poet. The US was represented by Ms. Sheila Jackson-Lee, Chair of the Congressional Children's Caucus and Mr. Nick Lampson, Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. The discussants included Mr. Mélégué Traoré (Burkina Faso), Ms. Sharon Carstairs (Canada) and Ms. Njoki Ndungu (Kenya).
Girls - even into adolescence - account for the majority of the victims of child sexual exploitation worldwide, whether through informal prostitution and/or pornography networks, or through trafficking into the commercial sex industry. Girls across the world are up to three times more likely than boys to experience sexual abuse, often perpetrated by someone known to them, including family members. They also face the threat of being coerced into sex by their dating partner. In situations of armed conflict, girls may be the targets of rape, prostitution, or other forms of sexual exploitation. Millions of girls are also victims of the devastating practice of genital mutilation/cutting, which continues undeterred in many countries of the world.
The purpose of the panel was to discuss the issue of gender-based violence against children - present in all societies -, and outline recommendations to address such violence. In sharing examples of good practices, Ms. Ndungu talked about the Sexual Offenses Act, a private member's bill that she had sponsored to combat gender-based violence in Kenya. Speaker Traoré stressed the role of politicians and traditional leaders in changing public perceptions, while Senator Carstairs focused on modalities to combat modern forms of violence such as cyber-crime and Internet pornography. Drawing on US Congressional work, Chairman Lantos presented the salient features of recently-initiated legislation, in particular the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Another very relevant contribution was the International Violence against Women Act, introduced by Senator Joseph Biden, which was aimed at integrating efforts to end gender-based violence into US foreign assistance programmes.
The IPU Secretary General took the opportunity to draw attention to the recent IPU-UNICEF publication of a handbook for parliamentarians entitled Eliminating Violence against Children, an important tool for furthering parliamentary work in this crucial area.
