ICMEC EXPLORES AREAS OF COOPERATION WITH GODR TO

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 001028 SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/CAR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: CASC CVIS PHUM SOCI DR SUBJECT: ICMEC EXPLORES AREAS OF COOPERATION WITH GODR TO COMBAT CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION ¶1. Summary: Guillermo Galarza, a Program Director of the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC),an NGO, visited the DR to raise awareness of the global issue of child sexual exploitation and to meet with local government officials to explore areas of cooperation and aid. The Embassy's Public Affairs Section (PAS) scheduled interviews with a leading radio program and newspaper, wherein Galarza emphasized the need to educate parents, families, children and schools on child sexual exploitation. In addition, Galarza accompanied by EmbOffs, met with GODR officials to explore areas of cooperation and assistance, with the GODR responding positively to ICMEC offers of training and technical assistance. ICMEC hopes to sign memoranda of understanding (MOU) with the GODR within the next months, an encouraging step towards GODR efforts to combat child sexual exploitation. End Summary. ¶2. In a meeting with Attorney General (AG) Radhames Jimenez Pena, Assistant AG for Trafficking in Persons Frank Soto, Assistant AG for Children's Issues Marisol Toval, Police Chief Rafael Guzman Fermin, Child and Youth Welfare Ministry (CONANI) Executive Director Kirsys Fernandez and Foreign Ministry Under-secretary of Consular and Migration Issues Rosario Graciano de los Santos, Galarza presented three areas of focus of ICMEC: assistance and collaboration in drafting model legislation combating child sexual exploitation; training for prosecutors, police, NGOs and international organizations on how to recognize and prosecute cyber child sex crimes; and cooperation with financial service institutions and internet service providers (ISPs) to track purveyors of child pornography. ¶3. ICMEC has launched a global campaign to combat child pornography and conducted a research on child pornography legislation in 186 Interpol member countries. In particular, ICMEC was looking to see if national legislation: (1) exists with specific regard to child pornography, and not just pornography in general; (2) provides a definition of child pornography; (3) expressly criminalizes computer-facilitated offenses; (4) criminalizes possession of child pornography, regardless of the intent to distribute; and (5) requires ISPs to report suspected child pornography to law enforcement or to some other mandated agency. The result of their research is on the internet at http://www.icmec.org/ and is also published in a report "Child Pornography: Model Legislation and Global Review 2006." Galarza highlighted that the report published last year shows the DR only has legislation "with specific regard to child pornography, and not just pornography in general." Soto clarified that the DR passed Law 53-07 right around the publication of the report last year that defines child pornography as well as criminalizes the online possession and distribution of it. ¶4. Fernandez stated that though the DR seems to have adequate legislation, the country could receive more training and assistance in learning how to prosecute child sexual exploitation crimes. Galarza stated that ICMEC has provided training to numerous police force and prosecutors in various countries worldwide and is interested in providing training to the police and prosecutors in the DR. Guzman Fermin and Jimenez Pena expressed enthusiasm and intrest in receiving this training. ¶5. Galarza aso highlighted ICMEC's efforts to engage private firms such as ISPs and financial services institutions to combat online child pornography. Galarza highlighted that ISPs in the U.S. must report instances of child pornography in their servers and networks or face a fine of US$50,000 per image. He noted though the law seems to be effective in reducing instances of child pornography in U.S. servers and networks, it has resulted in purveyors of child pornography hosting their illicit activities in non-U.S. servers and networks instead. Galarza noted that in the D.R. there are over 2,500 unique internet protocol (IP) addresses that may be serving or hosting child pornography content. Galarza suggested that local officials meet with Dominican ISPs to review if cooperation in this area is feasible. Soto acknowledged that Dominican ISPs are not required to report instances of child pornography in their networks and servers; however, he stated that they could review the idea with the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (INDOTEL). ¶6. Galarza also described the ICMEC initiative to elicit assistance from a financial services coalition to track users who use their credit cards to subscribe to illicit child porn sites. Though Galarza highlighted the identification of child porn purveyors via their financial transactions as an effective tool, Galarza admitted there are some privacy issues being considered by the coalition at this moment. Members of this coalition include America Online, Bank of America, Microsoft and PayPal. Dominican officials did not comment on this particular initiative. ¶7. Comment: ICMEC's global efforts to combat child sexual exploitation focus on three areas: model and comprehensive legislation, education and training, and private-public cooperation and collaboration. Although the DR recently passed legislation criminalizing online possession of child pornography, more remains to be done in terms of raising awareness, police and prosecutor technical training and capacity, and public-private partnerships. Several high-level officials expressed interest and enthusiasm about working with ICMEC, with CONANI taking the lead and offering to be the principal liaison. End Comment. 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