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.
FANNIN