Article: Beware the child predators from UAE

Article from The Star

By R.S.N. MURALI

DUBAI: Some Malaysian children are believed to have fallen prey to paedophiles from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who surf the Internet looking for their victims.

A Dubai police spokesman told The Star that their intelligence revealed the acts of sexual abuse happened outside the UAE.

“The paedophiles cultivate friendships with children from countries like Malaysia. Later, they make trips to Kuala Lumpur under the pretext of coming here for a holiday before meeting up with the youngsters and sexually abusing them,” said the spokesman. The paedophiles use money to lure the children.

Based on previous cases, the modus operandi of these paedophiles were to target young Internet surfers from other countries; later enticing them with expensive gifts and cash if they agreed to escort the predators for holiday at the victims’ country of origin. In many cases, gullible parents allowed their children to follow the predators, after being besotted with the wealth and decent looks of these men.

The spokesman also said that UAE had last week entered into the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT), a collaboration between law enforcers around the world to combat international networks of child predators.

He added the UAE’s VGT would be lead by a senior government official, who had directed for closer surveillance on those going online into Malaysian web hosts.

Article: Legalised paedophilia – Malaysian child marriages

Last week, we read about the marriage of two 10 year-old girls to 40 year-old men. This is commonplace in sub-Saharan Africa or Afghanistan. Sadly, these occurred in Kelantan, which incidentally has the nation’s highest rate of incest and HIV/AIDS cases.

It is shocking, but not surprising that such marriages happened in modern Malaysia. Child marriages, today: Honour killings, next? The political will is too weak, to plug the various loopholes in syariah law which allows recalcitrant men to slip through.

Child marriage is sexual abuse and a violation of human rights. The exploited girl suffers tremendous emotional and physical trauma. She is denied an education. Her right to personal freedom and growth are curtailed. She is excluded from interacting with her friends, or participating in school/community activities. She may be prevented from refusing sex, and so risks having sexually transmitted diseases or HIV/AIDS. When pregnant, her health is at further risk from premature pregnancy or pregnancy related mortality.

Around the world, women enjoy advancements in education, living standards and economic and financial freedom. But women in Malaysia, specifically Muslim women, are apparently stuck in the middle ages, with their lives dictated not by one set of laws but two.

This dual system of laws must be revamped. It is unacceptable that an underage girl can marry with the permission of religious officials. What sort of deterrent is a fine and six months jail, when her life and future are ruined by the actions of two men – her irresponsible father and a lust fueled ‘husband’?

Read the full article by Mariam Mokhtar on MalaysianMirror

Suhakam: Ratify protocol against child porn

The Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) is ready to push for two optional protocols to be ratified, in tandem with its recommendation on removing the government’s eight reservations to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Commissioner Dr Raj Abdul Karim said at a press conference at Suhakam headquarters today that one of the protocols is on child pornography, trafficking of children and child prostitution.

Ratifying it would require the government to pass laws that protect children from being used as subjects of pornography, as well as to prevent them from viewing pornographic materials.

The second optional protocol relates to children caught in armed conflict. Raj said the government should have no objection to ratifying it since the situation is not prevalent in Malaysia.

However, she said the government does need to acknowledge and define ‘child pornography’ in legal terms.

General provisions against pornography are currently found in the Penal Code and the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, but these do not make specific mention of children’s involvement.

In this respect, Malaysia is far behind Singapore, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand which have specific laws in place to protect children, she said.

With the advance of information and communications technology, there is a serious situation with “children being traded and used for pornography” in Malaysia.

Read the full article by Rahmah Gazali on MalaysiaKini