A legal analysis of sexual exploitation in child pornography and prostitution with particular reference to the Lanzarote Convention

Abstract

The rationale of this thesis is to analyse the legal mechanisms that seek to protect children from sexual exploitation in the light of child pornography and child prostitution, with specific reference to the Lanzarote Convention; which is the latest legal instrument that seeks to protect children from sexual abuse. The evolution of this thesis takes off from a historical point of view and then analyses various legal instruments that initially tackled such sensitive subject; starting with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. From then onwards, this Convention served as a reliable source towards creating new legal mechanisms towards safeguarding the best interests of the child. This thesis does not solely focus on those two crimes only, but also elaborates on other factors that eventually lead to other related crimes that involve sexual exploitation of children such as grooming, sex tourism and also cybercrime. One will eventually note, that such phenomenon is constantly developing to the extent that the legislator needs to foresee upcoming circumstances that would eventually lead to such abuse. Moreover, this thesis also examines local legislation and also EU Law in order to determine on whether they are compliant with the Lanzarote Convention which at present is considered as the most ambitious legal instrument that seeks to protect children from sexual abuse. Chapter 1 is focused on a historical perspective and also defines certain keywords that are fundamental to this thesis. Chapter 2 is dedicated to the main framework of child sexual abuse whereby the United Nations was the first global organisation that addressed this emerging phenomenon by introducing the Convention on the Rights of the Child followed by the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Moreover, it also starts introducing the latest convention related to this topic that is the Lanzarote Convention. Chapter 3 covers Maltese legislation on child sexual abuse and also refers to numerous judgements that have been delivered throughout the years whereby through recent judgements, one would be able to analyse on whether the provisions laid down in the Lanzarote Convention are actually being enforced in Malta since its availability as a legal mechanism. Chapter 4 elaborates on EU law which includes a Directive that compliments the Lanzarote Convention hence Member States are obliged to transpose such Directive into their legislation- therefore this provides more support towards safeguarding the best interests of the child as the Lanzarote Convention infiltrates through domestic law of EU Member States irrespective of whether such countries had signed and ratified the Convention itself. In addition, reference was made to cases that involved international cooperation between law enforcement authorities of different states. In order to build this chapter, reference was highly made to the Internet Watch Foundation and also to ECPAT’s reports whereby one would be in a position to determine the extent to which minors are protected by law from sexual exploitation.