Optional Protocol to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography
The Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (OPSC), is concerned with guaranteeing the protection of the child from child trafficking, child prostitution, child pornography and sex tourism.
The OPSC was ratified by the United Sates on September 4, 2002. It requires that the states that are parties to the protocol assess their legislation and enforcement activities and where necessary amend their laws and conform their activities to meet the minimum standards set out in the protocol.
The Children's Studies Center was invited to present an "Alternative Report on New York State Measures Giving Effect to the Optional Protocol" at the pre-sessional meeting of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child on June 18, 2012 in Geneva. The Children's Studies Center provided an examination and inventory of New York State legislation and regulations with regard to the Optional Protocol in order to determine the extent to which they already serve to implement the Protocol and to identify lacunae for future legislative and administrative initiatives and actions. The alternative report also served as a supplementary report to the "Periodic Report of the United States of America and U.S. Response to Recommendations in Committee Concluding Observations of June 25, 2008," January 22, 2010. Professor Gertrud Lenzer, founding director of the center, delivered a statement focusing on seven concerns and recommendations regarding the Periodic Report.
The Children's Studies Center was recognized in the Periodic Report as "one example of the essential role of academic and nonprofit institutions in developments in this area" and was praised for its work related to its February 2009 "Third Child Policy Forum of New York: Implementation and Monitoring of the Optional Protocol to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography," which reviewed the degree to which statutes, regulations and programs of New York State serve to protect children and adolescents from sexual exploitation with a focus upon necessary law reform and mechanisms to implement and monitor the articles of the Optional Protocol.
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