The European Parliament will be calling on Malta to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, in its annual report on human rights to be discussed in May.
The protocol was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000 and signed by Malta in September of that year, but never ratified. Ratification is the act of giving official approval to the document.
To date, the protocol has 115 signatories, while another protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict has 122 signatories, including Malta.
In terms of the protocol, states must protect the rights and interests of child victims of trafficking, child prostitution and child pornography, child labour and especially the worst forms of child labour.
Unlike the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which state parties commit themselves only to taking ‘appropriate measures’ to prevent certain practices, the protocol places the explicit obligation on states to make certain activities relating to the sale of children a criminal offence.