E/CN.15/2014/CRP.1 criminalizing and adequately punishing at least such acts related to child sexual abuse and exploitation as listed in article 3, being the sale of children inter alia for sexual exploitation, offering, obtaining, procuring or providing a child for child prostitution and producing, distributing, disseminating, importing, exporting, offering, selling or possessing child pornography including attempt to and complicity or participation in committing any of the aforementioned acts. Article 3(4) further requires States Parties to establish criminal, civil or administrative accountability of legal persons with regard to said acts. Concerning the adjudication of child exploitation crimes, article 5, though not excluding any other basis for the exercise of criminal jurisdiction in accordance with international law, stipulates that a State Party shall take all necessary measures to establish its criminal jurisdiction under the principle of territoriality, active and passive personality or the principle of aut dedere aut iudicare. Articles 5 and 6 of the Optional Protocol set out general principles for transnational cooperation and extradition in general; article 7 concerns itself with the seizure, confiscation and forfeiture of any goods used to commit or facilitate or any profit derived from the child exploitation crimes set out in article 3; article 8 deals with issues related to victim protection, such as taking due regard of child victims’ vulnerability and their entitlement to compensation; and articles 9 and 10 call for the adoption or strengthening of legislative, administrative and political measures and programmes for the prevention of as well as the enhancement of international cooperation with regard to child sexual abuse and exploitation-offences. United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime contains a range of provisions concerning international cooperation against transnational organized crime.246 It approaches close to universal ratification, with 179 States Parties. It requires Parties to implement a range of measures to facilitate mutual legal assistance, extradition and international cooperation in law enforcement measures. These measures, according to article 3(1) of the Organized Crime Convention, can be applied to the prevention, investigation and prosecution of any “serious crime,” as defined in article 2(b) of the Convention, that is transnational in nature (article 3(2)), involves an organized criminal group, and is committed with the intent to achieve a material or financial benefit.247 The term “serious crime” is flexible enough to encompass a range of conduct, including the use of ICTs to abuse or exploit children, if and when the minimum punishment for the specific national crime in question amounts to four years imprisonment or more (article 2(b)). Importantly, in the context of article 3(a)’s definition of the term “organized criminal group”, “benefit” has been interpreted to include “sexual gratification, such as the receipt or trade of materials by members of child grooming rings, the trading of children by preferential child sex offender rings or cost-sharing among ring members”.248 In addition, article 29(1)(h) of the Organized Crime Convention requires States parties, to the extent necessary, to “initiate, develop, or improve specific training programmes for its law enforcement personnel” on the “methods used in combatting transnational organized crime committed through the use of computers, telecommunications networks or other forms of modern technology.” The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime requires its 159 States Parties to criminalize the trafficking of persons, including children. It also contains provisions relating to the prevention and combating of trafficking, the protection and assistance of victims of trafficking and to international cooperation between States Parties in order to meet those objectives. A key value of the Protocol lies in the fact that it renders irrelevant the consent of any child victim of the practice of trafficking in persons within the scope and meaning of article 3(a), __________________ 246 247 248 38 pornography in this context as only applying to the visual representation of sexual acts with a child or minor persons, and not applying to adults acting, posing, or dressing, as a child [Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-fourth Session (A54-PV.97)]. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1577 (entered into force on September 23, 2003). See also Petty, K. A., 2011. Protecting Children from Cyber Crime: The Twentieth Session of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. American Society of International Law: Insights 15, No. 24. Available at http://www.asil.org/insights/volume/15/issue/24/protecting-children-cyber-crime-twentieth-session-un-commission-crime. Ibid. V.14-03040