Child Prostitution and Pornography (Hansard, 20 November 1995)

§ Dame Peggy Fenner (Medway)

I beg leave to present the following petition. To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. The Humble Petition of the National Council of Women of Great Britain at its Centenary Conference assembled in the City of Nottingham, from 10–12 October 1995, in conjunction with Action for Children Campaign, Sheweth That we, the undersigned, re-affirm the Resolution entitled "Action for Children in Prostitution" proposed by The Revd Graham St. John-Willey (Director, Action for Children Campaign) and seconded by Mrs. Joan Belcher (Chairman of the International Council of Women [Great Britain] Committee) and passed (nem con) at the 1993 Annual General Meeting, which was based on the text of the Early Day Motion "Children in Prostitution and Pornography" tabled in your Honourable House on 11 November 1992 and re-tabled in each session since [receiving the support of a majority of Honourable Members, more than has ever been obtained by an EDM on a Child Welfare issue], that: The National Council of Women in conference assembled: 1. expresses its deep concern at continuing reports that citizens of developed nations travelling abroad may be encouraging the use of children in prostitution and pornography; 2. affirms its commitment to the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which seeks to protect children from sexual exploitation; and 3. calls upon Her Majesty's Government to seek to play an active role in bringing about concerted international action to tackle this problem, and, in particular to examine ways of ensuring that individuals involved in such exploitation are brought to justice within the United Kingdom. Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your honourable House do introduce legislation to ensure that citizens of the United Kingdom who commit serious sexual offences against children abroad can be prosecuted in this country. And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c. I introduce this petition this evening on the sixth anniversary of the United Nations convention on the rights of the child. Can there be a more noble purpose on such a day?