§ 7.3 pm
§ Mrs. Anne Campbell (Cambridge)I am pleased to present this petition on behalf of the members of the Cambridge Student Methodist Society and the Action for Children Campaign and other citizens of the United Kingdom. They have collected 1,000 signatures, including Mr. Graham St. John-Willey of the Action for Children Campaign, Chris Marsh of Queens' college, Cambridge, and Kim Jensen of Newnham college, Cambridge. The petition states:
To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.The Humble Petition of Members of Cambridge Student Methodist Society with Action for Children Campaign and other Citizens of the United Kingdom,ShewethThat we, the undersigned, hereby:
- 1. express our deep concern at continuing reports that citizens of developed nations travelling abroad may be encouraging the use of children in prostitution and pornography;
- 2. affirm our 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. call 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, etc.
§ To lie upon the Table.