The Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography is a protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and requires parties to prohibit the sale of children , child prostitution and child pornography. The Protocol was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in [2] and entered into force on 18 January According to the preamble, the protocol is intended to achieve the purposes of certain articles in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, where the rights are defined with the provision that parties should take "appropriate measures" to protect them.
Article 1 of the protocol requires parties to 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. The remaining articles in the protocol outline the standards for international law enforcement covering diverse issues such as jurisdictional factors, extradition, mutual assistance in investigations, criminal or extradition proceedings and seizure and confiscation of assets as well.
It also obliges parties to pass laws within their own territories against these practices "punishable by appropriate penalties that take into account their grave nature. The Protocol requires parties to prohibit the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. Article 2 defines the prohibition:. The Convention generally defines a child as any human being under the age of 18, unless an earlier age of majority is recognized by a country's law.
List of countries that are parties to the protocol as of October [update] : [3]. Lucia ; St. On ratification on 24 July , Denmark excluded the territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland. This exclusion was withdrawn on 10 October Initially the ratification only applied to the European part of the Netherlands. New Zealand's ratification excluded the islands of Tokelau.
Qatar added in its signing statement that it was "subject to a general reservation regarding any provisions in the protocol that are in conflict with the Islamic Shariah.
