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Norway to support Fil law enforcers in rescuing child sex abuse victims
By Nidz Godino
"Norway remains committed to supporting campaign against OSAEC and will continue to provide financial assistance across various initiatives," Andreas Motzfeldt Kravik, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs state secretary said Norwegian government has committed to helping train Philippine law enforcers to more effectively identify potential child sex abuse victims by teaching them to access available sources of information on perpetrators overseas.
This initiative by Norwegan officials is part of its program on combating Online Sexual Abuse of Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) globally, with Philippines long identified as global hotspot for OSAEC cases.
Philippines currently ranks second in the world, after India, in terms of number of OSAEC cases, according to data by non-profit Save the Children Philippines.
A 280% spike in OSAEC cases was recorded in 2022 by United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), attributed to the
country's visa-free policy, high use of technology and high poverty levels during pandemic.
Last March, Kravik, met with Department of Social Welfare and Development representatives, district social workers and youth advocates to discuss how OSAEC has impacted their communities.
Kravik said promotion of human rights and rights of children is "very important part of Norway's foreign and development policy," according to press release.
Norwegian Government, through long-term presence of Nordic Liaison Office in Manila, will support operations of Philippine National Police (PNP) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in identifying and rescuing potential OSAEC victims through "information sharing."
Law enforcers will be educated on how to access "evidence for prosecution of perpetrators in the Nordic countries."
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Sit-down dialogue also surfaced experiences of one social welfare officer from Manila who said there is need for city-wide legislation that will address OSAEC, according to press release by Plan International Pilipinas, implements Norway-funded "Uniting Against OSAEC: Multi-stakeholder Collaborations for Safer Digital Space Project."
"Although we have policies within community, such as those that regulate money remittance centers, we wish to have them in the whole city…and we need additional support to lobby to strengthen programs and services for combatting OSAEC in Manila," said Honeyleen Montano-Mabaet, a social welfare officer from City of Manila.
Nicholas Ty, Department of Justice undersecretary in charge of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, said in February that preventing OSAEC cases require cross-border collaboration among law enforcers.
"One important step is coordination with our foreign counterparts as online obscenity or OSAEC is usually cross-border crime," Ty said.
High-profile rescue operation conducted by the PNP in 2023 involved the rescue of sixteen abused minors with the help of the Australian Federal Police.
From 2021 to 2022, staggering 72% of all child abuse cases on average involved sexual abuse or assault, according to data collected by Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) in government hospitals.
Around 6,600 children were sexually abused in 2022, according to CWC.
US State Department's assessment of Philippines' protection of children's rights in 2022 found country has inadequate prosecutorial and technological resources to catch persons engaged in sexual exploitation of minors.
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