Samoa commits to justice for children [1]
Friday, May 6, 2016 - 16:45. Updated on Friday, January 26, 2018 - 19:20.
Samoa has committed to protecting children from all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse by ratifying two "Optional Protocols" of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) last week, UNICEF Pacific in Fiji reported.
One Optional Protocol is on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; and the second option is a communications procedure to follow if solutions are not reached at a national level.
The Federated States of Micronesia and Vanuatu are the only Pacific nations that have signed and ratified the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography whereas Samoa and Kirribati have only ratified it. The Solomon Islands, Nauru and Fiji have yet to ratify it.
However, Samoa is the first Pacific island nation to ratify the Optional Protocol of a communications procedure.
In the Pacifc, the Convention on the Rights of the Child has been signed and ratified or endorsed by Samoa, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.
Other Pacific island nations that have agreed to the CRC but haven’t signed it include Tonga, Cook Islands, Kirribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
Tonga agreed to the CRC in 1995.