Save the children from free trade

>> Asian child prostitution a symbol of APEC's nefarious plan

by PHILIP PREVILLE

Michel Lambert is more than willing to confess his ignorance. Despite being the organizer of an upcoming demonstration in Quebec City against sex-trade tourism--and more particularly child prostitution--in South Asian countries, Lambert freely admits he knows little about the issue.

"It's really just an excuse to demonstrate," says Lambert, Asia coordinator for the international development watchdog group Alternatives. He explains that the demonstration is timed to coincide with a meeting of the tourism ministers from the 18-member nations of the Forum for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

But that's not to say THAT Lambert doesn't care about the issue, or that he doesn't think it's a problem. Over the past 10 years, child prostitution has become increasingly pervasive throughout southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, China and the Philippines. Recent statistics show that there are as many as 800,000 child prostitutes in Thailand alone, and prostitution for some children begins as early as age six.

"Many APEC countries, such as the Philippines and even China, have free-trade zones where people do international business without government interference. That's where the bordellos are. And they encourage businesspeople to go there and take advantage of all they have to offer."

In addition, the APEC nations' laissez faire attitude toward child prostitution contradicts their own international commitments: 15 of APEC's 18 countries (except Hong Kong, Taiwan and the USA) have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which declares, among other things, those nations' intent on preventing the commercial sexual exploitation of children. According to Carole Sandup of the Montreal-based International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (ICHRDD), "just because countries sign those declarations doesn't mean they actually commit to them."

For Sandup, as for Lambert, the issue of child prostitution serves as a powerful symbol of everything that is wrong with APEC: as an organization devoted to free trade and nothing else, any discussion of human rights around the APEC table is anathema. According to Sandup, APEC is deliberately structured to avoid discussions about anything other than trade. "The Prime Minister, when he's at APEC, is not the Prime Minister--he is the economic leader of Canada," Sandup says. "He represents economic interests only."

Sandup notes that APEC is also a closed discussion group that receives input from multinational conglomerates, but not from other non-governmental bodies. "All of their decisions are made by consensus, which means that every member has veto power. Even if Canada wanted to raise human rights issues, if only one of the 18 APEC members says no, the discussion is over."

While Lambert has been fighting APEC for years, the ICHRDD has jumped on the APEC bandwagon specifically for this year, because the leaders of APEC's member countries are holding their annual summit in Vancouver next month.

"It's important to talk about APEC now, because in previous years it hasn't been possible," Sandup says. "When the leaders' summit was held in other countries, other groups tried to demonstrate--but they're not all free and democratic societies, so there were limits to what they could do and say."