Hungary There is no child prostitution – they say – but in fact many suffer it

January 27, 2011

Comment: The article describes a recent correspondence between a member of Parliament (governing party) and the Minister of Interior. The representative pointed out that Hungary does not even try to comply with the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (harrassement of sex workers by police, their regular fining for ‘offences’, requiring a health check-up). She also asked about the legal anomaly that was created by a recent law that allows the imprisonment of minors: on the one hand the Criminal Code confirms that the commercial sexual exploitation of children is a criminal matter, while this recent law allows sexually exploited children (or ‘under-age prostitutes’ as the article calls them) to be imprisoned. Representative Ilona Ekes is proposing the set-up of a special team within the police to fight child commercial sexual exploitation and to change the law regarding prostitution.

The article goes on to describe the Minister’s answer, which is clearly disregarding the CRC and ignoring the legal anomaly existing in Hungary. Mr. Sandor Pinter, in his answer points to the fact that only a small number of cases of child commercial sexual exploitation (‘child prostitution’) were detected by police in Hungary, i.e. that the phenomenon hardly exists, and that according to police these children willingly perform this service. He dismisses the proposal to set up a special unit saying that the low identification rates do not justify it and points to the education sector for more prevention work.

The article – while using the wrong terminology for the phenomena – is quite good in pointing to the cynical elements of the Minister’s answer: It highlights the fact that according to the Minister’s answer, Hungary would be a country where child commercial exploitation did not exist!

It shows that child care institutions have already signaled the fact that many of the girls living there fall victim to sexual exploitation, whereas there is no police investigation into these cases, i.e. there is a clear problem with identification. Also it points out how wrong the Minister is implying that these children can volunteer to sexual exploitation. It would have been even better if the article pointed to the fact that in case of children, ‘consent is irrelevant’. Based on his answer, there is a clear problem with police training – criminalizing children and not identifying them as victims of commercial sexual exploitation.

Comment: Judit Almasi, Head of Terre des hommes’ Regional Office for C/SEE.