CZECH REPUBLIC : CHILD PROSTITUTION

Child Prostitution

The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

Czech Republic
[ Country-by-Country Reports ]
The Czech Republic [map], located in central Europe, is bordered by Slovakia (E), Austria (S), Germany (W), and Poland (N). Prague is its capital and largest city. The Czech Republic is one of the most stable and prosperous of the post-Communist states of Central and Eastern Europe. Growth in 2000-04 was supported by exports to the EU, primarily to Germany, and a strong recovery of foreign and domestic investment.

CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Czech Republic. Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated, misleading or even false. No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.
ECPAT – On-line form for reporting child prostitution and other sexual offences against children
Quick Search for Missing Children - Select Gender, Czech Republic, and Years Missing
UNICEF - Country Statistics
National Plan of Action
U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs
GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND PROGRAMS TO ELIMINATE THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR - The Government adopted the National Plan Combating Commercial Sexual Abuse in July 2000, and the Interior Ministry’s Crime Prevention Division launched a national media campaign on the dangers of trafficking, and a school-based awareness program for children aged 13 to 14 years.
INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - The popular press and government reports indicate that commercial sexual exploitation, including the involvement of children in sex tourism, is a problem. There are some reports of internal trafficking of Czech children from areas of low employment near border regions with Germany and Austria. In addition, girls from the former Soviet Union, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East are trafficked to the Czech Republic for sexual exploitation
Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005
CHILDREN - Children were engaged in prostitution for survival without third party involvement. NGOs have reported that many teenage prostitutes were either runaways or products of orphanages and the foster care system. Some NGOs asserted that orphanages did not prepare young teens adequately to be self‑sufficient upon reaching legal adulthood. A special police team was formed in 2004 specifically to deal with the sexual exploitation of children in Cheb, a town on the German border where sex tourism was a problem.
Male adolescents, some as young as 13 years old, engaged in prostitution for survival. NGOs that worked with these children attributed the problem to a dysfunctional foster care system that failed to provide adequate job skills for a modern economy while preventing unwanted children from being adopted by capable parents.
Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2003
[60] The Committee welcomes:
(a) The establishment in spring of 2002 of a trilateral Czech-German-Polish working group to address, inter alia, trafficking in human beings, in particular the sexual exploitation of children for prostitution occurring in these areas;
(b) The information contained in the State party’s report (paras. 334 and 335) on social, preventive and re-socialization programs for victims of sexual exploitation, as well as the adoption in July 2000 of the National Plan to Fight Commercial Sexual Abuse of Children and amendments to the Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure made in 2002;
(c) The significant work done by NGOs in this field.
The squalid truth about call girl lit
When Aneta was offered a job across the border from her Czech village, she jumped at the chance. The pretty 17-year-old was to be a nanny for a rich family. Petr, the handsome man who recruited her, promised she would travel with them to London, America even. "You'll get to practise your English," he joked. The next day Aneta, along with ten other local girls, met Petr on the edge of their village, handed over their passports and climbed into a waiting people carrier. It was to be the longest journey of their lives.
Hours later when the van came to a juddering halt, instead of a family, a group of rough-looking men were waiting. They had guns and dogs, which they used to bundle the girls, some as young as 14, out of the van and into a dank cellar where they ordered them to strip naked and stand in line. The men moved along the line grabbing the women roughly, inspecting their teeth, their breasts and between their legs. The girls were crying. "We were just horseflesh," Aneta recalls. Each was dragged from the room at gunpoint and gang raped. Within days they were smuggled across Europe to work in brothels.
Joint East West Research on Trafficking in Children for Sexual Purposes in Europe: The Sending Countries [PDF]
[page 33] A phenomenon in the Czech Republic, described by the NGO ENYA, is the so-called "gayfriendly family houses", where sex tourists can rent rooms and along with the room they get a prostituted minor boy. Many young boys also travel abroad for short periods with tourists from Austria, Germany, Greece and other places. Clients are described in the report as mostly ‘normal’ citizens, average men, from all social classes, but mainly middle class. There is a special group of clients who are paedophiles, and they come from all over the world, but are mostly German. The Czech Vice Squad says that ‘very high’ prices are paid by paedophiles for prostitutes who are less than 15 years of age. The purchase of very young children for €20,000 is mentioned in the research. But some children are paid with sweets or toys.
Clients get information from the Internet, and from personal contact. Children who are used in prostitution are also used for the making of pornography. Many paedophiles film their sexual intercourse with minors, and then distribute it on the Internet.
ECPAT: Fifth Report on implementation of the Agenda for Action [DOC]
[B] COUNTRY UPDATES – CZECH REPUBLIC – In July 2000, the Czech Government approved the National Plan for the Fight Against Commercial Child Sex Abuse, as developed by the Ministry of Interior-Prevention of Criminality Department. The plan has four main objectives and each one lists proposed measures, implementing institutions and expected results. The objectives are: improving the legislative framework; improving cooperation in the areas of education and prevention (law enforcers, educational institutions, etc.); enhancing the effectiveness of criminal prosecution and reinforcing the protection of victims and witnesses and the process of victim re-socialisation.
Report by Special Rapporteur - 2003
[37] In July 2002, amendments were made to the Penal Code to bring Czech law concerning trafficking of children and child pornography into line with European law and the OP/SOC, which is expected to be ratified soon. The procurement of children for prostitution, or the profit from child prostitution is punishable under the Penal Code, and the phenomenon is particularly problematic in large urban areas and in the regions bordering Germany and Austria. Children do not incur liability for their involvement in these offences, except where a child, from the age of 15, procures another child for prostitution, or disseminates child pornography.
Children Still at Risk - 2005
In Germany, UNICEF and ECPAT criticize the authorities for not keeping the promises made in November 2003. After the publication of the original KARO report.
UNICEF Stirs Controversy With Claims Of Widespread Child Prostitution - 2003 Report
For 12-year-old Karel, it was poverty that drove him into prostitution. "Before, I used to beg from the Germans in their cars. We have no money at home," he told social workers. "Then I just drove away with them." Karel is just one of a growing number of boys and girls living off prostitution in the Czech-German border area, according to a report released yesterday by the UN International Children's Education Fund (UNICEF) and ECPAT, an international children's rights organization.
Child-Prostitution Claims Disputed but UNICEF Stands by its Report
In late October the German branch of UNICEF released a report by the German social-work agency KARO asserting that the borderlands are home to widespread pedophilia and child prostitution. Czech officials said that KARO is home to a self-promoting writer seeking to exploit the issue for publicity purposes.
Tourist Authority, Police Target Sex Tourists
Months after an explosive report portrayed Czech border towns as havens for underage sex, the Czech Tourist Authority (CTA) and police have begun a campaign that puts pay-for-sex pedophiles on notice and attempts to steer them toward the country's more wholesome attractions.
Czech Challenge To Child Prostitution
Details have been emerging of a new plan drawn up by the Czech Republic to combat child prostitution. The plan follows criticism by Germany, which has accused the Czechs of not doing enough to co-operate in the fight against sex tourism. The Czech Republic is considered to be one of the biggest centers for pedophile activity in Europe. The government plan calls for the issue of child prostitution to be included in sex education in schools. A spokesman said the idea was to make children more aware of the problem.
German Campaign Against Child Prostitution In The Czech Republic
The German government has launched a campaign to fight child prostitution in the Czech Republic, with leaflets and posters warning of the harsh sentences that await those who have sex with children either in Germany or the Czech Republic.
Up To Ten Thousand Czech Children Go Missing Every Year
Although most missing children are found, in the short time they spend out on the streets, they are at a very high risk of being abused. Most of them are street children without any money or food and they are prepared to accept any offer in order to survive even to be in a pornographic video tape or be clients of pedophiles."
Pedophilia in the Czech Republic
The town of Cheb in the Czech Republic is well known as a beautiful place, its old town square full of pastel-washed houses dating back to the eleventh century. But in recent years, it's gained a different reputation - as a centre for child prostitution. Reporters working undercover for the Today program were offered girls of 9 and 11 for sex when they posed as German tourists.

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