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Source:
www.gov.sg
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Response By Senior Minister Of
State For Law And Home Affairs A/P Ho Peng Kee At The Committee Of
Supply Debate 2006 On The Ministry Of Home Affairs, 02 March 2006 |
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An Excerpt |
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Protecting minors against sexual
exploitation within Singapore |
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First, let me address the problem of young
persons engaging in prostitution. |
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While prostitution is not an offence in
Singapore, young persons should be protected from providing sexual
services. Being more easily influenced, their consent can be impaired.
As such, they are more vulnerable to being trafficked, controlled and
exploited by pimps and traffickers who prey on them and live off their
earnings. |
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The existing legal age of consent for sexual
activities is 16 years. |
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Although there is no evidence to suggest
that there is a problem of significant numbers of 16 and 17 year olds
engaging in prostitution in Singapore, there should be a higher age of
protection for commercial sexual activities. As such, we intend to make
it an offence for any person to purchase sexual services from another
person who is under 18 years of age. |
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Other countries such as UK and New Zealand
have adopted a similar approach. This move is part of the wider approach
we are adopting to protect young persons against engaging in commercial
sexual activities and possible exploitation, and not only specifically
in response to the possible sexual victimisation of the young via the
Internet which Ms Indranee has touched on. |
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Child Sex Tourism: Protecting minors
against sexual exploitation outside Singapore |
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Next, I will deal with the issue of child sex
tourism. |
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Child sex tourists take advantage of the
inability or unwillingness of the host country to prosecute them.
Meanwhile, very often, prosecution at home is constrained by the
lack of jurisdiction, as most countries do not extend
extra-territorial jurisdiction over sexual offences. |
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Presently, Singaporeans who have sex
with minors in other countries cannot be prosecuted in Singapore, as
our courts do not have jurisdiction over them. |
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Members had earlier urged the Government
to stop our nationals from preying on minors in other countries by
denying them a safe haven through enacting legislation with
extra-territorial effect. We have taken note of these views, and
have factored them into our review. |
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The Inter-Agency Committee has studied
laws governing sex with minors overseas in other countries.
Countries that have extended jurisdiction overseas include
Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, U.K. and U.S. |
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While we do not condone sexual
exploitation of minors in other countries by our nationals, we also
recognise that, if extra-territorial jurisdiction is introduced, it
would be challenging to investigate and prosecute cases involving
offences committed by Singaporeans in other countries. |
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Ms Rajah mentioned some of these
obstacles yesterday in this House such as language barriers and
different local conditions making it difficult to trace and
interview foreign witnesses and gather evidence. |
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As Singapore Police has no powers of
investigation overseas, it would have to rely principally on the
cooperation of its foreign counterparts. I had explained these
difficulties in Parliament and and taken the opportunity to urge
host countries to do their part to toughen their laws and enforce
them vigorously. |
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At the same time, we said we would
continue to study the issue and monitor developments in other
countries. Our point was that efforts in this regard must be a
collaborative one. Enacting extra-territorial laws by itself was no
panacea. I am happy to note that what we said in Parliament
galvanised action on several fronts. |
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But still, despite the constraints and
difficulties, we recognise that having sex with minors anywhere is
indeed deplorable. |
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Hence, Government has decided to amend
our laws to extend extra-territorial jurisdiction over our nationals
who sexually exploit minors overseas. I agree with Ms Rajah that by
doing so, we send a strong signal that we are against this abhorrent
act. Hopefully, it will also act as a deterrent. |
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The measures against child sex tourism
will be introduced as part of the legislative changes that we will
make once we have completed the review of the Penal Code, a pet
topic of Mr Charles Chong who has asked for an update. |
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This review has taken a long time
because the Penal Code, with more than 500 sections, is a very
important piece of legislation and we want to be as thorough as
possible in reviewing it. After all, this is the first
comprehensive, holistic review of the Penal Code that we have
undertaken for a long while. |
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Moreover, the review has stretched out
because as we went along, new issues surfaced; for example, the
impact of technology such as the internet and mobile phones, which
have become an integral part of the lifestyle in Singapore, and
which is increasingly employed by criminals to perpetrate their
criminal activities. |
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However, let me assure Mr Chong that we
will indeed be completing our review soon. Thereafter, we intend to
carry out a public consultation exercise at which time, I would also
welcome comments from Mr Chong, the Law Society and members of the
public. |
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Full Text of Speech |
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Source:
www.mha.gov.sg News Release 2
Mar 2006 |
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