Whilst the value of human integrity within the laws of individual states and the documents of international human rights is being increasingly consolidated and will become, sooner or later, the primary concern of the law, severe breaches of this value are indeed still widespread. In particular the sexual exploitation of children constitutes one of the most serious questions of national, regional, transnational and international law. According to international records, every fifteen seconds a child is raped in Africa alone. Almost half of the cases heard by the ICTY concern the sexual exploitation of women and children during armed conflict. More or less similar conclusions may be reached regarding the ICTR or the SCSL. In Rwanda alone, 500,000 females were raped. Almost 200,000 females and children have been the victims of cruel forms of sexual violence during the conflicts in Congo. Sexual abuse of children by priests cannot any longer be ignored in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, France, Ireland, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States, although it is ignored in most Islamic countries. The sexual exploitation of children is also widely practised in many other countries. Regrettably, 79% of all world trafficking is for sexual exploitation. The principal subject matter of this book is the legal etymology of sexual exploitation governing minors. The aim is to identify and analyse jus cogens and obligation erga omnes in relation to the sexual exploitation of children and to evaluate the international responsibility of states in relation to the elimination or prevention of the crime, and the prosecution and punishment of offenders.
About the Author: Farhad Malekian is a Distinguished Visiting Professor and the Founder and Director of the Institute of International Criminal Law, Sweden. He introduced the principle of International Tribunality of Jurisdiction at the Cornell Law School in 2005. He is the author of outstanding selected major treatises as well as a considerable number of well-established scholarly books and articles which have been an integral part of reading literature at a number of universities. Kerstin Nordlof, Doctor of Laws and a Professor at Orebro University in Sweden, is a distinguished leading authority in defending children's rights in the Nordic countries. She has several publications in the field. She was a judge of the Court of Appeal in Stockholm. Her books have been a good source of reference in the preparatory works of the Swedish government and are broadly referred to by scholars of criminal law and criminal procedures.