Georgia joins global efforts to fight online child abuse

Georgia has adopted an international declaration aimed at providing greater global cooperation in the fight against online child abuse.

A Washington D.C. meeting of Justice Ministers from around the world, including Georgia’s Thea Tsulukiani, heard that no country was immune from this widespread crime.

Representatives of the countries who supported global action to eradicate online child abuse made up the Global Alliance Against Online Child Sexual Abuse. The group met on Tuesday and agreed on a plan to help law enforcement officials who faced significant challenges from the borderless crime.

Georgia’s Minister of Justice said fighting online child abuse was impossible without global cooperation.

"When Georgia becomes a place of shelter for criminals that are accused of child abuse, the Georgian side will spare no efforts to arrest the suspected person and launch extradition procedures,” Minister Tsulukiani said.

She said Georgian law enforcement agencies had uncovered a number of child abuses cases with cooperation from Greece, American and Swiss colleagues.

The Minister said Georgian law enforcement agencies would continue to pursue online child sex abuse cases and enhancing its efforts to investigate cases and identify and prosecute offenders.

However, Tsulukiani stressed that in fighting this kind of crime, it was crucially important not only to punish the offender but also to protect the rights of the young victim.

The international Justice Ministers signed a declaration which focused on working efficiently with Internet service providers to ensure all countries had timely access to material they needed to combat online child abuse.

Such abuse included distribution and trade of child pornography via the Internet, which resulted in continued harm to the victims depicted in the images or videos.

Meanwhile global leaders and experts involved in investigative, public policy, victim advocacy and legal arenas shared their insight and experience using cutting edge means to tackle online child exploitation at the second Ministerial Conference of the Global Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Online in Washington D.C. on September 29-30.