ABSTRACT
The exploitation of children by travelling child sex offenders – child sex tourism – is a crime type that fits squarely within the wider body of transnational criminal law. Yet the key international obligations requiring states to implement criminal justice responses to child sex tourism are contained in human rights treaties – the Convention on the Rights of the Child1 (CRC) and its Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography2 (Optional Protocol) – which define the measures required to build a strong legal and law enforcement response to child sex tourism. Notwithstanding the importance of human rights-based approaches to child protection in this context, the grave nature of criminal conduct associated with child sex tourism, the cross-border element of the crime, and the global drive to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice mean that international approaches must also focus on promoting effective and coordinated criminal justice responses.
