Terms of Reference (ToR)
Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK)

Legal analysis of existing laws on Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children

1. Background:
Sexual harassment and exploitation of children in offline/online is a growing issue of concern in Bangladesh. Poverty plays as a key push factor for sexual exploitation of children. The latest UNDP report on human development shows that the proportion of the population living in multidimensional poverty is high throughout the South Asia, with the highest rates in Bangladesh (58%). Other push factors are lack of access to education and quality education, unemployment problem in rural areas, lack of scopes for institutional skill development, lack of knowledge about risk factor, different forms of sexual exploitation etc. Pull factors include dream of city life, aspiration for lucrative jobs, supplement the family income, poor law enforcement, lack of awareness among parents, and Child marriage as form of sexual exploitation and as a contributing factor to this violation continues to be a serious concern.

One of the mentionable problems for the vulnerable and victims is the knowledge gap on how and from where services can be accessed. It is also important to remember that sexually exploited children are often explicitly threatened with violence if they disclose any information about the harassment. So it is essential to break their silence and make them able to use this law which is already made for protecting them from such abuses. On the contrary, we have sufficient laws in our country addressing the various issues but reality is that we have no comprehensive law that can address all sorts of incidents happening in online and offline platforms including sexual harassment, abuse and exploitation covering the whole people including children of gender, ethnic minority, indigenous community, transgender, dalit and all other marginalized community in our country still now. The government enacted laws to combat cybercrimes and pornography but this law does not have adequate provisions to address online sexual harassment, abuse and exploitation of children.

Therefore, considering the magnitude of the issue, Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) under the project “Building Back Better in times of Covid 19 fighting sexual exploitation of children on the rise” is planning to review the existing relevant laws and explore the gaps and challenges in order to addressing all these loopholes in the relevant laws which cover all these areas like an umbrella. The findings of the legal analysis will feed into strengthening existing laws and policies related to the Sexual abuse and Exploitation of Children. Based on the analysis, a set of practical legal and policy recommendation will be presented to the relevant authorities to act upon.

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