VZCZCXYZ0018
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDG #1028/01 1772002
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 252002Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1006
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 001028 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CASC CVIS PHUM SOCI DR
SUBJECT: ICMEC EXPLORES AREAS OF COOPERATION WITH GODR TO 
COMBAT CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION 
 
¶1. Summary: Guillermo Galarza, a Program Director of the 
International Center for Missing and Exploited Children 
(ICMEC), an NGO, visited the DR to raise awareness of the 
global issue of child sexual exploitation and to meet with 
local government officials to explore areas of cooperation 
and aid.  The Embassy's Public Affairs Section (PAS) 
scheduled interviews with a leading radio program and 
newspaper, wherein Galarza emphasized the need to educate 
parents, families, children and schools on child sexual 
exploitation.  In addition, Galarza accompanied by EmbOffs, 
met with GODR officials to explore areas of cooperation and 
assistance, with the GODR responding positively to ICMEC 
offers of training and technical assistance.  ICMEC hopes to 
sign memoranda of understanding (MOU) with the GODR within 
the next months, an encouraging step towards GODR efforts to 
combat child sexual exploitation. End Summary. 
 
¶2. In a meeting with Attorney General (AG) Radhames Jimenez 
Pena, Assistant AG for Trafficking in Persons Frank Soto, 
Assistant AG for Children's Issues Marisol Toval, Police 
Chief Rafael Guzman Fermin, Child and Youth Welfare Ministry 
(CONANI) Executive Director Kirsys Fernandez and Foreign 
Ministry Under-secretary of Consular and Migration Issues 
Rosario Graciano de los Santos, Galarza presented three areas 
of focus of ICMEC: assistance and collaboration in drafting 
model legislation combating child sexual exploitation; 
training for prosecutors, police, NGOs and international 
organizations on how to recognize and prosecute cyber child 
sex crimes; and cooperation with financial service 
institutions and internet service providers (ISPs) to track 
purveyors of child pornography. 
 
¶3. ICMEC has launched a global campaign to combat child 
pornography and conducted a research on child pornography 
legislation in 186 Interpol member countries.  In particular, 
ICMEC was looking to see if national legislation: 
 
(1) exists with specific regard to child pornography, and not 
just pornography in general; 
(2) provides a definition of child pornography; 
(3) expressly criminalizes computer-facilitated offenses; 
(4) criminalizes possession of child pornography, regardless 
of the intent to distribute; and 
(5) requires ISPs to report suspected child pornography to 
law enforcement or to some other mandated agency. 
 
The result of their research is on the internet at 
http://www.icmec.org/ and is also published in a report 
"Child Pornography: Model Legislation and Global Review 
2006."  Galarza highlighted that the report published last 
year shows the DR only has legislation "with specific regard 
to child pornography, and not just pornography in general." 
Soto clarified that the DR passed Law 53-07 right around the 
publication of the report last year that defines child 
pornography as well as criminalizes the online possession and 
distribution of it. 
 
¶4. Fernandez stated that though the DR seems to have adequate 
legislation, the country could receive more training and 
assistance in learning how to prosecute child sexual 
exploitation crimes.  Galarza stated that ICMEC has provided 
training to numerous police force and prosecutors in various 
countries worldwide and is interested in providing training 
to the police and prosecutors in the DR.  Guzman Fermin and 
Jimenez Pena expressed enthusiasm and intrest in receiving 
this training. 
 
¶5. Galarza aso highlighted ICMEC's efforts to engage private 
firms such as ISPs and financial services institutions to 
combat online child pornography.  Galarza highlighted that 
ISPs in the U.S. must report instances of child pornography 
in their servers and networks or face a fine of US$50,000 per 
image.  He noted though the law seems to be effective in 
reducing instances of child pornography in U.S. servers and 
networks, it has resulted in purveyors of child pornography 
hosting their illicit activities in non-U.S. servers and 
networks instead.  Galarza noted that in the D.R. there are 
over 2,500 unique internet protocol (IP) addresses that may 
be serving or hosting child pornography content.  Galarza 
suggested that local officials meet with Dominican ISPs to 
review if cooperation in this area is feasible.  Soto 
acknowledged that Dominican ISPs are not required to report 
instances of child pornography in their networks and servers; 
however, he stated that they could review the idea with the 
Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (INDOTEL). 
 
¶6. Galarza also described the ICMEC initiative to elicit 
assistance from a financial services coalition to track users 
 
who use their credit cards to subscribe to illicit child porn 
sites.  Though Galarza highlighted the identification of 
child porn purveyors via their financial transactions as an 
effective tool, Galarza admitted there are some privacy 
issues being considered by the coalition at this moment. 
Members of this coalition include America Online, Bank of 
America, Microsoft and PayPal.  Dominican officials did not 
comment on this particular initiative. 
 
¶7. Comment:  ICMEC's global efforts to combat child sexual 
exploitation focus on three areas: model and comprehensive 
legislation, education and training, and private-public 
cooperation and collaboration.  Although the DR recently 
passed legislation criminalizing online possession of child 
pornography, more remains to be done in terms of raising 
awareness, police and prosecutor technical training and 
capacity, and public-private partnerships.  Several 
high-level officials expressed interest and enthusiasm about 
working with ICMEC, with CONANI taking the lead and offering 
to be the principal liaison.  End Comment. 
FANNIN