Awareness center
Laws
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
The main existing international instrument in the field of protection of children’s rights, including sexual exploitation, is “UN Convention on the Rights of the Child” from 1989. It protects children from all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse, abduction, sale and trafficking, and all other forms of exploitation and cruel or inhuman treatment. Article 34 of “Convention on the Rights of the Child” requires from member States to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, including the inducement or coercion of a child to engage in unlawful sexual activity and the exploitative use of children in pornographic performances and materials.
Domestic legal sources for combating the problems of child pornography
(criminal legislation, procedural legislation, misuse of computer data and programs)
Criminal law
The basic form of protecting children from pornography as an organized criminal activity is contained within the criminal codes that apply in BiH.
Criminal offenses that are directly related to “child pornography” are governed by entity criminal legislation. These laws contain two forms of criminal offenses (Criminal Laws of the FBiH, RS and Brčko District of BiH), and are under the jurisdiction of Cantonal and District Prosecutor’s Offices in BiH and the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Brčko District of BiH.
Most of the methods of committing criminal offenses that are considered “child pornography” are covered by criminal law of BiH, although the criminal norms in entity laws are not fully uniform, so that they have not fully incorporated the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.