ASEANAPOL CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION CONFERENCE MANILA, PHILIPPINES 6TH-8TH SEPTEMBER 2022

The ASEANAPOL Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE) Conference was held on the 6^th-8^th September 2022 which was fully sponsored and hosted by the British Embassy, Her Majesty Ambassador (HMA) Laure Beaufils and supported by the United Kingdom National Crime Agency (UK-NCA) in collaboration with the ASEANAPOL Secretariat.

The ASEANAPOL CSAE Conference was conducted in Manila, Philippines which was attended by officers from ASEANAPOL Member Countries except from the RMP and LPF. ASEANAPOL Secretariat representatives were also invited to this event and were represented by DPS, Pol. Snr. Supt. Joni Getamala and DPP Pol. Supt. Jacky Tang Yik Tung.  

The opening of this Conference was initiated with the Honourable HMA, who graced with her welcoming and opening remarks. She highlighted the seriousness of the number of registered sex offenders who have committed sexual offences against children and therefore combatting child sexual abuse is a priority for the NCA and all of UK law enforcement. A key part of the UK law enforcement’s effort is the NCA’s work is establishing the Philippines Internet Crimes Against Children Centre (PICACC) which was set up since February 2019 by the International Justice Mission (IJM), National Bureau of Investigations (NBI), Philippine National Police (PNP), the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the NCA.

PICACC is recognized internationally as a Centre of Excellence and was envisaged to bring together domestic and international law enforcement agencies alongside the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) under one structure to coordinate law enforcement resources, expertise and capabilities. The collaboration effort by this Centre in sharing intelligence, knowledge and investigation has greatly mitigate CSAE crime threats in the Philippines.

The first day of the Conference covered topics such as the ASEANAPOL Member Countries (AMCs) national response and threat to CSAE, introduction to the National Centre for Missing Exploited Children (NCMEC), intelligence sources/feeds, research techniques, legislations and victim identification.

Second day touched on the Operation Case Studies and discussion on operational response which included the consideration for deployments, safeguarding legislation, multi-agencies working together in gathering evidence, image grading and an overview of PICACC’s model. NCA expert also covered, the often neglected issues on the officer health and wellbeing; how to spot, when and what materials are having a negative impact on officers and tactics to improve their wellbeing.

The last day saw the Operational Case Studies on online response and live-streaming/human trafficking cases. The UK International Crime Bureau (UKICB) agents touched on the prevention and pursuing of transnational Child Sex Offenders especially when they travel overseas. T heir power to manage and restrict CSAE offenders for travelling and the use of INTERPOL police to police collaboration including circulating Notices/Diffusions, NCB to NCB and I-24/7 access and search.

The overall Conference concluded with a successful outcome in enrichment of knowledge that give extra satisfaction to all delegates as well as those speakers from UK NCA and UKICB. Hopefully this will be an annual contribution from the UK government and UK NCA especially, to support in suppressing CSAE in ASEAN region and beyond.