United Nations special rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children Mama Fatima Singhateh is set meet with Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on Wednesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed on Saturday.
DOJ spokesman Assistant Secretary Mico Clavano said Singhateh will visit the DOJ office upon Remulla’s invitation.
“The purpose of the meeting is for Secretary Remulla to express his gratitude to the UN representative for visiting the Philippines and to answer any questions she may still have after her visit to the different local governments around the country,” Clavano said in a statement.
“We invited a third special rapporteur on EJKs. Why? Because we want to increase or do capacity building for our forensic pathologists in the country,” Remulla said.
“Right now, we only have two licensed, legal, legitimate and actually internationally accepted forensic pathologist in our country,” he added.
Singhateh became the first UN special rapporteur to visit the Philippines since 2015 Clavano said Remulla wants to give Singhateh “a more macro perspective” of the online sexual abuse and exploitation of children situation.
Remulla will also explain the role of the national government in putting an end to criminal activities involving minors, said Clavano.
“We are looking forward to the UN Special Rapporteur’s visit to DOJ. Even more, we believe that this visit will provide more momentum in our war against OSAEC (Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children),” Clavano said. Rey Requejo
Singhateh’s visit is the first by a UN special rapporteur under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and the first in the country in seven years.
Clavano said Singhateh on Friday met with other DOJ officials regarding concerns on online sexual abuse and exploitation of children.
He said the meeting also tackled local mechanisms for child abuse and exploitation cases.
Clavano also the DOJ officials presented awareness programs for these local mechanisms and the challenges accompanying the case build-up and in filing, as well as in the prosecution of the complaints.
Singahateh will be in the country until Dec. 8 “to assess the situation and the progress made in combating and preventing the sale and sexual
exploitation of children in the light of international human rights norms and standards.”
She is one of the three UN special rapporteurs scheduled to visit the Philippines.
The other two are Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings (EJKs) Dr. Morris Tidball-Binz and Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion Irene Khan.
Remulla said earlier that among the three, Tidball-Binz was official invited to visit the country.
In 2016, former President Rodrigo Duterte canceled a scheduled 2017 visit by then-UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions Agnes Callamard after a public word war over thousands of killings in connection with his bloody drug war.