THE REPUBLIC OF THE GAMBIA’S COMBINED REPORT ON THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN & PEOPLES’ RIGHTS & INITIAL REPORT ON THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA Combating Sexual Exploitation of children The main legislations that provide for sexual exploitation of children are The Children’s Act of 2005, The Criminal Code, The Trafficking in persons Act of 2007 The Tourism Offences Act of 2003 and the Sexual Offences Act 2013. In order to ensure rigorous enforcement of these legislative instruments, the Department of Social Welfare has trained law enforcers on these instruments, strengthening their capacity in investigation and interviewing techniques especially for crimes of sexual nature against children. It has also established child rights and protection units within The Gambia Police Force, Gambia Immigration Department and The Gambia Armed Forces and provides continuous capacity development to the officers in these Units. With support from UNICEF, in 2012 the Department of Social Welfare developed a Child Protection Training Manual for The Gambia Police Force which has been mainstreamed into the training curriculum of The Gambia Police Training Academy. The Gambia Armed Forces also has a similar training manual, developed with support from Child Fund-The Gambia, which is part of the training curriculum of The Gambia Armed Forced Training School. Similar training Manuals have been developed on Prevention of Gender Based Violence by The Gambia Women's Bureau in 2013 and Prevention of Child Sex Tourism by The Gambia Tourism Board in 2012. The Gambia Tourism Board also provides routine capacity building on the Tourism Offences Act 2003 for members of the Tourism Security Unit. These initiatives, coupled with the public sensitization on the media and community social mobilization campaigns that the Department of Social Welfare conducts in partnership with civil society organizations are geared towards effective and rigorous enforcement of the legislative instruments. The Child Protection Alliance, a child rights coalition in The Gambia, in partnership with The Gambia Tourism Board, has from 2010 to date, sensitized 151 stakeholders (taxi drivers, hotel workers, tourist Guides, personnel of the Tourism Security Unit, small scale entrepreneurs) in the Tourism industry on the Code of Conduct of The Gambia Tourism Board for the Protection of Children, the Tourism Offences Act 2003 and the Sexual Offences Act, to ensure greater protection of children from sexual exploitation in tourism. 93