SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION OF BOYS IN SOUTH ASIA A ...

9.1 Research
Prioritize research activities
• Conduct consultations with government, NGOs, civil society actors (including
children and young people) and donor partners to identify knowledge gaps and needs.
• Prioritize and coordinate research activities.
Improve quality of research
• Build capacity of NGOs on research methodologies.
• Promote collaborative research efforts between professional researchers and NGO
research teams.
• Establish a mechanism for submitting research drafts for peer review.
Develop evidence-based foundation information. The needs include:
• National quantitative studies on sexual abuse of boys and girls.
• National quantitative studies on sexual exploitation of boys.
• Qualitative studies on sexual abuse and exploitation of boys.
• Studies to examine the linkages between child sexual abuse and sexual exploitation.
• Studies to examine the linkages between vulnerable situations of boys (labour,
migration, street living) and sexual abuse and exploitation.
• Studies directed at boys from disadvantaged groups, including ethnic minorities and
disabled children.
Develop evidence-based information for programme application. The needs include:
• Children’s views and perceptions of sexual abuse and exploitation and of the services
available for them.
• Research on gender relations and gender socialization, including construction of
masculinity, and information on male sexuality.
• Psychological impact of sexual abuse and exploitation on boys.
• Family unity and dysfunction, roles of mothers and fathers, parenting practices,
children’s participation in the family.
• Culture-based definitions of sexual abuse, maturity of children and sexual
relationships; cultural barriers to reporting; causes of stigma of abuse victims.
• Perpetrators of child sexual abuse and exploitation.
9.2 Legislation
Assure that national law fully complies with relevant international standards and
instruments and is fully implemented by ensuring that:
• All relevant international human rights instruments are ratified;
• International human rights standards are fully and appropriately incorporated into
national law and/or that all national law – civil, criminal, customary and other relevant
law – fully complies with them, and that they can be invoked directly and enforced
through the courts, including by children and/or their representatives;
• Boys and girls – and in particular children with relevant experiences – are involved in
reviewing laws and developing legal frameworks to combat sexual exploitation;
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