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Baroness Howe of Idlicote asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether the United Kingdom is a party to any international treaties of legal obligations which seek to prohibit pornographic or paedophilic images on the Internet.[HL1227]
Baroness Scotland of Asthal: The United Kingdom is fully involved with international initiatives to combat the circulation of indecent images of children via the Internet. The Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention, signed in November 2001, aims to provide for common definitions and minimum standards for offences concerning child abuse images handled on computers. It also seeks to provide for investigative methods appropriate for the offences and for collecting evidence in an electronic form, and to define measures to ensure effective international co-operation. The UK is also signatory to a Council of the European Union Framework Decision on combating the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, which is broader as it covers behaviour on or offline. In addition, the e-commerce directive, under Article 19, lays a general obligation on member states to co-operate with each other in dealing with cross-border complaints about online services.
In the G8 group a strategy on "Protecting Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet" was adopted in October 2002. The strategy is designed to complement existing national and international initiatives, and has eight key objectives addressing: information and intelligence gathering, dissemination and sharing; victim identification; suspect location; legislation; law enforcement tools and training; industry and NGO co-operation; awareness building and prevention; and international co-operation. An important element of the strategy is an international child pornography image database. The database aims to act as a global respository of images with the capacity to carry out automated analysis. It would be a significant tool for law enforcement contributing to the identification of victims and offenders and analysis of images to establish locations and other linkages. An implementation study is currently being undertaken. The G8 has also established a network operating 24 hours a day for the exchange of information in investigations involving electronic evidence that require urgent assistance from foreign law enforcement, which now involves 33 countries.
However, there are no specific international initiatives dealing with images involving sexual or
violent activities among adults, as there is no international consensus on what constitutes obscenity, or when the freedom of an adult to have access to obscene or pornographic material should be constrained.
Baroness Howe of Idlicote asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Which Government department has responsibility for receiving or dealing with complaints about the showing of pornographic or paedophilic images on the Internet.[HL1228]
Baroness Scotland of Asthal: My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department has responsibility for this area of the criminal law.
Pornography is not defined in law, but the Obscene Publications Act 1959 covers material which is considered by the courts as tending to "deprave and corrupt" those who read, see or hear it. The Protection of Children Act 1978 (as amended) covers the taking, making, distribution or simple possession of indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children. This legislation applies equally to the Internet as to other media.
Internet users can report potentially illegal material to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) via their website (www.iwf.org.uk) or to the police.
Baroness Howe of Idlicote asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they are satisfied that the present non-statutory Internet Watch arrangements are sufficient to deal with the trade in pornographic and paedophilic images; and, if not, what further action they intend to take.[HL1230]
Baroness Scotland of Asthal: The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is an industry-funded body which allows anyone to report the presence of images of child abuse anywhere in the world. The foundation determines whether the reported website carries potentially illegal material, and passes details of illegal material to the relevant law enforcement agencies to initiate action against the originators. Where the site is hosted within the UK, law enforcement will seek its removal with the relevant Internet service provider (ISP) and this procedure has been extremely successful in practice. The IWF is providing an invaluable service dealing with 21,341 reports in 2002, 9,602 of which contained potentially illegal content: it is significant that in 2002 only 2 per cent of sites reported to the IWF that contained indecent photographs of children were hosted within the UK, the bulk being hosted in the USA, Russia, and some other European states. In respect of adult pornography, we are confident in the ability of the IWF to identify material that is potentially in breach of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 in response to complaints, and to refer to the police any which is hosted within the UK.
Terrorism: Risk Assessments
The Countess of Mar asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether any toxic pesticides are included in the risk assessments of terrorist attacks; and, if so, which ones.[HL1281]
Baroness Scotland of Asthal: The Government are considering a wide variety of potential scenarios within the risk assessments of terrorist attacks.
We do not give specific details as the information would be of use to terrorists.
Lord Rotherwick asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether any assessments or reviews have been undertaken in regard to the use of animal diseases as a weapon for bio-terrorism.[HL1318]
Baroness Scotland of Asthal: The Government are considering a wide variety of potential scenarios within the risk assessments of terrorist attacks.
We are not able to give specific details as the information might be of use to terrorists.
War Crimes: Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic
Lord Astor of Hever asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is their policy concerning the detection and arrest of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic; and what resources they are devoting to this.[HL1148]
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean): The Government remain fully committed to bringing Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic to trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. Their continued presence at large is an obstacle to justice and reconciliation, and to the region's political and economic development.
The Government are at the forefront of diplomatic, political and—through SFOR in Bosnia—operational efforts to bring about their detention and transfer to The Hague. The UK was instrumental in securing EU agreement on a visa ban against those providing people indicted for war crimes (PIFWCs)—in particular Karadzic and Mladic—with logistical and financial support; and the UK was a sponsor of UNSCR 1503, which underlined the central importance of securing their detention and trial. We are also a firm supporter of the NATO and EU policy of conditionality, which makes full co-operation with the ICTY—including all possible measures to secure the detention of Karadzic, Mlaldic and other at-large PIFWCs—a pre-condition for greater integration with the EU and NATO
Iraq: Population
Lord Acton asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is their estimate of:
(a) total population of Iraq;
(b) Shia Arab population of Iraq;
(c) Sunni Arab population of Iraq; and
(d) Kurdish population of Iraq.[HL1185]
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: Precise population figures for Iraq are hard to obtain as the last offical census took place in 1997 under the former regime.
The United Nations Population Division estimates that Iraq's population in 2000 was 23,224,000.
In the absence of accurate figures it is difficult to give a precise breakdown of the Iraqi population by ethnic and religious background. However, population estimates range from 12 to 16 per cent Sunni Arab, 61 to 68 per cent Shia Arab and 20 to 23 per cent Kurdish.
Lord Acton asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: Her Majesty's Government have no accurate figures for the ethnic and religious breakdown of the Iraqi population by city or province. Precise figures have been hard to obtain since the last official census in 1997.
Baroness Whitaker asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: Officials of the responsible government departments are considering what, if any, legislative or administrative amendments are required to enable the UK to meet its commitments under the convention. Should any amendments be required, these will be enacted or put in place at the earliest opportunity. It is not possible to indicate when this process will be completed. The UK will be in a position to ratify the convention once the Government are satisfied that the UK can fulfil the convention's provisions.
What is their estimate of:
(a) Sunni Arab, Shia Arab and Kurdish populations of Baghdad; and
(b) Shia Arab, Sunni Arab and Kurdish populations of Basra.[HL1186]What are the legislative and administrative steps required for the United Kingdom to ratify the United Nations Convention against Corruption; and when the United Kingdom will complete these.[HL1202]
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