MOSCOW, April 26 (UPI) -- An international pact designed to protect children from exploitation and abuse was approved Friday by the lower chamber of Russia's legislature.
The State Duma approved the Council of Europe's Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, which Russia had signed in 2012, RIA Novosti reported.
Legislators also ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.
The documents require signatory countries to pass laws or regulations creating punishments for selling children for sexual exploitation, organ transfers for profit or forced labor and for improperly inducing consent for a child's adoption.
