Havana, Cuba.- The Cuban Ministry of the Interior (MININT) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police( RCMP) have signed today in Havana a cooperation agreement for the protection of children and adolescents.

The main aim of this document is to strengthen collaboration in preventing and combating criminal activities, including the selling of children, child prostitution and pornography, trafficking and other forms of sexual abuse.

Col. Idais Borges, head of the Minors Directorate, and the General Director of the Canadian Police Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, Marie Claude Arsenault, co-signed the text at the headquarters of the International Relations and Collaboration Directorate of MININT.

According to the Cuban side, the initiative formalizes and expands the actions carried out in two decades in terms of information exchange, development of joint investigations and preparation of police forces.

It also includes the exchange of experience between experts and technologies applied to prevent and combat these crimes.

According to the signatories, the adoption of this arrangement reaffirms the willingness of Cuba and Canada to respect the objectives of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol.

It also defends the right of children to be protected during their development by family, society and government.

In 1999, Cuba and Canada signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking and in 2003 the Agreement on the sharing of confiscated property or its equivalent funds.