ECPAT International

Last updated
ECPAT International
Founded1990
TypeNGO
PurposeChild protection
Location
Area served
Global
Key people
Guillaume Landry (executive director)
Website ecpat.org

ECPAT [1] is a global network of civil society organisations that works to end the sexual exploitation of children. It focuses on ending the online sexual exploitation of children, the trafficking of children for sexual purposes, the sexual exploitation of children in prostitution, child, early and forced marriages, and the sexual exploitation of children in the travel and tourism industry.

Contents

The ECPAT International network consists of 122 member organisations in 104 countries. [2] Its secretariat is based in Bangkok, Thailand, providing technical support to member groups, coordinating research, and managing international advocacy campaigns.

History

In 1990, researchers and activists helped to establish ECPAT (an acronym for End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism) [3] as a three-year campaign to end "sex tourism," with an initial focus on Asia. [4] As the terms "child prostitution" and "sex tourism" are no longer used in the sector, today the organization goes by its initials ECPAT. [5] Anti-Slavery International was one of the original supporters, and helped to set up a branch in the UK. [6]

In 1996, in partnership with UNICEF and the NGO Group for the Rights of the Child (now known as Child Rights Connect [7] ), ECPAT International co-organised a global world congress against the sexual exploitation of children in Stockholm, Sweden. The congress was hosted by the Government of Sweden, which also played a major role in attracting support and participation from other governments. As a result, ECPAT grew from a regional campaign into a global non-governmental organization. [8]

Between 2009 and 2012, ECPAT, in partnership with The Body Shop, helped run the Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People [9] campaign, which called on governments to safeguard the rights of children and adolescents to protect them from trafficking for sexual purposes. More than 7 million petition signatures were collected worldwide and presented to government officials around the world and to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Research and human rights reporting

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States with one or more organizations that are connected to the ECPAT network
  ECPAT group(s) in the state
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ECPAT International produces a variety of research and resources for use by its network members, other NGOs, UN agencies, and researchers. These include regular country reports, regional reports and studies on specific forms of child sexual exploitation, such as the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism, [10] and the online sexual exploitation of children. [11]

ECPAT is mandated to monitor the commitments of governments around the world and their legal obligations to protect children from sexual exploitation. ECPAT produces regular country monitoring reports [12] that are presented to the United Nations in Geneva, to follow up implementation of the Stockholm Agenda for Action (Stockholm, 1996).

Network membership

The ECPAT network currently consists of 104 member organisations in 93 countries. These include independent civil society organisations, grassroots NGOs and coalitions of NGOs focused on a range of child rights violations.

The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism

The Code is a set of protocols that tourism operators may sign up to, in order to ensure that their businesses do not facilitate or encourage the sexual exploitation of children by travelers and tourists. The Code was developed by ECPAT Sweden in 1996 and is promoted through the international ECPAT network. Today, more than 350 tour operators, hotels, airlines and other travel businesses across 42 countries have become members, including some of the biggest tourism companies in the world. [13] [14] [15]

Protecting children online

ECPAT International works with law enforcement partners, such as INTERPOL, to prevent the online sexual exploitation of children. It engages with other child rights organisations, for example, through the Internet Governance Forum, and is a member of the Virtual Global Taskforce [16] and the European Financial Coalition against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Online. ECPAT is also part of the International Telecommunication Union´s Child Online Protection initiative. [17] ECPAT has signed agreements with the International Association of Internet Hotlines, [18] the Internet Watch Foundation and Child Helpline International. [19]

ECPAT advocates for the ratification of international and regional legal instruments such as the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, and the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote convention).

Criticism

SESTA/FOSTA and use of false data

ECPAT-USA has been criticised for its lobbying for Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, which has been described by Vox as a law intended to "curb online sex work" while allegedly making consensual sex work less safe. [20] ECPAT-USA has claimed that at least 100,000 children in the U.S. are commercially sexually exploited, based on reports which used data from 1990 and which have been criticised by social scientists as inaccurate. The Washington Post claimed that the figure was "conjured out of thin air, based on old data from a largely discredited report." [21] ECPAT-USA attempted to justify their use of the figure by citing a NISMART report that claimed that there are 1.7 million child runaway incidents each year, and that their figure was conservative, despite the report stating that only 1,700 of the 1.7 million children were engaged in the sex trade, and that more than three-quarters of children were away from home for less than a week, leaving only a very small window for sex trafficking. [22] ECPAT-USA subsequently agreed "to stop using the figure". [21]

ECPAT-USA has responded to criticism against SESTA, describing legal sex workers as a "very small segment of society that enters sex work with their eyes wide open, and in the absence of coercion". [23] However, since the law came into effect, sex workers have suffered increasing threats of violence, harassment and pimping. Online communities which provide support to sex workers, such as finding shelter or food, issuing warnings about potentially violent clients and providing know-your-rights training, were shut down, putting sex workers in danger. In the past, authorities have used such platforms to track traffickers, and fear that closing them has driven traffickers underground. [24] [25]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex tourism</span> Travel to engage in sexual activity

Sex tourism is the practice of traveling to foreign countries, often on a different continent, with the intention of engaging in sexual activity or relationships in exchange for money or lifestyle support. This practice predominantly operates in countries where sex work is legal. The World Tourism Organization of the United Nations has acknowledged about this industry is organized both within and outside the structured laws and networks created by them.

Child sex tourism (CST) is tourism for the purpose of engaging in the prostitution of children, which is commercially facilitated child sexual abuse. The definition of child in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is "every human being below the age of 18 years". Child sex tourism results in both mental and physical consequences for the exploited children, which may include sexually transmitted infections, "drug addiction, pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and death", according to the State Department of the United States. Child sex tourism, part of the multibillion-dollar global sex tourism industry, is a form of child prostitution within the wider issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children. Child sex tourism victimizes approximately 2 million children around the world. The children who perform as prostitutes in the child sex tourism trade often have been lured or abducted into sexual slavery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child prostitution</span> Prostitution involving a child

Child prostitution is prostitution involving a child, and it is a form of commercial sexual exploitation of children. The term normally refers to prostitution of a minor, or person under the legal age of consent. In most jurisdictions, child prostitution is illegal as part of general prohibition on prostitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commercial sexual exploitation of children</span> Commercial transaction that involves the sexual exploitation of a child

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) defines the “umbrella” of crimes and activities that involve inflicting sexual abuse on to a child as a financial or personal opportunity. Commercial Sexual Exploitation consists of forcing a child into prostitution, sex trafficking, early marriage, child sex tourism and any other venture of exploiting children into sexual activities. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the lack of reporting the crime and “the difficulties associated with identifying and measuring victims and perpetrators” has made it almost impossible to create a national estimate of the prevalence of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the United States. There is an estimated one million children that are exploited for commercial sex globally; of the one million children that are exploited, the majority are girls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking</span> Trade of sexual slaves

Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the crime are called sex traffickers or pimps—people who manipulate victims to engage in various forms of commercial sex with paying customers. Sex traffickers use force, fraud, and coercion as they recruit, transport, and provide their victims as prostitutes. Sometimes victims are brought into a situation of dependency on their trafficker(s), financially or emotionally. Every aspect of sex trafficking is considered a crime, from acquisition to transportation and exploitation of victims. This includes any sexual exploitation of adults or minors, including child sex tourism (CST) and domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in the Philippines</span>

Human trafficking and the prostitution of children has been a significant issue in the Philippines, often controlled by organized crime syndicates. Human trafficking is a crime against humanity.

Prostitution in Guatemala is legal but procuring is prohibited. There is an offence of “aggravated procuring” where a minor is involved. Keeping a brothel is not prohibited.

Prostitution in Paraguay is legal for persons over the age of 18, but related activities such as brothel keeping are prohibited. Prostitution is common in the country. Brothels are also common, even some rural villages have a small bar/brothel on the outskirts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostitution in Ukraine</span> Overview of prostitution in Ukraine

Prostitution in Ukraine is illegal but widespread and largely ignored by the government. In recent times, Ukraine has become a popular prostitution and sex trafficking destination. Ukraine is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked transnationally for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. Ukraine's dissolution from the Soviet Union, saw the nation attempt to transition from a planned economy to a market economy. The transition process inflicted economic hardship in the nation, with nearly 80% of the population forced into poverty in the decade that followed its independence. Unemployment in Ukraine was growing at an increasing rate, with female unemployment rising to 64% by 1997. The economic decline in Ukraine made the nation vulnerable and forced many to depend on prostitution and trafficking as a source of income. Sex tourism rose as the country attracted greater numbers of foreign tourists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking</span> Trade of humans for exploitation

Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation.

Human trafficking in India, although illegal under Indian law, remains a significant problem. People are frequently illegally trafficked through India for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced/bonded labour. Although no reliable study of forced and bonded labour has been completed, NGOs estimate this problem affects 20 to 65 million Indians. Men, women and children are trafficked in India for diverse reasons. Women and girls are trafficked within the country for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage, especially in those areas where the sex ratio is highly skewed in favour of men. Men and boys are trafficked for the purposes of labour, and may be sexually exploited by traffickers to serve as gigolos, massage experts, escorts, etc. A significant portion of children are subjected to forced labour as factory workers, domestic servants, beggars, and agriculture workers, and have been used as armed combatants by some terrorist and insurgent groups.

Italy is a destination and transit country for women, children, and men trafficked transnationally for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. Women and children are trafficked mainly from Nigeria, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Albania, and Ukraine but also from Russia, South America, North and East Africa, the Middle East, China, and Uzbekistan. Chinese men and women are trafficked to Italy for the purpose of forced labor. Roma children continue to be trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced begging. Reportedly, an increasing number of victims are trafficked for labor, mostly in the agricultural sector. According to one NGO, 90 percent of foreign seasonal workers are unregistered and two-thirds are in Italy illegally, rendering them vulnerable to trafficking. The top five source countries for agricultural workers are Romania, Pakistan, Albania, and Ivory Coast. Traffickers reportedly are moving victims more frequently within Italy, often keeping victims in major cities for only a few months at a time, in an attempt to evade police detection.

Thailand is a centre for child sex tourism and child prostitution. Even though domestic and international authorities work to protect children from sexual abuse, the problem still persists in Thailand and many other Southeast Asian countries. Child prostitution, like other forms of child sexual abuse, not only causes death and high morbidity rates in millions of children but also violates their rights and dignity.

Transnational efforts to prevent human trafficking are being made to prevent human trafficking in specific countries and around the world.

Austria is a destination and transit country for women, men, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced prostitution and forced labor.

Belgium is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and forced prostitution. Victims originate in Eastern Europe, Africa, East Asia, as well as Brazil and India. Some victims are smuggled through Belgium to other European countries, where they are subjected to forced labor and forced prostitution. Male victims are subjected to forced labor and exploitation in restaurants, bars, sweatshops, horticulture sites, fruit farms, construction sites, and retail shops. There were reportedly seven Belgian women subjected to forced prostitution in Luxembourg in 2009. According to a 2009 ECPAT Report, the majority of girls and children subjected to forced prostitution in Belgium originate from Balkan and CIS countries, Eastern Europe, Asia and West Africa ; some young foreign boys are exploited in prostitution in major cities in the country. Local observers also report that a large portion of children trafficked in Belgium are unaccompanied, vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees. Criminal organizations from Thailand use Thai massage parlors in Belgium, which are run by Belgian managers, to sexually exploit young Thai women. These networks are involved in human smuggling and trafficking to exploit victims economically and sexually. Belgium is not only a destination country, but also a transit country for children to be transported to other European country destinations.

Prostitution in Mongolia is illegal but widespread in some areas. The Global Fund for Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Malaria estimated there were about 19,000 sex workers in the country in 2006. Many women in Mongolia turn to prostitution through poverty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in Southeast Asia</span> Human trafficking

Human trafficking in Southeast Asia has long been a problem for the area and is still prevalent today. It has been observed that as economies continue to grow, the demand for labor is at an all-time high in the industrial sector and the sex tourism sector. A mix of impoverished individuals and the desire for more wealth creates an environment for human traffickers to benefit in the Southeast Asia region. Many nations within the region have taken preventive measures to end human trafficking within their borders and punish traffickers operating there.

Child prostitution in Ukraine has been described by Juan Miguel Petit, Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography for the United Nations, as a major problem in the country.

Sex trafficking in Japan is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the country. Japan is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sexually trafficked persons.

References

  1. ↑ "Our history". ECPAT. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  2. ↑ "ECPAT International". ECPAT International. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  3. ↑ "ECPAT - End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism". Knowledge for policy. European Commission. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  4. ↑ "Regional Overview of the Sexual Exploitation of Children in Southeast Asia" (PDF).
  5. ↑ "Home - Terminology Guidelines". Terminology Guidelines. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
  6. ↑ "Our history". Anti-Slavery International. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  7. ↑ "members & partners | Child Rights Connect". www.childrightsconnect.org. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  8. ↑ "World Congress III". Resources.ecpat.net. 28 November 2008. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  9. ↑ "Stop Sex Trafficking | The Body Shop Australia". The Body Shop. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  10. ↑ "Global Report 2016 - globalstudysectt.org". globalstudysectt.org. 23 February 2015. Archived from the original on 12 March 2018. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  11. ↑ "Towards a Global Indicator on Unidentified Victims in Online Sexual Exploitation - summary report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 March 2018. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  12. ↑ "Resources Archive - ECPAT International". ECPAT International. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  13. ↑ "Home". thecode.org.
  14. ↑ Ms. Anne van der TuukAbang Africa Travel (21 November 2013). "History". The Code. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
  15. ↑ Hetter, Katia. "Fighting sex trafficking in hotels, one room at a time". CNN.
  16. ↑ "Private Sector Partners". virtualglobaltaskforce.com. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  17. ↑ "Working Together". ITU. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  18. ↑ "ECPAT International and the INHOPE Foundation cooperate in the fight against child sexual abuse material". inhopefoundation.org. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  19. ↑ "CHI - Child Helpline International". Archived from the original on 28 February 2014. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  20. ↑ Romano, Aja (2 July 2018). "A new law intended to curb sex trafficking threatens the future of the internet as we know it" – via www.vox.com.
  21. 1 2 Kessler, Glenn (2 September 2015). "The fishy claim that '100,000 children' in the United States are in the sex trade". The Washington Post. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  22. ↑ "Sex Workers Are Protesting FOSTA/SESTA Across the Country". Vice. 4 June 2018. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  23. ↑ "Facts and Myths About SESTA". ECPAT-USA. 19 April 2018. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  24. ↑ Cohn, Scott (27 July 2018). "Online sex ads are disappearing due to anti-trafficking law, but is that a good thing?". CNBC. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  25. ↑ Lunau, Kate; Cole, Samantha (30 April 2018). "Pimps Are Preying on Sex Workers Pushed Off the Web Because of FOSTA-SESTA". Motherboard. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  26. ↑ Marc Moorghen. "ECPAT International Receives $1.5 Million Hilton Humanitarian Prize - Press release". hiltonfoundation.org. Archived from the original on 2 September 2015. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  27. ↑ "Anti-trafficking group wins Interpol award for child sexual..." Reuters. 17 November 2017. Retrieved 12 March 2018.

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