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Missing Children Europe is an organisation which aims to ensure that every EU member state has the necessary procedures and regulations in place to deal with cases of missing and/or sexually exploited children, and are able to both provide support for the victims, and take steps to prevent future disappearances. [1] It is an umbrella organization for 32 NGOs throughout Europe, 23 of which run a 116000 hotline for missing children.
Missing Children Europe was established in 2001 by Child Focus (Belgium), La Mouette (France), Aurora (Italy), Initiative Vermisste Kinder (Germany) and Rat auf Draht (Austria). Missing Children Europe gained financial independence in 2008, as it obtained a grant from the European Commission.
Missing Children Europe was the driving force behind the launch of 116 000, an emergency number which provides immediate support when children go missing. [2]
The 32 NGOs represented by Missing Children Europe are: [3]
Missing Children Europe's members are experts in missing children covering prevention, support to missing children and parents, and cooperation with national law enforcement in the search of missing children.
Missing Children Europe's receives a core operating grant from the European Commission's CERV Programme for its coordination of the 116000 European missing child hotlines network. MCE coordinates EU funded projects under the CERV, JUST, AMIF, and ISF programmes, and further receives project funding on issues of running away, unaccompanied minors, international child abductions and grooming and online sexual exploitation from various foundations. The remainder is collected through fundraising events, structural partnerships and membership fees.
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.
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found, or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2–5% of missing children in Europe.
Anna Cecilia Malmström is a Swedish politician who served as European Commissioner for Trade from 2014 to 2019. She previously served as European Commissioner for Home Affairs from 2010 to 2014 and Minister for European Union Affairs from 2006 to 2010. She was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Sweden from 1999 to 2006.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a private, nonprofit organization established in 1984 by the United States Congress. In September 2013, the United States House of Representatives, United States Senate, and the President of the United States reauthorized the allocation of $40 million in funding for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children as part of Missing Children's Assistance Reauthorization Act of 2013. The current chair of the organization is Jon Grosso of Kohls. NCMEC handles cases of missing or exploited children from infancy to young adults through age 20.
Mary Elizabeth Banotti is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Dublin constituency from 1984 to 2004.
Child Focus is a Belgian foundation that supports prevention and investigation of missing children, abducted children, runaway children, and sexually abused and exploited children, along with psychological and legal support to the victims. They also follow their cases and sometimes ensure they are treated with due care by the persons in charge. Finally, they help and spread the information about missing children by publishing their pictures and descriptions in newspapers, magazines, etc.
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).
The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, with a regional presence in Brazil, Singapore, and Australia, is a private 501(c)(3) non-governmental, nonprofit global organization. It combats child sexual exploitation, child pornography, and child abduction.
Daniel, Baron Cardon de Lichtbuer was a Belgian businessman, mainly active in the Belgian banking sector.
The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) is an American nonprofit organization that fights Internet child pornography and works to help parents prevent children from viewing age-inappropriate material online.
A child abduction alert system is a tool used to alert the public in cases of worrying or life-threatening disappearances of children.
Senegal is a source, transit, and destination country for children and women trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Trafficking within the country is more prevalent than trans-border trafficking and the majority of victims are children. Within Senegal some boys called "talibes" are victims of trafficking, by promising to educate them, but subjecting them instead to forced begging and physical abuse. A 2007 study done by UNICEF, the ILO, and the World Bank found that 6,480 talibe were forced to beg in Dakar alone. Women and girls are trafficked for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation, including for sex tourism, within Senegal. Transnationally, boys are trafficked to Senegal from The Gambia, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea for forced begging by religious teachers. Senegalese women and girls are trafficked to neighboring countries, the Middle East, and Europe for domestic servitude and possibly for sexual exploitation. Women and girls from other West African countries, particularly Liberia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria may be trafficked to Senegal for sexual exploitation, including for sex tourism.
Child abduction or child theft is the unauthorized removal of a minor from the custody of the child's natural parents or legally appointed guardians.
116 000 is the European missing children hotline number. It was the first harmonised service of social value to be adopted by the European Union. The 116 000 hotline provides free, immediate life saving support when children go missing.
The Cospol Internet Related Child Abusive Material Project (CIRCAMP) is a Comprehensive Operational Strategic Planning for the Police (COSPOL) project aimed at combating borderless and multinational crime in Europe. COSPOL is initiated by the European Police Chiefs Task Force (EPCTF), a council of the national heads of police in Europe.
Catherine Irene Jacqueline Meyer, Baroness Meyer, is a British Life Peer and a former business woman. She is the widow of Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British Ambassador to the United States. In 1999, she founded the charity PACT, now Action Against Abduction. In October 2020, she was appointed as the Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to Ukraine.
The Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline is a service provided by the Cyprus Safer Internet Center project, coordinated by the Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute (CNTI). The Helpline ensures that not only children and adolescents but also adults have the opportunity to converse with experts in case they experience something negative on the Internet. Educated psychologists provide support and essential advice so that the crisis is overcome and the situation is confronted. Members of the public can reach the helpline at the number 7000 0 116. The communication is completely confidential and anonymous.
ECPAT International 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.
Canadian Centre for Child Protection is a Canadian registered charitable organization dedicated to the personal safety of all children. More specifically, its goal is to reduce the victimization of children by providing programs and services to the Canadian public.