Now available: Congress outcome documentThe Congress aims to draw attention to the plight of children in
the world sex trade, review progress made since the first World Congress
Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and devise further
methods to protect children from sexual exploitation.
Governments, Non-Governmental Organizations and others came together
for the first time in Stockholm, Sweden five years ago, to work on a
global basis against the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
As a follow up to that meeting, the World Congress Against Commercial
Sexual Exploitation of Children, a series of regional consultations
were held ahead of the Second World Congress Against Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children to be held in Yokohama, Japan from 17 to 20
December.
The first regional consultation, for the East Asia and Pacific region,
ran from 16-18 October in Bangkok and was attended by 280 participants,
including 70 government representatives and 20 children. A regional
plan and strategy came out of the meeting.
These regional working meetings signify important progress since 1996,
because the discussions were based on data and research from the field,
bringing the process closer to the work of implementing action on the
ground. These conferences have produced regional strategies, partnerships
and key interventions for tackling commercial sexual exploitation of
children.
UNICEF was entrusted with organizing the series of regional meetings
in collaboration with the other partners co-organizing the congress
- the Government of Japan
which is hosting the event, ECPAT International
(a network of organizations and individuals working together for the
elimination of child prostitution, child pornography and trafficking
of children for sexual purposes) and the Non-Governmental
Organization (NGO) Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The regional consultations addressed local concerns and helped ensure
that they will be addressed at Yokohama. The aim was to involve as many
people as possible, including government officials as well as representatives
from local NGOs and children, many of whom might not be able to travel
to Japan.
The other regional consultations were in Rabat from 24-26 October,
to cover Africa and the Middle East; then in Dhaka from 5-6 November
for South Asia; Montevideo from 7-9 November for Latin America and the
Caribbean; Budapest on 20 and 21 November for Eastern and Western Europe;
and Philadelphia from 2-3 December for the USA, Canada and Mexico.
The Congress itself aims to draw attention to the plight of children
in the world sex trade, review progress made since the first World Congress
Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and devise further
methods to protect children from sexual exploitation.
The participants in the first World Congress devised a plan to combat
the sexual exploitation of children embodied in the Stockholm Declaration,
which called on governments to:
- Give high priority and dedicate more financial and human resources
to combating the problem;
- Promote stronger cooperation among all sectors and strengthen the
role of families in protecting children;
- Criminalize all forms of sexual exploitation of children and penalize
offenders;
- Review, revise, enforce and promote the relevant laws, policies,
programmes and practices;
- Develop methods to prevent, protect, recover and reintegrate children
vulnerable to exploitation;
- Create a climate that helps carers to fulfil their obligations to
children;
- Mobilize political and other partners;
- Try to involve more children in the fight against their sexual exploitation.
The conference also produced an Agenda for Action which called on governments
to put together national plans of action with indicators, goals and
a time frame to reduce the number of children who are sexually exploited
each year, as well as implement and monitor ways of measuring progress
at all levels, and collecting and sharing data. All 122 governments
who attended the conference adopted the Stockholm Declaration and committed
to creating national plans of action by the year 2000.
In Yokohama, participants will share expertise on what worked and what
did not in the fight against the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
A series of presentations, panel discussions and workshops will review
the various national plans of action and identify gaps in the protection
of children from sexual exploitation.
Following on the Stockholm Declaration's call for states to include
children in national and local efforts to prevent their sexual exploitation,
the Yokohama Congress will include discussions with children from all
over the world. The children will meet prior to the Congress in Kawasaki
City from 13 to 16 December and prepare a report to present to the full
Congress.
