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ECPAT International and The Body Shop Releases ‘Creating
Change through Partnership’ Report at the Final Campaign Event
On 29 March 2012 at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club in Bangkok,
The Body Shop and ECPAT International held the final campaign
event, the launch of the final report ‘Creating Change through Partnership’
revealing how the ground breaking ‘Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and
Young People’ campaign has inspired change across the world. The event
featured a panel of key note speakers, including the distinguished
Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn, an International Human Rights Expert and
Professor of Law at Chulalongkorn University; Mr. Christopher Davis,
International Campaigns Director of The Body Shop; Ms. Maureen Crombie,
Chair of ECPAT International Board of Trustees; and Ms. Valentyna Mudrik,
ECPAT Youth Representative. After brief speeches of the panel speakers
reinforcing the success of the campaign and key recommendations for
states to continue against child sex trafficking, participants and guests
asked several questions to the panellists, resulting in strong discussion
about how best to proceed forward.
For the final report, please click here.
Revised campaign
website
Several international news agencies also covered the event,
for these articles – please click here:
Reuters; AGI; Scoop;
  
ECPAT International Collaborates with Australian Federal
Police
On 3 – 4 April 2012, ECPAT International was invited to
speak at a symposium on ‘child sex tourism’ organised by the Australia
Federal Police [AFP]. Committed towards protecting children from sexual
exploitation by Australian nationals travelling to various destinations
in South East Asia, the AFP organized this event to encourage partnership
between AFP and NGOs in the region [The AFP has police liaison office
stations throughout the region]. Based on ECPAT’s experience on the
issue, ECPAT was invited to share challenges and lessons learned in
combating this issue. Discussion focused on the latest trends and how
NGOs and law enforcement can successfully work together. One important
message received from the AFP is the lack of reporting by the public on
‘child sex tourism’ cases. If there is any information regarding
Australians or any foreign nationals sexually exploiting a child, AFP
asks the public and NGOs to submit/share any information [AFP can pass
information regarding other foreign suspects to other law enforcement
officials of other countries: US, UK etc.]. All information is stored in
a database, even if it does not directly lead to an immediate arrest, it
may be a missing piece to another case [and there are special AFP
analysts to use the information]. For the contact list of all AFP offices
in South-East Asia and Pacific, please
click here.
Updates on the PAHT Project
PAHT: Parliamentarians Against Human Trafficking (project led by ECPAT
UK)
On 22 March 2012, the third seminar of the Parliamentarians Against Human
Trafficking (PAHT) project was held in the Italian Parliament, Rome.
Hosted by the Italian Senate, the seminar provided a forum for
parliamentarians from across Europe to meet with NGOs, law enforcement
representatives and experts on human trafficking to discuss
anti-trafficking legislation on protection of victims. The Rome meeting
was attended by parliamentarians from the UK, Cyprus, Germany, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Spain together with their
counterparts from Italy.
The next PAHT seminar will be held in Warsaw on 18 April 2012.
CSO training in Benin
From 27 to 29 March 2012, 26 participants from 16 NGOs including
ESAM/CLOSE, the ECPAT affiliate group in Benin, attended the training
workshop on Child Safe Organisation (CSO), involving four countries in
Africa: The Gambia, Ghana, Zambia and Benin. It was jointly organized by
ESAM/CLOSE and ECPAT International. The ECPAT International Regional
Associate for Africa participated in the training and provided technical
support.
Three modules were introduced through slides presentations, exercises
groups, plenary sessions, and role plays: Awareness Raising on Child
Protection; the Contact between Children and Staff; and the Problem of
Child Protection, Development or Improvement of Child Protection Policy
and Procedures. The participating NGOs benefitted from the CSO training
and recommended to extend this type of training to other grassroots NGOs
as well.
The attending NGOs also drafted action plans to be carried out in the
short term and promised to implement and/or improve each of their
respective Child Protection Policies and Procedures in the next 6 months.
  
NGOs’ perspective on Child Trafficking and Child Migrants in
Thailand Meeting
On 28 – 29 March 2012, the ECPAT International Regional Officer for East
Asia and Pacific shared ECPAT’s experience in networking in the fight
against child trafficking for sexual purposes and child migrant
exploitation during the “NGOs Meeting on Child Trafficking and Child
Migrants in Thailand Situation: NGOs’ perspectives” organized by Terre
des Hommes and Foundation for Women in Bangkok. The meeting aimed to
introduce the global concept of Children on the Move (COM) into
Thailand’s context, which needs a better comprehensive conceptual framework
to address child protection related issues more concretely. The 24 Thai
NGOs participating at the meeting admitted that trafficking in persons
perspective alone cannot cover the rising demand for child protection and
there is a need to strengthen the local NGO network by reviewing lessons
learnt in networking and coordination. They committed to a long-term
planning with the NGOs on the right to protection of children on the
move.
 
SACG Visioning Exercise - SA
On 27 and 28 March 2012, SACG (South Asia Coordinating Group on Action
against Violence against Women and Children) which was established in
2004 to respond to a broader scope on the issues of women and children,
organized a visioning exercise in Kathmandu, Nepal in order to reflect on
SACG’s historical evolution and on its current partnership with SAIEVAC
(South Asia Initiative to End Violence against Children) in the region.
The overall objective of the visioning exercise was to reflect and take
stock of the SACG road so far and explore and redefine the role of SACG
in general and with regards to SAIEVAC in particular. The specific
objectives were to revisit the road covered so far and historical stages
of SACG roles; develop a vision for SACG for the next years; start
identifying possible chair and co-chair for 2013-14 and to address a
number of practical operational issues identified in the recent SACG
meetings.
The major role of SACG since 2005 has been to support the strengthening
of government cooperation in the South Asia Forum (SAF), which changed to
South Asia Initiative to End Violence against Children (SAIEVAC) in 2010,
in partnership with children, civil society organizations, INGOs and UN
agencies. SAF was initiated by the South Asia governments in 2005 as part
of a regional follow-up to the UNVAC Study in South Asia.
Between 2004 and 2012, SACG has contributed to a number of achievements
of SAF/SAIEVAC. To list just the most recent ones: the registration of
SAIEVAC in the Maldives, its recent SAARC Apex Body status and SAIEVAC's
access to large SDF (SAARC Development Fund) funding.
International Conference on Promoting child-friendly tourism
and ICT industries in Moldova
On 20 March 2012, La Strada Moldova with the support of the EU, private
companies and ECPAT International, organized an International Conference
themed "Promoting child-friendly tourism and ICT industries in
Moldova". The goal of the conference was to encourage the business
community of Moldova to join in the CSEC prevention efforts. Among the
speakers were the Adviser to the Prime-Minister of Moldova, the President
of the National Association of Tourism Agencies, the Executive Director
of the Moldavian Association of Private ICT Companies, representatives
from ECPAT Germany and ECPAT International, tourist companies TUI from
Germany and KUONI Travel from Switzerland, La Strada Ukraine (ECPAT
Affiliate group in Ukraine) and a representative from the Ministry of
Internal Affairs of Moldova. Many speakers valued the work of ECPAT in
the promotion of the Codes of Conduct for the IT and tourism related
businesses.
Guests presented on the CSEC problem around the world, the
responsibilities of businesses, good practices such as the Code of
Conduct for IT providers in Ukraine and the Code for the tourism industry
globally. The Government of Moldova and all attending businesses became
interested in the development and signing of these important documents
for the protection of children from CSEC.
 
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