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International standards & guidelines: 

Articles from The Convention on the Rights of the Child pertaining to Commercial Sexual Exploitation 

Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) {···français···español}

• Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (2000)

• {···español: Protocolo facultativo de la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño relativo a la venta de niños, la prostitución infantil y la utilización de niños en la pornografía}

• {···français: Protocole facultatif à la Convention relative aux droits de l'enfant, concernant la vente d'enfants, la prostitution des enfants et la pornographie mettant en scène des enfants}

Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (1949)

• {···español: Convenio para la represión de la trata de personas y de la explotación de la prostitución ajena}

• {···français: Convention pour la répression de la traite des êtres humains et de l'exploitation de la prostitution d'autrui}

Global Code of Ethics for Tourism (World Tourism Organization, 1999)

WTO statement on the prevention of organized sex tourism (World Tourism Organization, 1995)

Websites:

2nd World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children - Yokohama, Japan, 17-20 December 2001 (hosted by the Government of Japan and co-organized by UNICEF, ECPAT International and the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child)

• {···español: 2° Congreso Mundial contra la Explotación Sexual Comercial de los Niños}

• {···français: 2e Congrès mondial contre l’exploitation sexuelle des enfants à des fins commerciales}

ECPAT International: ECPAT is a network of organisations and individuals working together for the elimination of child prostitution, child pornography and trafficking of children for sexual purposes

FOCAL POINT against Sexual Exploitation of Children

• NGO News for the Second World Congress [2nd World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children - Yokohama, Japan, 17-20 December 2001] 

• {···español: El Segundo Congreso Mundial contra la Explotación Sexual Comercial de los Niños, Niñas y Adolescentes: Españoles Documentos}

• {···français: Second Congrès Mondial contre l'Exploitation Sexuelle des Enfants à des Fins Commerciales: Le Programme Focal Point}

International Conference: Combating child pornography on the internet: Vienna, 29 September - 1 October 1999 (based on an initiative by the Foreign Ministers of Austria and the US)

• Background Paper - International Conference on combating child pornography on the internet (European Commission, Directorate General "justice and home affairs", Police and customs cooperation Unit)

• Guidelines for codes of conduct: Since 1996, Internet Service Providers' (ISPs) codes of conduct have been published throughout Europe, common principles have been established and a framework for European co-operation has been set up. (Jean-Christophe Le Toquin, Association des Fournisseurs d'Accès et de Services Internet [French Internet Service Providers Association])

United Nations Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography

• {···español: Relator Especial de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos sobre la venta de niños, la prostitución infantil y la utilización de niños en la pornografía}

• {···français: Rapporteur spécial de la Commission des droits de l'homme sur la vente d'enfants, la prostitution d'enfants et la pornographie impliquant des enfants}

Other materials:

2003:

Leaders Urged to End Child Labour [Uganda] - The workshop was organised by the Federation of Uganda Employers and Rural Development Media Communications (RUDMEC). Mr Rwebembera urged religious and political leaders to advocate an end to hazardous child labour...RUDMEC executive officer, Hamidu Kizito, said the worst forms of child labour were in sugar plantations, brick-laying sites, commercial sex and homes. (Wossita Samuel, The Monitor [Uganda], 12 May 2003)

New DynCorp Contract Draws Scrutiny -...Insight has learned that the U.S. State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs has issued a $22 million contract to DynCorp Aerospace Operations (UK) Ltd., a subsidiary of Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), to "re-establish police, justice and prison functions in postconflict Iraq."...last year alone [Dyncorp] was not only sued but paid large settlements to two former employees who blew the whistle on corporate managers and employees who engaged in sex trafficking in Bosnia (Kelly Patricia O Meara, Insight, 11 Apr. 2003)

CHILD LABOR: ILO, Inter-American Development Bank Examine Strategies -...Most child laborers in Latin America work in agriculture, especially coffee growing, but urban areas are the scene of child labor and exploitation, including child prostitution (UN Wire, 13 Mar. 2003)

IOM Calls for an End to Violence Against Migrant Women and the Trafficking of Women and Children into Sexual Bondage (International Organization for Migration, 7 Mar. 2003)

Accor hotel group vows to protect children - International hotel group Accor has signed a code of conduct to protect children from sexual exploitation in travel and tourism. Accor has signed up to the ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) code. Western tour operators have joined previously, but Accor is the first big hotel group to do so. (Nondhanada Intarakomalyasut, Bangkok Post, 20 Feb. 2003)

CHILD TRAFFICKING: Experts Examine Problem In Bangladesh, Asia -...The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 1 million children working in the sex industry throughout the region, mainly in Thailand, India, Taiwan and the Philippines. (UN Wire, 6 Jan. 2003)

Push to stop child trafficking [Bangladesh] - International experts are meeting in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, on Monday to look at ways to stop child trafficking and exploitation. (Alastair Lawson, BBC News, 6 Jan. 2003)

2002:

Slave Labor: Trafficking in women and children -...Q: How did you estimate that 50,000 women and children are sold annually in the US?  A:...Many women and children are trafficked into the sex industry, but not all. Other trafficking involves things like sweatshop labor (Kristen Lombardi, The Phoenix [USA], 14-21 Nov. 2002)

Woman sacked for revealing UN links with sex trade: How a [UK] tribunal vindicated an investigator who blew whistle on workers in Bosnia -...After a two-year battle, an employment tribunal ruled yesterday that Ms Bolkovac was unfairly dismissed by DynCorp, an American company (Daniel McGrory, Times [UK], 7 Aug. 2002)

• Investigator wins UN sex abuse case - A human rights investigator, who insisted she was sacked for exposing the sexual abuse of women in Bosnia by her United Nations colleagues, had her claim of unfair dismissal upheld yesterday...She took her case against her employer, DynCorp, an American recruitment agency, to an industrial tribunal in Southampton, Hants [UK], because the company was governed by UK employment law. (Stewart Payne, Daily Telegraph [UK], 7 Aug. 2002)

• Sex-slave whistle-blowers vindicated: DynCorp, a private military powerhouse, fired two employees who complained that colleagues were involved in Bosnian forced-prostitution rings. The employees went to court -- and won. (Robert Capps, Salon.com, 6 Aug. 2002)

• Outside the law: Pending lawsuits allege that U.S. military contractors on duty in Bosnia bought and "owned" young women. But the accused men have never been -- and will never be -- brought to justice. [refers to DynCorp] (Robert Capps, Salon.com, 26 June 2002)

Internationally-recognised Core Labour Standards in the 15 Member States of the European Union - Report for the WTO General Council review of the trade policies of the European Unions  (Geneva, 24 and 26 July 2002) - All eight of the core ILO conventions have been ratified by all fifteen European Union (EU) member states. In certain areas however, law and practice in several EU countries require further government efforts in order to respect the commitments to fundamental workers’ rights [refers to pay gap between men and women, child labour, trafficking in women and girls for the purposes of forced prostitution] (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, 18 July 2002)

• {···español} Normas Fundamentales del Trabajo Reconocidas Internacionalmente en los quince paises miembros de la union europea (Confederación Internacional de Organizaciones Sindicales Libres, 18 Julio 2002)

• {···français} Les Normes du Travail Fondamentales Internationalement Reconnues: Evaluation au sein des 15 etats membres de l'union europeen (Confédération Internationale des Syndicats Libres, 18 juillet 2002)

Trade unions campaign against child labour [Indonesia] - Trade unions vowed to fight the child slave and sex industry in Indonesia and called for legislation banning work for children aged under 18. (from Jakarta Post, in Child Labour News Service, 15 July 2002)

Trade unions campaign against child labor [Indonesia] - Trade unions vowed on Monday to fight the child slave and sex industry in Indonesia and called for legislation banning work for children aged under 18. (Jakarta Post, 3 July 2002) 

CHILD LABOR: ILO To Fund Paraguayan-Brazilian Border Initiative - The International Labor Organization is planning to invest $2 million over a three-year period in the Paraguayan-Brazilian border region to help combat the sexual and commercial exploitation of children, O Estado de Sao Paulo reports. (UN Wire, 3 July 2002)

• {···português} Proteção à criança une Brasil e Paraguai - Foz e Ciudad del Este terão US$ 520 mil para combater exploração infantil na fronteira (Evandro Fadel, O Estado de Sao Paulo, 3 julho 2002)

5-pronged ICFTU campaign to stop child labour - Agriculture, industry, domestic labour, sexual exploitation and trafficking. These are 5 focal points of global trade union action which the ICFTU will be targeting in a redoubling of its campaign to stop child labour (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, 12 June 2002)

• {···español} Campaña de la CIOSL para acabar con el trabajo infantil apunta a 5 esferas de acción: agricultura, industria, trabajo doméstico, explotación sexual y tráfico de menores (Confederación Internacional de Organizaciones Sindicales Libres, 12 junio 2002)

• {···français} La campagne de la CISL pour mettre un terme au travail des enfants cible 5 domaines d'action [l'agriculture, l'industrie, le travail domestique, l'exploitation sexuelle et la traite d'êtres humains] (Confédération internationale des syndicats libres, 12 juin 2002)

U.S. Vows to End Human Trafficking - The government is committed to ending worldwide trafficking in humans, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday..."Approximately 50,000 people are trafficked into the United States every year," Powell said. "Here and abroad, the victims of trafficking toil under inhuman conditions in brothels, sweatshops, fields and even in private homes." Most of the victims are women and children, he said. (Harry Dunphy, Associated Press, in Washington Post, 5 June 2002)

• remarks by Secretary of State Colin Powell at Special Briefing on Release of Trafficking in Persons Report, June 2002 (Colin L. Powell, U.S. Secretary of State, 5 June 2002)

• remarks by Ambassador Nancy Ely-Raphel, Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Remarks at Special Briefing (Nancy Ely-Raphel, U.S. Department of State, 5 June 2002)

• full report: Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000: Trafficking in Persons Report (U.S. Department of State, 2002)

CHILD LABOR: ILO Examines Bolivia, Brazil; Nicaragua Hears From Children - The International Labor Organization said in a report released last week that 800,000 Bolivian children enter the labor market each year. Many of the children, the report said, are forced to work for mining and agricultural companies or suffer from sexual exploitation. (UN Wire, 3 May 2002)

Bangladesh's stolen lives: Servitude and sex slavery await children abroad -...Boys, some as young as 4 or 5, are mostly put to work as camel jockeys in the Gulf. Most girls are sent to India and Pakistan to work as prostitutes and maids (Somini Sengupta, New York Times, in International Herald Tribune, 30 Apr. 2002)

THAILAND: Sex Trafficking Occurs Via Informal Networks, ILO, UNDP Say - Sex trafficking of children in Thailand is largely an industry run by small, informal networks and is also linked to poverty and education issues (UN Wire, 26 Mar. 2002)

MEXICO-U.S.: U.N. Expert Wraps Up Mission On Migrants' Rights -...Besides risks the migrants and smugglers take which threaten the migrants' safety, they are also at risk of being subjected to forced labor, and children in particular are at risk of being sold into prostitution or forced into pornography, Rodriguez said. (Angela Stephens, UN Wire, 19 Mar. 2002)

Regional Efforts Against Child Trafficking:...West and Central African countries have woken up to another challenge: child trafficking and exploitation (U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks, 21 Jan. 2002) (U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks, 21 Jan. 2002)

2001:

SEXUAL EXPLOITATION: Conference Ends With New Global Commitment - The Second World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children ended here today, issuing a document that expanded the meeting's purview to protecting children from all forms of sexual exploitation. (UN Wire, 20 Dec. 2001)

An important partner: the private sector - What does the private sector have to do with commercial sexual exploitation of children? Whether by commission or omission, the private sector is involved in the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). Three sub-sectors within the realm of private enterprise have traditionally featured in the discussion on CSEC: the travel and tourism industries; the media industries; and those related to new technologies. (background paper for 2nd World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children - Yokohama, Japan, 17-20 December 2001)

SEXUAL EXPLOITATION: UNICEF Head Calls Practice "Terrorism" [opening session of Second World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children]:...Queen Silvia of Sweden...highlighted...increased efforts by the private sector, including travel, tourism and information companies. She cited efforts by some airlines that run movies on flights to alert passengers to the problem and some tour companies that have instituted codes of conduct. (UN Wire, 17 Dec. 2001) 

Yokohama: unions battle against sexual exploitation of children (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, 12 Dec. 2001)

• {···español} Congreso Mundial contra la Explotación Sexual de los Niños

• {···français} Yokohama: Le groupement "Global Unions" veut y jouer un rôle déterminant

Sexual exploitation of children: trade unions take action (Samuel Grumiau, Trade Union World, 11 Dec. 2001)

• {···español} En Yokohama se discutirá la lucha contra la explotación sexual infantil

Children in sex trade, U.N. group reports:...An estimated one-third of the sex workers in Southeast Asia are children (Associated Press, in Philadelphia Inquirer, 9 Dec. 2001)

NICARAGUA: Pornography, Sex Tourism Harm Country's Youth, NGOs Say - Child rights activists in Nicaragua have said the country's children are increasingly becoming victims of Internet-based child pornography, sex tourism along the country's borders and prostitution in the country's ports...Save the Children Alliance representative Coleen Littlejohn said the tourism industry can take measures to combat sex tourism, including publicizing the problem to hotel and bar workers. (UN Wire, 7 Dec. 2001)

• {···español} Niños víctimas de pornografía (Rosario Mendoza Corea, La Prensa [Nicaragua], 7 diciembre 2001)

Britain Urged to Act Against Sex-Slavery: Legislation is urgently needed to help fight the growth in the sexual trafficking of women and children into Europe, the British government was told Monday. (Daniel Nelson, OneWorld UK, 4 Dec. 2001)

Reebok Announces 2002 Human Rights Award Recipients: Four Women to be Honored - The 2002 winners include the founder of the first independent labor union in Indonesia; an advocate for abused children in Zambia; a rescuer of young girls enslaved as prostitutes in India; and an activist at the forefront of a new generation of civil rights leadership in the United States. (Reebok, 3 Dec. 2001)

SEXUAL EXPLOITATION: U.N. Cites Lack Of Political Will In South Asia - The United Nations and experts today told a three-day Dhaka meeting that a lack of political will among South Asian governments is to blame for the continuing commercial sexual exploitation of children, Agence France-Presse reports. (UN Wire, 7 Nov. 2001)

SEXUAL EXPLOITATION: Arab, African Countries Look To Protect Children - Two hundred fifty delegates from 40 Arab and African countries on Friday called on governments to ratify and implement relevant U.N. conventions and take various other measures against child sexual exploitation. At the end of a three-day meeting in Rabat, Morocco, participants issued a declaration asking countries to create national anti-sexual exploitation programs and monitoring systems, improve policing of sexual tourism and pornography...They also called on countries to intensify their partnerships with the United Nations and other international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, national legislatures and the private sector. (UN Wire, 30 Oct. 2001)

Sexual Exploitation: Asia-Pacific Leaders Approve Prevention Plan - Asian governments have for the first time committed to specific deadlines to prevent child sexual exploitation and assist survivors. More than 200 government leaders and representatives yesterday approved a plan to put in place legal and social frameworks to protect children from such exploitation. (UN Wire, 19 Oct. 2001)

INDONESIA: Government Sets Up Team To Fight Human Trafficking - Indonesia decided Wednesday to set up an interdepartmental team to handle several campaigns aimed at halting flourishing human trafficking networks, which commonly target women and children for the sex trade. The move comes in the wake of a U.N. evaluation that ranked Indonesia as one of the worst countries at handling human trafficking. (UN Wire, 19 Oct. 2001)

• Govt team to fight trafficking of women (Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta Post, 18 Oct. 2001)

SEXUAL EXPLOITATION: Asian Delegates Prepare For Japan Conference - ...According to U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su, there are currently 1 million children in the commercial sex industry in the region, and their numbers are growing. "Human trafficking, including the trafficking of children for sexual exploitation, is organized crime's fastest-growing industry," he said (UN Wire, 16 Oct. 2001)