ECPAT
| Founded | 1990 |
|---|---|
| Type | NGO |
| Location |
|
|
Area served
|
Global |
| Mission | ECPAT seeks to encourage the world community to ensure that children everywhere enjoy their fundamental rights free and secure from all forms of commercial sexual exploitation. |
| Website | www |
ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) is a non-governmental organisation and a global network of civil society organisations exclusively dedicated to ending the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). It focuses on ending four main manifestations of CSEC: child pornography (child sexual abuse materials), the exploitation of children in prostitution, the trafficking of children for sexual purposes and the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism.
The ECPAT International network consists of a Secretariat and 90 member organisations in 82 countries. The Bangkok-based International Secretariat provides technical support to member groups and coordinates research, advocacy and action.
ECPAT International seeks to encourage the world community to ensure that children everywhere enjoy their fundamental rights free and secure from all forms of commercial sexual exploitation.
In 1990, researchers at a tourism consultation in Thailand first exposed the degree to which the prostitution of children was growing in parts of Asia. The consultation ended with a commitment to take action and ECPAT was established as a three-year campaign focused on ending the ‘commercial’ aspect of child sexual exploitation. In 1996, in partnership with UNICEF and the NGO Group for the Rights of the Child (now known as Child Rights Connect), ECPAT co-organised the First World Congress against the Commercial 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 concerned governments all over the world. As a result of the Congress, ECPAT grew from a regional campaign into a global non-governmental organisation (NGO). ECPAT is mandated to monitor the commitments of governments around the world in their legal obligations to protect children from sexual exploitation. ECPAT also helped organise the Second and Third World Congresses against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (Yokohama, Japan – 2001, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 2008).
Since the first World Congress against the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), when ECPAT International received the mandate to evaluate progress at the national level in ending CSEC, ECPAT has prepared Country Monitoring Reports (CMRs) to follow up implementation of the Stockholm Agenda for Action (Stockholm, 1996).
The ECPAT network currently consists of 90 member organisations in 82 countries. These member groups (National and Affiliate) are independent civil society organisations consisting of grassroots NGOs and coalitions of NGOs focused on a range of child rights violations.
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Wikipedia