17th Meeting of the Task Force to protect children from sexual exploitation in tourism (14 November 2005)

Summary: The 17th Meeting of the Task Force took place yesterday in London and featured a thematic session on government actions to combat the sexual exploitation of children in tourism, as well as a reporting session on what practical steps have been taken since the last meeting.

[LONDON, 15 November 2004] - The Task Force to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation in Tourism is a Global action platform of tourism-related key players from the government and the tourism industry sectors, international organisations, non-governmental organisations, and media associations whose aim is to prevent, uncover, isolate and eradicate the sexual exploitation of children in tourism (SECT). It is an open-ended network which was established by the World Tourism Organisation in 1997 as a follow-up to the Stockholm Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.

The 17th Meeting of the Task Force took place yesterday in London and featured a thematic session on government actions to combat the sexual exploitation of children in tourism, as well as a reporting session on what practical steps have been taken since the last meeting.

Dawid de Villiers opened the session with encouraging words about the growing involvement of governments in the issue of SECT, and the remarkable progress achieved by the Task Force since its creation in 1997. The Task Force now represents a strong and influential network of contacts that national governments listen to. Government representatives from Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Sri Lanka, ASEAN countries, Spain, France and Germany then gave presentations on national initiatives towards the implementation of the Code of Conduct.

Camelia Tepelus updated the audience on new developments concerning the Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism and talked about the launch of the Code in Japan and Mexico this year. The Code was initiated in 1998 by ECPAT Sweden and the World Tourism Organisation (WTO). It is a project joining the tourism private sector and ECPAT, and aiming to prevent child sexual exploitation in tourism. The tour operators and their umbrella organisations, travel agents, hotels and airlines adopting the Code commit themselves to implement the following six criteria:

- to establish an ethical policy regarding SECT
- to train the personnel in the country of origin and travel destinations
- to introduce a clause in contracts with suppliers, stating a common repudiation of SECT
- to provide information to travellers (catalogues, brochures, in-flight films, ticket-slips, etc)
- to provide information to local "key persons" at the destinations
- to report annually

Chris Gould, from the UK Criminal Justice Department, Avon and Somerset Constabulary, then gave a presentation on his investigation and fight against a new form of SECT: child abuse within educational, cultural and language trips abroad. This type of abuse, he said, takes place within host families for children and young people who undertake cultural trips abroad, and it is dramatically unreported. So the scale of the phenomenon is probably bigger than currently thought. Mr Gould set up a charity, Child-Safe, whose main objectives are to raise awareness and lobby the UK and other governments on the issue.

The next consultative meeting of the Task Force will be held on 10 March 2006 in Berlin; the thematic session will focus on campaign design and implementation. National tourism administrations (NTAs), industry associations and businesses, tourism education centres and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) interested in reporting on actions and measures taken in their respective countries to combat SECT, including challenges or obstacles encountered, are invited to contact the Task Force co-ordinator for details.