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Exploitation of Children
CoE
"Every year, one million more children
in the world become the victims of sexual
exploitation. That is one million too
many." The Council of Europe's
new texts on protection of children
against sexual exploitation and cybercrime
lay down practical and detailed provisions
aimed at definitively eradicating all
forms of violence against and sexual
abuse of children. In 1991 the Council
of Europe’s Committee of Ministers
had adopted a pioneering recommendation
on sexual exploitation, pornography,
prostitution and trafficking in children
and young adults.
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It was the first international
text to deal comprehensively with these issues,
in response to the concern aroused by the rapid
expansion of tourist relations between northern
and southern countries and the simultaneous
emergence of sex tourism in Africa, Asia, South
America and eastern Europe. Sex tourism was
denounced for the first time by an association
set up in Thailand, ECPAT (End Child Prostitution
in Asian Tourism), which was the prime mover
behind the growth of international pressure
and the first congress in Stockholm. ECPAT has
since become an international NGO with its headquarters
in Bangkok (Thailand).
At the same time, the Council
of Europe, opening up to new member countries
in central and eastern Europe, the Baltic region
and the Caucasus, soon became aware of the adverse
effects of this enlargement, which took the
form of criminal networks involved in sexual
exploitation linking eastern and western Europe.
Since 1992 the development of the Internet has
also led to a huge increase in a new form of
sexual exploitation of children, using the electronic
exchange of pornographic information and pornographic
films or photographs involving minors.
This trend has prompted the
Council of Europe to adopt a further recommendation
on the subject in autumn 2001 and draw up a
convention on cybercrime which also covers the
issue of pornography involving children.
In Budapest the Council of
Europe, together with the United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF) and Hungary’s National Institute
of Criminology, hold the European Preparatory
Conference for the Second World Congress against
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children,
which took place in Yokohama.Some 150 delegations,
as well as representatives of the European Union,
Interpol, NGOs, Internet service providers,
tourism and the media, attended the preparatory
conference. Participants adopted a regional
Action Plan for Europe and Central Asia to be
submitted to the Yokohama Congress.
For more information:
Council of Europe
Cathie Burton
Press Officer
Council of Europe
Strasbourg , France
Tel.: +33 3 88 41 28 93. Mobile: +33 685 11 64 93
E-mail: cathie.burton@coe.int
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