Travellers help ECPAT Fight Sex Trafficking With 'The Code'

30 June 2010

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Sex trafficking affects over 2 million children around the world. Some of these children are as young as six years old. The global sex trade is identified by the UN as the third largest criminal activity, behind the arms and drug trade. Child sex tourism is a growing phenomenon, which generates about $32 billion a year; however, it leads to the destruction of many lives and sustainable tourism around the world.

Sex trafficking was defined by the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation. Furthermore, a child has been declared as any person under the age of 18. Despite the criminalization of sex trafficking, the industry exists on a grand, global stage. It is up to civil society to take a stand against these practices and work for the end of child sexual exploitation.

ECPAT, which stands for End Child Prostitution and Trafficking, works throughout the world to eliminate the sexual exploitation of children. It seeks to encourage the world community to ensure that children everywhere enjoy their fundamental rights free from commercial sexual exploitation. The commercial sexual exploitation of children consists of criminal practices that demean, degrade, and threaten the physical and psychosocial integrity of children. There are three primary and interrelated forms of commercial sexual exploitation of children: prostitution, pornography, and trafficking. Other forms of sexual exploitation include child sex tourism, child marriages, and forced marriages.

Many times the travel industry unintentionally facilitates this debilitating form of abuse. Therefore, in collaboration with ECPAT International, funded by UNICEF and supported by the UNWTO, The Code has been formed to protect the children of the world. The Code sets a standard of responsible business practices that effectively crack down on child sexual exploitation. The Code has been received positively by many companies worldwide. However, in the United States The Code has been met with resistance by many travel companies. It must be noted that the Carlson company led by Chairperson, Marilyn Carlson Nelson, was the first major US company to sign the code in April 2004. Since then, they have been actively engaged in awareness raising and information about child-protection policies in the US travel and tourism industry. Yet, there is still much work needed to be done to ensure that all children are protected from the dangers of sexual exploitation. By signing The Code, travel companies can truly promote sustainable, ethical practices for all tourist destinations.

ECPAT encourages every traveller to take a stand and promote a great future for the children of the world. ECPAT USA designed a postcard aiming to educate responsible travelers on the issue of protecting children from sexual exploitation in tourism. The card is intended to be signed and sent or dropped off at a hotel or tourist company by responsible travelers. The hotel/tour operator is informed that The Code is a tool available for training and prevention of sex tourism. The card includes a selection of names of tourism companies already signatories of the Code in different countries. By visiting our website at http://www.ecpatusa.org/thecode/ you can print our postcard and send it to your travel company, hotel, or airline service. This allows the campaign to grow and facilitates a possible end to child sexual exploitation.

More information about The Code and how you can support its work can be found at http://www.thecode.org/ or http://www.ecpatusa.org/.  Please join us in the movement to protect the most vulnerable members of our society!

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