Principles
At the request of Ron O’Grady, founder of ECPAT International, Acting for Life provides substantial human, logistical and financial support to ECPAT France.
ECPAT France has a vocation to combat commercial sexual exploitation of children, i.e. all forms of child prostitution, child pornography and the sale and trafficking of children for purposes of sexual abuse. The ECPAT campaign was born at the initiative of various voluntary bodies which, at the end of the 1980s, put out a call for mobilization from South-East Asia. Nowadays, ECPAT is an international network represented in more than 70 countries across the world.
Apart from supporting ECPAT France, the "ECPAT – Child Protection and Youth Promotion" desk ofActing for Life Life is responsible for initiating many field programmes in co-operation with ECPAT International.
Mission
Since 1997, ECPAT France has undertaken the following work:
- raising awareness of the realities of commercial sexual exploitation of children (information campaigns, studies and research, speaking at conferences, etc.) in close partnership with Air France;
- educating key players in the struggle (creating educational tools, speaking at conferences, etc.);
- strengthening laws and their enforcement;
- supporting reintegration and rehabilitation projects for children, in partnership with Acting for Life;
- encouraging the establishment of the Agenda for Action drawn up in 1996 at the first World Congress against commercial sexual exploitation, as well as follow-up to the recent 3rd Congress in Rio.
ECPAT has developed solid partnerships with many others involved in this battle, e.g. public authorities, tourist industry professionals, media, international organizations and associations.
Activities 2008 – 2011
"Inform and educate in Europe to protect children in developing countries against commercial sexual exploitation": the watchword for the coming years.
ECPAT France is currently developing a multi-year programme with Acting for Life and ECPAT Luxembourg, which is designed to inform European public opinion about the commercial sexual exploitation of children in developing countries and to educate key players in this fight. ECPAT Monaco Méditerranée is also now taking part in this project.
The programme targets three forms of sexual exploitation:
- sex tourism involving children;
- trafficking of children to Europe for the purpose of prostitution;
- hild pornography on the Internet.
This programme is aimed at:
- European travellers;
- the general public and young people in particular;
- key players in the fight against commercial sexual exploitation of children (tourist industry professionals, tourism students, journalists and student journalists, police, magistrates, social workers and public authorities).
The main activities envisaged focus on eight main themes:
- raising travellers' awareness of the issue of sex tourism involving children;
- mobilizing tourist industry professionals against that exploitation;
- involving future tourist industry professionals in the fight;
- providing high-quality information on the sexual exploitation of children;
- developing local information services on the topic;
- promoting legislation to outlaw sexual exploitation of children;
- contributing to tougher legal action against such exploitation;
- improving assistance to vulnerable children and child victims.