Dr. Najat Maalla M’jid, Chair of the Global Study Taskforce, has called upon partners and experts in government, civil society and the travel and tourism industry to contribute their expertise through paper submissions to the Global Study on Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism. The Global Study uses a participatory process to engage partners and experts in providing an updated, global overview of the issue, including new trends and changes in the travel and tourism environment. This overview will be used to increase awareness of the issue and to ensure evidence-based action will follow. It will also expand and improve the responses of government, civil society and the private sector to combat sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism.
The launch of the Global Study will take place in the first half of 2016, twenty years after the First World Congress on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children was held in Sweden in 1996. The First World Congress is widely accepted as the first time the international community recognised sexual exploitation of children by tourists as a serious global issue.
Dr. Maalla M’jid makes the call for papers at the UNWTO World Tourism Network on Child Protection meeting, Berlin, 6 March 2015.