Parliamentarians from ASEAN Member States have agreed to take steps to tackle the growing problem of child sexual exploitation in the context of travel and tourism. Meeting in Malaysia this week as part of the 10th ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) Caucus, lawmakers agreed to a 24-point “check-list,” which will guide future legal interventions to protect […]

ARLEMP Program is a partnership between the Australian Federal Police, the Vietnam Ministry of Public Security and RMIT University. It is a training program sponsored by the Australian Federal Police with the aim of enhancing regional law enforcement forces’ capacity to address non-traditional security threats and transnational crimes. ARLEMP 49 opened on 11th June in […]

Ms. Najat Maalla M’jid of Morocco has been appointed a Special Representative on Violence Against Children at the level of Assistant of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, which was announced on 30 May. A medical doctor specialized in paediatrics, Ms. M’jid has devoted her life over the last three decades to promoting and protecting children’s […]

Tourism is high on the agenda for Uganda with it experiencing the highest growth rate in tourism across Africa in 2011. Across the continent tourism industry has more than tripled in the last two decades with numbers of tourist’s arrivals set to more than double again by 2030. ECPAT International’s latest report finds that voluntourism has […]

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) announced at the end of last week that it is establishing a global taskforce to help the industry prevent and combat human trafficking – including of children for sexual purposes. Human trafficking is worth $150 billion annually and affects more than 40 million people worldwide. An estimated 5.5 million of […]

The resolution on “Formulating and Implementing Project Based Initiative on Strengthening Legal Frameworks to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism” mandates and supports the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) Secretariat to take action as well as to create engagement with regional and international communities on child protection from sexual exploitation in travel and […]

On March 13-14, travel and tourism industry representatives, governments, experts and NGOs came together to discuss the protection of children in travel and tourism at an International Forum in Cancún, Mexico. The Forum was supported by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, TUI Care Foundation and TUI Mexico and organized by ECPAT Mexico, Defence for […]

The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) representing a diverse global membership within the sustainable travel and tourism industry is expanding the implementation of child protection measures. At ITB Berlin, the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) signed a ‘memorandum of understanding’ with The Code and ECPAT International to work together to expand standards for the protection […]

The Roundtable Human Rights in Tourism has launched a new tool for the travel and tourism industry to begin embedding human rights into their practice and business activities. The tool provides specific step by step guidelines for travel, transportation, accommodation, food and beverage and activities industries to help them analyse risks and take action. The […]

In 2014, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse was established due to serious concerns that some organisations had failed and were continuing to fail to protect children from sexual abuse, particularly in light of many high profile cases. A recent investigation made public evidence of institutional failures to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse by […]