The Ministerial Council of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe issued a decision last week, calling on all member states to strengthen their efforts in fighting all forms of child sexual exploitation. The ministerial decision reaffirmed several leading international treaties, protocols and previous ministerial decisions concerning child rights, trafficking of children and child […]

The Commonwealth Games Federation has placed child rights at the heart of its first human rights policy statement, published this month. The landmark statement was released during the Federation’s Executive Board meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and makes specific reference to protecting the rights of children and other vulnerable groups in the planning and delivery of the […]

The newly released report from ECPAT-USA details the efficacy of the organisation’s engagement with the tourism and travel industry in protecting children from sex trafficking. The report bases its findings on an evaluation study by NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, which found that half of all hotels have training on how to prevent […]

Tourism crimes! Volunteering and visiting Orphanages when traveling It’s human trafficking, child abuse and a crime participants often don’t even know they are part of it.It happens in Myanmar, Nepal and other countries. An Australian adventure travel company has a strong stance on child protection and has just announced a new charitable partnership with Australia-based […]

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has invited world leaders to a special event Monday on preventing sexual exploitation and abuse — an issue that has left a black mark on the U.N.’s far-flung peacekeeping operations and persists despite U.N. vows to combat the scourge. Guterres told reporters this week that the United Nations has drafted a compact […]

At the recent UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) General Assembly meeting in Chengu, China, Member States pledged to work towards the universal adoption of a new Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics, which includes provisions for reducing the sexual exploitation of children in the travel industry. The convention converts the Global Code of Ethics into a more binding international […]

Nearly 1.000 experts from over 80 countries convened for three days (21-23 June) in Manila, The Philippines at the 6th International Conference on Tourism Statistics to lay the groundwork for an expanded statistical framework to measure sustainable tourism in its economic, social and environmental dimensions. The outcome ‘Call for Action on Measuring Sustainable Tourism’ represents a global […]

Across Africa, governments have made legally binding commitments to protect and promote the rights of women and girls. That includes protecting them from being trafficked for sexual exploitation. Tragically, many throughout the continent remain trapped in sexual slavery and are being trafficked both within and across country boarders, and yet little is being done to […]