Intervida makes the e-book ‘1st International Conference: Tourism and the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children’ available to web users
Barcelona (06/05/2008). The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children is increasingly latent in the most disadvantaged countries around the world. Aware of this, INTERVIDA supports the need to raise awareness of this problem through the e-book ‘1st International Conference: Tourism and the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC)’. The organization uses new technologies on its Web page to offer visitors the opportunity to download a free PDF version of this publication at www.intervida.org/147/section.aspx/89.
The book contains all of the presentations made by participants in this meeting organized by INTERVIDA in Madrid in March of 2007. This was the most important international event on child sex tourism since the 2nd World Conference against the Sexual Exploitation of Children (Yokohama, 2001) and the European Conference for the Protection of Children against Exploitation in Tourism (Rome, 2003).
In the book, INTERVIDA compiles the most relevant issues affecting tourism and the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC), which were addressed in the forum from the perspective of the most important organizations and institutions in the sector. It also includes a series of specific commitments made in the public, private and civil sectors towards raising awareness of and eradicating CSEC.
Additionally, it contains the testimony of Irene Rodriguez, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 and who suffered sexual exploitation herself as a child. The book also includes the opinions of international organisms, such as the IOM (International Organization for Migration), the ILO (International Labor Organization) and the WTO (World Tourism Organization), institutions such as the Council of Europe, the European Commission and Europol, and NGOs such as ECPAT International.
Tourism is one of the causes which accentuate the growth of the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. It is estimated that nearly 20% of this abuse in Central American and Caribbean countries is committed by tourists and foreigners, according to the World Tourism Organization.
Oftentimes, the exploiters take advantage of facilities offered by the tourism industry. In this sense, it is increasingly easy to make international trips and the Internet has become an important source of information and access to pornography and other activities related with pedophilia, which drive many people to travel abroad. As well-known experts in the fight against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children have indicated in the book, from a criminal perspective westerners enter in private chats before traveling in order to find recommendations as to what to do or where to go to find children they can abuse. For this reason, in addition to the policies which are enforced in various countries to punish these crimes, it is important that all of society is aware of this problem. With this aim, INTERVIDA carries out the important work of raising awareness through its campaign, ‘Give them a Voice’.
Poverty, illiteracy and cultural traditions are also factors which may lead to CSEC. Aware of these problems, exploiters who target particular countries take advantage of the lack of resources of the families, offering money in exchange for abusing their children. This fact is more pronounced in the case of girls, who suffer more from this phenomenon.
Likewise, child labor is another element of risk since the children are more likely to fall into rings of sexual exploitation. For this reason, INTERVIDA has joined with the International Labor Organization in the effort to create enough jobs for adults and to apply policies which will provide basic services to the entire population, in order to prevent this problem.
About INTERVIDA
FUNDACIÓN INTERVIDA is a nonpartisan, nondenominational and independent development NGO in special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Its objective is to contribute to sustainable human development towards improving the living conditions of the most disadvantaged communities around the world. Currently, INTERVIDA is active in various countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, offering its support to nearly five million people.
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