The Regional Parliamentary Workshop on Strengthening Legal Frameworks to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism, organised on 26-27 July in Bali, ended with commitments made by members of parliaments from seven ASEAN Member States to strengthen collaborations for the protection of children in travel and tourism in South East Asia.
The Regional Workshop was hosted by the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), the sole parliamentary forum in South East Asia, in partnership with ECPAT International, and with support from UNICEF EAPRO. The Workshop followed the Resolution on “Formulating and Implementing Project Based Initiatives on Strengthening Legal Frameworks to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism” which was endorsed during the 38th AIPA General Assembly convened in Manila in 2017. The resolution mandates and supports the AIPA Secretariat to take action as well as to engage with regional and international communities in tackling the issue of protecting children from sexual exploitation in travel and tourism.
ECPAT International, as the lead partner of AIPA in this initative, has developed a SECTT legal checklist and conducted reviews of the national legislations of 10 ASEAN countries aimed at supporting AIPA’s initiative to harmonise national legislations and ensure that laws to protect children are not lagging behind the unprecedented growth of travel, new forms of tourism and technology advancements.
This effort serves as an implementation of the Call for Action at the Global Summit on Child Protection in Travel and Tourism, hosted by the Colombian government in June, which concluded with commitments from relevant stakeholders to end the impunity of travelling child sex offenders by ensuring strong and effective legal frameworks.
A group photo!
Robbert van den Berg from ECPAT, Bruno Desthieux from Interpol, and Emma Day and Grace Agcaoili from UNICEF EAPRO.