In the year 2011, the Colombian Institute of Social Welfare (ICBF) reported 589 cases of the commercial sexual exploitation of children. In the newly published Country Monitoring Report for Colombia ECPAT International highlights that national legislation has recently been strengthened to fight this exploitation of children by criminalising those who seek sexual activities with children in exchange for money or other promises. In addition to improved legislation greater efforts are also needed to penalise the aggressors, the accomplices, and unfortunately corrupt officials such as police or judicial officers. A significant challenge in Colombia is social tolerance of the commercial sexual exploitation of children. These crimes against children first must be recognised as a violation of children's rights and a social problem in order to design adequate policies and programmes for the prevention and protection of all children. To understand more about the current situation in Colombia, you can read the full report (in Spanish) here