Today, Heads of State gathered for the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in New York unveil the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and set in motion the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
In doing so, world leaders make the highest possible commitment to protect children when they are the most vulnerable. This SDGs include the promise to ‘take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour (…) by 2025’ (SDG target 8.7). According to the International Labour Organisation’s Convention No 182, the worst forms of child labour include the sale and trafficking of children, as well as the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution or the production of pornography.
ECPAT International welcomes the commitment of Heads of States as a victory for children everywhere. “Today must be the start of an era of determination and action if we are to realise the eradication the commercial sexual exploitation of children through prostitution and pornography by 2025” said Dorothy Rozga, Executive Director of ECPAT International.
ECPAT celebrates this breakthrough, which it has been tirelessly trying to secure during three World Congresses Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children for the last 20 years.
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Background information
ECPAT is a global network of 85 organisations working together in 77 countries for the elimination of all forms of child sexual exploitation through prostitution, pornography and trafficking. ECPAT International has been leading the global discussion on the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) and is recognised as a strong and cohesive child rights advocacy network speaking on behalf of vulnerable children and child victims of sexual exploitation for the past 25 years. For more information, please visit www.ecpat.net
ECPAT co-organised the First World Congress Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, convened in Stockholm in 1996. The Stockholm Congress was ground-breaking as it was the first time there was an acknowledgement and outrage at the global level of what was largely a hidden violation of children that occurred in all parts of the world. A key outcome of the Congress was an international action plan called the Stockholm Decalaration. The Second World Congress Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children was held in Yokohama, Japan in 2001 and produced the Yokohama Global Commitment. The Third World Congress Against the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2008 and hosted official government delegations from 140 countries.
The Post-2015 Development Agenda includes 17 SDGs and 169 specific targets, which will replace the Millennium Development Goals and most of them are to be achieved by 2030.