The Women's Freedom Network Newsletter January/February & March/April 2002, Volume 9, Nos. 1 & 2 WOMEN'S FREEDOM NETWORK DOUBLE ISSUE: Report on the Second World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation Yokohama Japan, December 2001 by Carol Smolenski, Co-Ordinator ECPAT-USA

The Second World Congress Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) brought together 3,000 participants from the 138 countries for 4 days of plenary sessions, panel discussions, and workshops. The Congress was a follow-up to the first World Congress in Sweden in 1996, when 122 governments got together for the first time to discuss and make a political commitment to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

The first World Congress came about after the creation of End Child Prostitution/Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT) in 1991 in Asia. ECPAT was started by Asian child rights activists who worked hard to call world attention to the problem of CSEC in Asia. Back then, not many governments or people really wanted to talk about the subject. The focus was on sex tours in Asia, with many of the sex tourists coming from developed countries such as the U.S., Australia, and Japan. ECPAT struggled to get governments and international agencies involved. Eventually, UNICEF agreed to co-sponsor an international meeting. The Swedish government offered to host it, and a coalition of child rights NGOs based in Geneva, called the NGO Group on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, also offered to co-sponsor the event. Out of this, the first World Congress was born and the same co-sponsors also sponsored the second World Congress hosted by Japan.

The first World Congress resulted in a far-reaching, quite detailed agenda for action. One thing that governments committed to in Stockholm was to prepare a national plan of action. Unfortunately, most governments did not do this. At Yokohama, the commitment was renewed, and our work after Yokohama is to make sure that governments do work on their national plan of action.

In Yokohama, the world's attention was recalled to the continuing abuse of children in the sex market. Yokohama updated the description of the problem, solutions, and where to go from here. The Congress held opening and closing plenary sessions where dignitaries such as the Princess of Japan and the Queen of Sweden spoke. Each plenary session also had one young person speak about what they are doing to end CSEC. There were also three panel presentations over the course of the Congress that had widespread geographic representation and had a young person speaking at each one.

Some of the conference themes included the increasing trafficking of children to meet the continuing demand for young sex partners, the growing use of the Internet-- both for spreading child pornography and for luring young sex partners-- and, the need to focus on men as by far the majority of the exploiters of children.

Men must be much more involved in ending the exploitation. One presentation that created a real stir was by Denise Ritchie of ECPAT- New Zealand. She gave a presentation about the need for men to work against CSEC and to change their behavior. She asked men in the audience to raise their hands if they would be willing to join her at a press conference directly after her presentation to talk about the role of men. I think only 2 men raised their hands. Also, there was a workshop presented about the role of men in the CSEC problem.

During the question and answer period one of the men talked about going out into the Yokohama society and having a lively conversation about all the pornography that was available both in the hotels and on the news stands.

Another theme that emerged over the 4 days was the importance of involving young people in the fight against CSEC. In many countries, children are much better informed about their right to protection from commercial sexual exploitation and much more active in working against it than are young people in the U.S.

The most important thing about this conference was that 138 government officials attended this meeting, and these officials were forced to listen to experts and children and each other talk about the problems of children involved in commercial sexual exploitation.

The most important thing about this conference was that 138 government officials attended this meeting, and their officials were forced to listen to experts and children and each other talk about the problems of children involved in commercial sexual exploitation. These government officials listened to the circumstances that led children to become involved in the sex industry, what these children needed in order to get out of the industry, and the leading role of men in exploiting children. Secretaries, ministers, law enforcement officials, and legislators had to stay there for the three and a half days and listen to this topic that most people really do not want to discuss.

What was also important about Yokohama is that all of the 138 governments that attended agreed to the Yokohama Global Commitment for 2001. While it is true that this Commitment is not as specific as the Agenda for Action that was approved in 1996 at the First World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, it does recommit to that agenda. The Yokohama Global Commitment includes things like ensuring adequate resource allocation to counter CSEC, promoting education and information, protecting children from sexual exploitation, and including educational and training programs on the rights of the child for children, parents, law enforcers, service providers, and other key people. That is an amazing thing for a government to agree to.

The Yokohama meeting offered an opportunity for NGOs to identify players in their governments who are interested in working against commercial sexual exploitation of children or who are the key players who should be interested. While we do have some good partners in the U.S. government, it was very important for us to identify and to be able to interact with other U.S. government officials around the issue of CSEC to see who does what, to learn from them, and to meet them face-to-face. The conference also was important because it provided an opportunity for those who work in the field to share best practices against CSEC, to hear about the latest scholarship and research on CSEC, and to hear certain emerging themes of interest to people around the world who are working in the field.

Yokohama also represented an opportunity for cross-fertilization of ideas from organizations and individuals working against CSEC. There were 107 workshops many sponsored by NGOs, but also by governments and intergovernmental agencies where some of this cross-fertilization took place. Those of us who have been working in this area of children's rights were refueled and re-armed for fighting commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Yokohama demonstrated how the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has now become the framework for all discussions on behalf of children. Every country, except the U.S. and Somalia, has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most widely and most rapidly ratified human rights convention ever. It is now the centerpiece of any international meeting about children and protection of children's rights.

Many positive changes have occurred since Yokohama. For one, formal, organized child sex tours are much harder to find in Asia. The numbers have been reduced, and they are profiled much lower partly because so much attention has been placed on the problem of child sex tours. Also, there has been a reduction in the number of girls in northern Thailand who are now being trafficked into the brothels in Thailand, partly because there has been such a focus on ending trafficking of girls from northern Thailand. That does not mean that traffickers are not now going farther afield, of course, to find the bodies that they need to feed the industry, but Yokohama was a step forward. It was a very thrilling experience for those of us who have been working in this field for so long to get together with people who are all doing the same work.

What is needed now is for us to hold our governments accountable to the specific commitments that they made in Yokohama. In the U.S. there is only one shelter specifically for prostituted young people. It is in Los Angeles, CA. ECPAT- USA has started a task force against sexual exploitation of young people in New York City, where there is a very big problem of young girls in prostitution. The NYPD came to us recently and said, "we're picking up these 13-yearold girls who are now willing to leave their pimps and we don't have any place to bring them. What do you suggest?" We have to do follow-up. The Congress ensured adequate resources just for this problem.