Photo from Tourism Concern UK
Montreal Canada: The International Bureau for Children’s Rights launched a forum entitled “The Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism” co-organized with Thomas Cook and SkyLink Voyages on December 2, 2009.
This event was designed for representatives of the private tourism sector in Quebec, as well as other Canadian governmental and non-governmental organizations. The primary objective of this forum was to raise awareness about the principal manifestations and the scope of Child Sex Tourism (CST), including its legal implications and consequences. The forum also functioned as a key platform to share good practices and tools to effectively combat and prevent CST in Canada and abroad.
The response of the forum’s participants was exceptionally positive and constructive. The main outcomes resulting from the Round Table discussions held at the end of the session included the following recommendations:
· to develop a common message to be included permanently in companies’ informative correspondence;
· the diffusion of friendly yet cautionary and straight-forward awareness raising messages through both physical and electronic channels of information (documents, brochures, booklets, websites, email) regarding CST and both its social and legal consequences;
· there was a strong interest from specific participating companies and agencies in receiving training and informative resources from the bureau regarding the components of the commercial sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism, of its scope, and of additional cautionary tools to effectively collaborate in its eradication; and
· to incorporate the protection of children to participating companies’ agendas and to elaborate a more efficient system of communication.
These inputs have provided the basis for a decisive plan of action to be developed and for the strengthening of a much-needed, inter-sector collaboration in the struggle against the commercial sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism worldwide.
For more information see: www.thecode.org
Valere Tjolle
