Press Centre 2008/11/27: Child Protection

Adolescents from Around the World Converge on Rio de Janeiro to Participate in the World Congress III Against Sexual Exploitation of Children

Young people call on governments and international organizations to adopt national child protection systems to better prevent and respond to sexual exploitation

Rio de Janeiro – Nearly 300 adolescents from 96 countries are in Brazil participating as delegates in the World Congress III against Sexual Exploitation of Children.

The young people, hailing from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and North America, have come to Rio to work directly with international organizations and governments and help shape future strategies for combating child sexual exploitation.

Seventeen year old Filip Volf of Belgrade, Serbia, says he came to Brazil because young people have an insight and connection to the issue that is invaluable to those working to end this terrible violation.

”It is critical that adolescents participate in events like this and share their ideas with their peers, governments and the international community,” said Volf. ”This involvement is very important because tomorrow these adolescents will become policy makers”

Adolescents like Filip have been active throughout 2008 in the lead up to the Rio Congress. Hundreds of young people have participated in the different regional and thematic conferences that have taken place around the world this year and their contributions have helped shape the agenda this week.

One of the innovative tools they used to help them communicate with each other in preparing for the World Congress has been www.stopx.org, a website that was created by UNICEF to enable the young people to meet on-line, discuss the problem of sexual exploitation in their different regions, and decide on actions to take in fighting the problem.

Terra Weikel of UNICEF said that stopx.org has been a crucial part of the young people’s efforts to prepare themselves to be fully fledged delegates at the Congress.

”The adolescents have come to Rio from all over the world, and stopx.org has helped them to really share their experiences and different perspectives and come together without being in the same room,” Weikel said. ”Through stopx.org they have been able to focus their energies and develop concrete recommendations we hope will be taken on board by the governments and international organizations here in Rio.”

Some of the recommendations that the adolescents are presenting to other delegates during the Congress include:

• Harmonizing laws on trafficking among countries to ensure victims of trafficking can receive the same protection regardless of where they find themselves.
• That children being trafficked our sold into the sex trade are treated as victims and are not criminalized, and
• Ensuring there are specialized services to treat children who have been sexually exploited.

The presence of adolescents among the nearly 3,000 delegates at the World Congress is an important step in affirming their valuable and effective participation in fighting sexual exploitation. The fact that roughly ten per cent of all the delegates are young people is also critical in promoting their long-term participation in government, civil society, and private sector initiatives.

Led by Brazilian organization Viração, the adolescents were also supported to come and participate in the World Congress by organizations such as UNICEF, Save the Children, Plan International, World Vision, ECPAT, the International Institute for the Development of Citizenship (IIDAC), National Council of Children and Adolescent Rights (Conanda), Industry Social Service (SESI), Petrobrás and the government of Brazil.

For more information, please contact:

Laura Fantozzi, UNICEF Brazil, +55 61 8166 1631

Vivian Ragazzi, Revista Viração, +55 21 9890 5524

Geoffrey Keele, UNICEF HQ, New York, +1 212 326 7583

Maria Jose Ravalli, UNICEF Latin America & the Caribbean, +54 9 11 737 3809

For access the content produced by adolescents during the World Congress III, please visit www.stopx.org

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