Aide-memoire

I. Background

CSEC emerges on the world stage

In 1996 the World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) was hosted by the Government of Sweden in Stockholm, Sweden. The issue of CSEC, which was largely unrecognized up to that time, attracted attention and mobilized support from a broad range of stakeholders, involving governments, NGOs, children, civil society groups, academics, police and many others. During this Congress, 122 governments in attendance adopted the Agenda for Action. For the first time in history, government leaders made a commitment to protect children from commercial sexual exploitation.

The Second World Congress on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, hosted by the Government of Japan, took place in Yokohama, Japan in December 2001. The objectives of the Second World Congress were to:

• enhance political commitment to the implementation of the Agenda for Action adopted at the First World Congress,
• review progress in the implementation of this Agenda,
• share expertise and good practices,
• identify main problem areas and/or gaps in the fight against commercial sexual exploitation of children, and
• strengthen the follow-up process of the World Congress.

One of the main outcomes of the Congress was the re-commitment to the Stockholm Declaration and Agenda for Action in the Yokohama Global Commitment 2001, during which the number of countries adopting the Agenda for Action rose to 159.

Besides the World Congresses, regional-level preparations, initiatives and follow-up on CSEC took place. In 1995, the World Programme of Action for Youth to the year 2000 and Beyond was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. It called upon governments to cooperate at the international level and take effective steps, including specific preventive measures to protect children, adolescents and youth from all types of exploitation and abuse.

Regional involvement in CSEC work

In 1996, the Asia Pacific Meeting on Human Resources Development for Youth convened by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asian and the Pacific (ESCAP), called upon the Secretariat to promote regional cooperation in eliminating sexual exploitation and abuse of youth in the region. Then in 1997, ESCAP Member States adopted resolution 53/4 on the elimination of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and youth in Asia and the Pacific. That resolution also recognized the use of new communications technologies including the Internet, in the commercial and sexual exploitation of children and raised the need then for international and regional action on the issue. ESCAP has worked on CSEC as a youth policy as well as a social policy issue.

In 2001, as a regional preparation for the Second World Congress, The organization, End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT), ESCAP and UNICEF, together with Save the Children and the Government of Japan, co-organized the East Asia and Pacific Regional Consultation for the Second World Congress in Bangkok at which participants adopted the "Regional Commitment and Action Plan of the East Asia and Pacific Region against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children”. Participating countries requested ECPAT international, ESCAP and UNICEF to monitor the implementation of the Stockholm Agenda for Action through assisting countries with the development of national plans of action. Pacific Island Countries were especially encouraged to adopt the Agenda for Action. Fiji, Samoa, and Vanuatu adopted the Stockholm Declaration and Agenda in December 2001; the Cook Islands in September 2003 and Papua New Guinea in May 2004.

In 2004 ESCAP, ECPAT and UNICEF organized the Post-Yokohama Mid-term Review of the East Asia and the Pacific Regional Commitment and Action Plan against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, in November 2004 in Bangkok. As an interagency partnership, the three organizations worked jointly on workshops and studies in the Pacific sub-region to raise awareness on CSEC. Many organizations are working in partnership to address CSEC issues through different strategies and interventions.

Major advocates against CSEC

The organization ECPAT, formed in 1991 following a study on impacts of tourism in Asia and campaigns led by individuals shocked at the sexual exploitation of children in tourism in Asia. ECPAT International became a global network in 1996.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), also a key partner for over a decade, addresses the issue of CSEC within its child protection framework and has been working on the issue of CSEC and child rights as part of its programme of work for the protection of children worldwide.

Save the Children Fiji bases most of its work on the child rights framework of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It assists disadvantaged children, providing them with opportunities for participation through community based development activities and also works to build the capacity of local communities to implement activities for children and advocate for policy changes. Through research, training and awareness-raising it aims to prevent violence and abuse against children.
ESCAP, ECPAT International, and Save the Children Fiji are jointly organizing the Regional Stakeholders’ Consultation and Planning Workshop on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) and Child Sexual Abuse in the Pacific Suva, Fiji Islands, 19-21 November 2007. Seven countries which have a situational analysis report on CSEC will participate, namely, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. This will also be an opportunity for some of the countries of the Pacific to consider how they will prepare for the third World Congress against CSEC planned for late 2008 in Brazil.

II. Background to CSEC response in the Asia - Pacific region

In September 2003, ESCAP, ECPAT and UNICEF organized a meeting in Nadi, Fiji on combating poverty and CSEC with a focus on helping countries to incorporate Convention on the Rights of the Child obligations and Stockholm Commitments into national action plans. A Pacific Statement of Commitment was also adopted at that workshop.

One of the key suggestions that came out of this 2003 workshop was to conduct situational analyses in Pacific Island countries and to share the findings regionally, as at that time many Pacific Islands countries did not know the situation in their countries in regards to CSEC. In response to this need for information on CSEC, a training workshop on CSEC and CSA was held to enable countries to undertake situational analysis research. Since 2004 to the present, ESCAP, ECPAT and UNICEF have supported the situational analysis research in a number of Pacific Island countries, namely:

• Cook Islands: Funded by ESCAP and ECPAT-New Zealand, research jointly carried out by ECPAT-New Zealand and Cook Islands Women’s Counseling Centre, Punanga Tauturu Inc. (PTI) 2006
  
• Fiji: Funded by ESCAP; research by Save the Children, Fiji, November 2004
  
• Kiribati: Funded by UNICEF; research by RRRT, November 2004 (UNICEF,
  ESCAP and ECPAT organized training for the Kiribati research team)
  
• Papua New Guinea: Funded by UNICEF, PNG, HELP Resources Inc. and
  ESCAP and carried out by HELP Resources, Inc., January, 2005
  
• Samoa: Funded by UNICEF; research has been completed and a report is being written
  
• Solomon Islands: Funded by UNICEF; research by the Christian Care Centre of the Church of Melanesia, Honiara with technical assistance provided by RRRT, October 2004
  
• Vanuatu: Funded by UNICEF; research by Wan Smol Bag Theatre with technical assistance from RRRT, November, 2004

In addition, ESCAP has supported training in CSEC research methodology in the Federated States of Micronesia.

In December 2006 a regional report on CSEC, based on the situational analysis reports that were completed by mid-year, 2006, was launched in Fiji by the Pacific office of UNICEF and ESCAP (Pacific Operations Centre (EPOC) with ECPAT’s involvement. In May 2007, Child Wise Australia in partnership with UNICEF, organized a workshop in Papua New Guinea on a CSEC national action plan involving representatives from various provinces of the country. The plan is currently awaiting adoption by the Government.
In 2007, the Christian Care Centre of the Solomon Islands followed up on its original CSEC situational analysis research by conducting research into CSEC in logging camps in Makira Province of the Solomon Islands.

Since the completion of these studies, the Pacific countries involved have not met to discuss the CSEC situational analyses reports. The regional overview report launched in 2006 and the situational analyses will provide the basis for countries to consider the different strategies and methods relevant to responding to CSEC. ESCAP, ECPAT and SCF Fiji have organized this workshop to enable all the countries involved in the CSEC situational analyses to meet and discuss ways forward. The workshop will assist countries in analyzing methods for developing or reviewing CSEC strategies and national plans of action. The consultation also will review the social and economic factors behind CSEC and the gender issues that are documented in the studies, so their impact is recognized in planning responses to CSEC.

The meeting also focuses on including other important regional actors and organizations, so that they are aware of CSEC issues through the situation analyses and can discuss relevant country and regional policy and programme responses to CSEC. Many regional stakeholders need to be involved and aware of CSEC as an issue, as their efforts or decision making are often crucial in providing the many multi-sectoral strategic interventions necessary to protect children and prevent the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the Pacific region.

III. Objectives

The workshop aims to bring various stakeholders from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu together to review and share key findings from situational analysis studies on CSEC and child sexual abuse (CSA), undertaken or in process in these countries and develop appropriate responses, taking into consideration existing national and regional commitments and strategies on children’s rights and protection. This workshop will be an opportunity for countries to share experiences, and for other Pacific stakeholders to be informed and involved in responses on the issue of CSEC.

Part of the workshop will be led by ECPAT and will focus on the strengthening capacities to develop national plans of action on CSEC to implement policies, programmes, laws and strategies in the areas of coordination and cooperation, prevention, protection, recovery and reintegration and child participation, as called for in the Stockholm Agenda for Action adopted in 1996 at the First World Congress against the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Although girls and boys can be victims of child sex abuse (CSA) and CSEC, there are traditional, cultural as well as more recently introduced practices combined with gender discrimination that makes girls generally more vulnerable than boys to abuse or exploitation and forms of gender-based violence. The recent Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Women (2006) and on violence against children, helped to draw more attention to damage that various forms of violence has on individuals, communities and nations.
With growth in tourism, urbanization, greater movement of people for migration as well as human trafficking, a large youth population and rising incidence of HIV/AIDS, CSEC is an important problem that needs to be addressed from various angles including human rights and gender, as well as a development issue. It is expected that the regional consultation will also help Pacific Islands States in regional preparations for the Third Congress on CSEC to be held in 2008.

The specific objectives of the meeting are:

• To review actions already taken and plans or strategies developed and consider ways of improving their impact inter alia, through identifying synergies between various approaches and plans
• To enable country representatives to review plans and strategies to address the key research findings for each country
• To raise awareness of the gender dimensions documented in the situational analyses and the need to incorporate a gender approach for an effective response
• To consider the economic and social aspects of the issue and consider the root causes and consequences of CSEC and CSA

IV. Profile of Participants

Government and non-governmental organization representatives from Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and observers from Papua New Guinea, along with regional, and United Nations organizations and academic institutions will participate. Representatives of the Suva-based diplomatic corps will also be invited to attend.

V. Format

Part of the workshop will comprise country presentations on the situational analysis research and national responses as well as a regional perspective, panel discussions and presentations. The second part will focus on strategies and approaches to planning and implementation of appropriate responses to CSEC and CSA as set out in the Agenda for Action adopted at the 1996 World Congress.

Meeting documents

1. Provisional Programme