Q&A, The Campaign in a Nutshell.

The campaign is called Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People.

When was the campaign launched and how long will it last?

The multi-year campaign was launched in August 2009. The launch of its second year is in July 2010. It is a three-year campaign.

What are the campaign goals?

To inspire long-term change and mobilise concrete action against child sex trafficking.

To ensure a global voice against the sexual exploitation of children and trafficking is heard by all, particularly those with power to make the changes needed to protect children and young people around the world.

To use the resources raised for awareness and prevention programmes for children and young people at risk and to bring immediate relief to child survivors of sex trafficking.

More questions.

This second year 2010 is focused on advocacy and mobilising the global public and governments worldwide to take action against child sex trafficking. The goal is to collect 8 million signatures worldwide for campaign petitions that will be presented to governments in various countries. The petition campaign will be taken up in countries around the world. For each country it will list specific challenges to child protection and call for specific actions from the respective government. Towards the end of the campaign, all the signatures from the national petitions and a global petition that the public may sign online will be collated and presented before the United Nations. On its second year, the campaign also seeks to draw the active participation of children and youth to amplify their voice in calling for their right to protection and to take part in awareness-raising worldwide on the issue with their peers, families and communities to learn about child sex trafficking and sign the petition.

How many countries are involved in the campaign?

More than 42 countries around the world are directly involved in the campaign and its related activities, but more are benefitting and supporting it. ECPAT International and ECPAT groups in these countries together with The Body Shop in-country and internationally created Progress Cards which provide a measure of each country's advancement toward implementing measures to fight child sex trafficking. The cards served as a base to draft the country-specific petitions to each country's government, the sales of the Soft Hands Kind Heart hand cream will support concrete work in each country such as shelters for victims of child sex trafficking and several other initiatives (view Campaign Achievements). A global fund has also been established from hand cream sales to support similar projects in countries that do not have The Body Shop.

For specific questions or to set up an interview, please contact:

Patchareeboon Sakulpitakphon (Mam),
ECPAT's Programme Associate for combating Child Trafficking for Sexual Purposes. patchareeboons@ecpat.net