ECPAT Working to Protect Sexually-Exploited Children in Senegal
Published on March 24, 2014 in eTurbo News
View ArticleThere are few accurate and timely information relating to the sexual exploitation of children in Senegal. Yet, the media and local organizations working in the field of child protection report growth of the phenomenon of sex tourism involving minors.
The government of Senegal ratified the 2003 Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution, and pornography of children. But in 2006, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN body expressed concern about the deficiencies in the legislation to protect children from sexual exploitation in the application of this legislation as well as in the protection of victims.
That is why ECPAT Luxembourg joined the SAHARA (Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research Alliance) Program of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Dakar in Senegal for a study on the sexual exploitation of minors in the travel and tourism in Senegal.
ECPAT Luxembourg, in collaboration with the University of Luxembourg and the Centre for Research CEPS/INSTEAD, is organized a conference which was held this month with the theme “The sexual exploitation of children in the travel and tourism in Senegal.”
Speaking at the conference was Professor Cheikh Ibrahima Niang, a professor and researcher at the University of Dakar-Senegal who specializes in sociology, environmental science, and anthropology, and has directed several works on the social aspects of HIV/AIDS on public health issues in Senegal, Cete d’ Ivoire, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Gambia, and Guinea. He has created several publications on sexuality, social and political impacts of HIV/AIDS, and cultural approaches to prevention, and is a technical advisor for several United Nations organizations: UNAIDS, WHO, World Bank, UNDP, and ILO, to name a few. Currently he is coordinating the Network SAHARA for West Africa based at the Institute of Environmental Sciences of the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, Senegal.
ECPAT International is a global network of organizations and individuals working together for the elimination of child prostitution, child pornography and the trafficking of children for sexual purposes. It seeks to encourage the world community to ensure that children everywhere enjoy their fundamental rights free and secure from all forms of commercial sexual exploitation. The ECPAT network comprises of ECPAT groups in more than 80 countries around the world. The acronym ECPAT stands for “End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes.”
ETN Publisher Juergen T. Steinmetz is a member of the UNWTO Task Force for the Protection of Children in Tourism.