Over seven million
signatures have been collected in support of the ‘Stop the Sexual Exploitation
of Children and Teenagers’ campaign

Representatives of Body Shop and ECPAT International have handed in
a petition containing seven million signatures collected in connection with the
campaign to the president of the UN Council for Children’s Rights, Lore Dyupui
Lasser. They are calling on all states urgently to adopt measures to root out
the problem. The companies’ action has led to changes in the legislation
affecting the rights of minors to be protected from sexual exploitation for
commercial purposes in 14 countries, including Malta, Denmark, Portugal, the
Republic of South Africa, Malaysia, Norway, Switzerland, Pakistan, Rumania, Taiwan,
Ireland, Indonesia, the Philippines, and New Zealand.

The campaign has been the most successful of all the social
campaigns conducted so far as the EU is concerned. Its organisers have received
several international prizes and have attracted support from world leaders. In
particular, ex-president Clinton has called the campaign ‘a successful example
of how very serious social problems should be raised at international level’.

Note:

The commercial exploitation of people is the third most profitable
international criminal industry after the narcotics and arms trades. Every year
over 1,200,000 minors are caught up in it. They are transported to other
regions or countries by force or deception and compelled to engage in prostitution
or to take part in creating videos of a pornographic nature, or otherwise
exploited for gain. It is the aim of ECRAT International and Body Shop to root
out these criminal practices, to prevent minors from being subjected to
commercial exploitation and to promote long term measures to secure their
welfare. The campaign has been in progress since 2009 in 65 countries. During
this period, the sum of $3,000,000 has been contributed to the campaign fund
and allocated to ECRAT International’s partners in each of the participating
countries. These resources are spent on helping minors who have been the
victims of sexual exploitation, the work of raising public awareness and so
forth

http://www.asi.org.ru/ASI3%5Crws_asi.nsf/va_WebPages/88ECD2762231054CC325792200306051Rus