End commercial sexual exploitation of children in all its forms.
About us
OUR VOCATION
OUR MISSION
ECPAT Luxembourg’s mission, in Luxembourg and in the countries where it operates, is to fight by all legal means against the commercial sexual exploitation of children and to raise awareness and inform public opinion on the Rights of the Child in this area. It will facilitate the identification and implementation of programmes for vulnerable children and/or victims of commercial sexual exploitation and their families. These programmes will include one or more of these axes: prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration of children.
OUR VALUES
Partnership
A partnership is based on a long-term relationship of mutual trust. Each participant retains his or her autonomy but undertakes to pool his or her efforts and resources for the same objective.
Participation
We consider active participation in our projects, and in particular that of children, as a fundamental right, in the spirit of Article 12 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. Their views are taken into account and they influence the decision-making processes that directly affect them.
Neutrality
We work with our beneficiaries without any ethnic, political, religious or economic discrimination. Our ambition is to meet proven needs as effectively and efficiently as possible.
Independence
OUR HISTORY
THE ECPAT NETWORK
The origins
ECPAT was launched in 1990 as a one-off regional campaign to combat the commercial sexual exploitation of children. ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) began as an international network in Stockholm in 1996, during the first World Congress to Combat CSEC. This Congress, held in the presence of Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg and the Queen of Sweden, gives rise to an Agenda for Action that advocates a set of measures to combat this scourge.
Nowadays
Today, the international ECPAT network has 106 members in 97 countries, including our neighbours: Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. It is a global reference on issues related to the fight against sexual exploitation and trafficking of children.
SOME DEFINITIONS
Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) [1]
” CSEC is defined as sexual abuse by the adult and remuneration in cash or kind to the child or a third person or persons. The child is treated as a sexual object and as a commercial object. “
Prostitution of children [2]
This was before referred also as “Child prostitution”, especially in the official texts, but we prefer now the more specific semantic of “prostitution of children”. It is defined as “the use of a child in sexual activities for remuneration or any other form of consideration.”
Child sexual abuse material [3]
This was before referred also as “Child pornography”, especially in the official texts, but we prefer now the more specific semantic of “Child sexual abuse material”. It is defined as ” any representation, by whatever means, of a child engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a child for primarily sexual purposes. “
Trafficking of children for sexual purposes [4]
” Refers to the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation. “
Sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism [5]
This was before referred also as “Child sex tourism”, but we prefer now the more specific semantic of “sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism”. It is defined as ” the commercial sexual exploitation of children by people who travel from one place to another and have sexual intercourse with minors. Often they travel from a richer country to a less developed destination, but tourists who sexually abuse children may also be travelers in their own country or region. “
Child [6]
” Any human being under the age of 18 years, unless majority is attained earlier, under the legislation applicable to him/her. “