ECPAT Child ALERT Press Release 2015 TIPs Report

With the reference to the latest “Trafficking in Persons” or TIP Report Released this Tuesday by the US Government, ECPAT Child ALERT Trust raises concerns that even though New Zealand may be in the Tier 1 category the report clearly calls for action in the trafficking of persons pointing out that “New Zealand is a destination country for foreign men and women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking and a source country for children subjected to sex trafficking within the country”

ECPAT Child Alert Trust has begun a countrywide campaign with the Goal of creating awareness and building resilience against Commercial sex exploitation and trafficking of children in our country. While the Government is still to do more from a legal point, the report goes onto state that:

“In 2014, the government initiated its first trafficking prosecution under the Crime Act, involving 18 alleged victims from India and two defendants; this case marked the first time New Zealand has used the provision to prosecute suspected traffickers, and the case remained pending at the end of the reporting year. The government reported convicting two traffickers in two child sex trafficking cases under the Prostitution Reform Act 2003. One trafficker received 200 hours community service and the other trafficker received 10 months’ imprisonment; these penalties were not sufficient.”

We at ECPAT believe that by building strong community networks and equipping its vulnerable family units with the knowledge and tools to be resilient against any form of child sex abuse gives our next generation or rather reduces the risk of our next generation of young men and women from being exposed and possible victims of sexual abuse.

An ever growing concern of commercial sex exploitation of children is online imagery and violation of Child rights. Online child pornography and trafficking is a multibillion $ industry. In order to address this and to be able to prosecute, legislation needs to change the current definition of child trafficking to be expanded to include internal trafficking within New Zealand as well as online child pornography and downloading of child related sexual content as an offence to the fundamental rights of the Child.

ENDS

© Scoop Media