| ..Press
Release................................
UNESCAP News Services |
Date 4
November 2004
Note to Editor No: N/29/2004
The Post-Yokohama Mid-Term Review of the East Asia and
the Pacific Regional Commitment and Action Plan against Commercial
Sexual Exploitation of Children, Bangkok, 8-10 November 2004
Bangkok (United Nations Information Services)
-- From November 8-10, senior officials from 23 countries will
meet at the UN building in Bangkok to report on their progress
towards key commitments made at the 2001 East Asia and Pacific
Regional Consultation against Commercial Sexual Exploitation
of Children.
Along with representatives of international agencies
and NGOs, they will note that the commercial sexual exploitation
of children continues to blight all the countries of this region
despite considerable progress in working together to prevent
it. This progress includes the recent signing of the world’s
first multi-country memorandum of understanding on trafficking
and an increasing number of innovative strategies to counter
child pornography and the prostitution of children.
The countries to be represented at the meeting
are Australia, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati,
the People’s Republic of Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia,
Myanmar, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa,
Singapore, the Solomon Islands, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu
and Viet Nam.
There will be a press conference at
12.00 on Wednesday 10 November in the UNCC Theatre, on the ground
floor of the UN Conference Centre at the UN Building on Ratchadamnoen
Nok.
On the panel will be:
Other international and regional experts on the
commercial sexual exploitation of children will attend the meeting
and be present at the press conference. They will also be available
for individual interviews by prior arrangement during the course
of the meeting.
A number of children and young people will also
attend the meeting, of whom some have personal experience of
commercial sexual exploitation. Interviews with the young people
may be possible in accordance with strict ethical guidelines,
which will be attached in a subsequent email.
The meeting has been organized by the Inter-Agency
Group (ECPAT International, UNESCAP and UNICEF) in cooperation
with the governments of Italy, Japan and Thailand and the NGO
Group on the Convention for the Rights of the Child, represented
by the Save the Children Alliance.
For more information or to arrange attendance
at any session of the Post-Yokohama MTR, please contact:
Deborah Muir, Communications Associate, ECPAT
International, 02 215 3388 ext 112; deborah@ecpat.net
Margaret Hanley, Information Officer, UNESCAP
02 288 1862-69; unisbkk.unescap@un.org
Robert Few, Communications Consultant, UNICEF
01 746 3048; rfew@unicef.org
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