ECPAT International wins prestigious prize

Oak Foundation wishes to congratulate ECPAT International for winning the prestigious 2017 “Crimes Against Children” Award from the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL).

INTERPOL has recognised ECPAT for its dedication over the past two decades working to prevent child sexual exploitation and advocate for its victims. Its work has been carried out in particular through programmes to confront: trafficking for sexual purposes; the exploitation of children through prostitution and pornography; online child sexual exploitation; and the sexual exploitation of children in the travel and tourism sector.

“This award is a recognition of the excellent work done by ECPAT to end the sexual exploitation of children around the world. We look forward to continuing our joint efforts with ECPAT to protect the most vulnerable members of society from abuse and further develop awareness of this global issue.”

– Bjorn Sellstrom, head of INTERPOL’s Crimes Against Children team.

With ECPAT’s 103 members in more than 93 countries, the organisation runs a vast number of programmes, conducts research, collaborates with law enforcement and advocates with victims on a large scale. Together with INTERPOL, ECPAT  is currently working to develop a Global Indicator on the unidentified victims in child sexual exploitation materials. This will help measure progress in achieving the SDG targets that call for an end of sexual violence against children.

ECPAT International has been a partner with Oak’s Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Programme (Prevent CSA) since 2005. Prevent CSA envisions a world in which all children are protected from sexual abuse and sexual exploitation and like ECPAT, places the welfare of children at the heart of its work. To find out more about ECPAT International’s work take a look at this informative video.