Fighting The Good Fight - Interview with Carol Smolenski, Former Executive Director of ECPAT-USA

Beginning in Asia in 1991, the ECPAT network has been dedicated to protecting every child’s right to grow up free from the threat of sexual exploitation and trafficking. After over two decades of such dedication, ECPAT-USA’s leader and Executive Director, Carol Smolenski, retired at the beginning of November and left this important mission to be continued by ECPAT-USA’s committed staff, donors, and its new Executive Director, Lori L. Cohen. 

During an interview with Carol regarding ECPAT-USA’s history, partnerships, accomplishments, and future, she shared the ups and downs faced by the organization throughout her many years at its head. Carol became a staff member of ECPAT-USA in 1996 but before that, she was a member of the committee that started the ECPAT affiliate in the United States. This committee consisted of children’s groups, churches, and women’s organizations. Together, they worked to create a pathway for vulnerable children to escape the hidden world of commercial sex trafficking and exploitation. What started as just a few people around a conference table is now a member of a network of organizations in over 90 countries. 

In its history, ECPAT-USA has created partnerships with several well-known companies, although Carol confessed that it took a long time for companies to come on board and sign the Tourism Child-Protection Code of Conduct otherwise known as The Code. The Code, is the world’s first and only voluntary set of business principles travel and tour companies can implement to prevent sexual exploitation and trafficking of children. Carol shared that initially, many hotels feared that their own image would be impaired by partnering with an organization such as ECPAT-USA. Eventually, hotels realized that children were indeed being violated on hotel properties and that they could take a significant step to get ahead of the problem by signing The Code.

Carol is proud of ECPAT-USA’s many accomplishments. She and her team have worked diligently to change the conversation around the issue and build partnerships with the private sector. She has seen a change in law enforcement as well where officers are now being trained to see children caught in sexual exploitation as victims and not criminals. In the future, she hopes to broaden the conversation in terms of child sexual abuse material or CSAM 

Overall, ECPAT-USA has continued to expand and become the leading anti-trafficking policy organization in the United States due to the leadership of Carol and the dedication of ECPAT-USA’s staff and donors. Carol shared that her future hope for ECPAT-USA is that its, “influence is bigger than ever.” She expressed that one of ECPAT-USA’s greatest achievements has been its ability to change the conversation. She continued, “I find it energizing to fight the good fight and overturn the system.” When questioned about defeats, she responded positively that, “they are not defeats, we just have ways to go.”  With that in mind, ECPAT-USA is ready to continue its mission of fighting the good fight for the future.