Ending Exploitation As Part Of The U.N.’s COVID-19 Recovery Efforts

The UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), under the auspices of the UN General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), is responsible for advancing all UN policies on social development. Though primarily an inter-governmental process, discussions and commitments on social development and social justice during the event are of major importance to ECPAT-USA’s work at the UN.

The theme of this year’s HLPF will be "Sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that promotes the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development: building an inclusive and effective path for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in the context of the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development."

The HLPF reviews commitments and progress by member states in their implementation of the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals through their Voluntary National Review (VRN). There will also be discussions on additional actions needed to advance nine of the seventeen SDGs.

Exercising our privilege as an NGO in Consultative Status with ECOSOC, Carol Smolenski, former Executive Director of ECPAT-USA and member of our UN Committee, has submitted the following statement on behalf of ECPAT-USA:

The 2020-21 pandemic has contributed to ever greater challenges in meeting Sustainable Development Goal 16.2: End abuse, exploitation, trafficking, and all forms of violence against and torture of children. There is mounting evidence that the worldwide spread of the disease has made a disastrous impact on society’s ability to protect children from abuse and exploitation everywhere. ECPAT-USA began collecting data at the beginning of the pandemic. As early as last summer, UNICEF was reporting on the negative impact the pandemic was having on the ability of child services in more than 100 countries to carry out their work. The UNODC notes that COVID-19 has put children at a heightened risk of exploitation, noting “school closures have not only precluded many from access to education but also from a main source of shelter and nourishment.” The U.S.-based National Center on Missing and Exploited Children earlier this year reported that 2020 saw the highest-ever number of reports of abuse and exploitation to their Cybertipline. 

SDG 16.2 builds on a many-years-long effort by governments’ commitments to protect children from all forms of exploitation. These agreements include: 

• 1991: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child entered into force. It is almost universally ratified.

• 2002: The Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography entered into force. It has been ratified by 176 countries. 

• 2020: The ILO Convention 182 on the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labor, which calls for eliminating “practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children,” was ratified by all ILO members. 

This year the Committee on the Rights of the Child took the important step of giving direction to governments in the realm of their responsibility to protect children’s rights in the digital environment. In General Comment 25 to the CRC, the Committee provided explicit advice relevant legislative, policy, and other measures to ensure full compliance with their obligations under the Convention. Last year ECPAT-USA produced guides for students, parents, and teachers to assist them in using social media devices safely.

Yet, with all these commitments, building political will and designing and funding specific concrete actions that keep children safe have sadly lagged behind. Child poverty, social inequality, demand by men who seek to exploit vulnerable children, and the enormous profits made by criminal enterprises have all had a chance to flourish during the pandemic. As we emerge from the worldwide shutdown, civil society, governments, and the United Nations are going to have to build new, expanded, coordinated multi-dimensional programs to keep children safe, both online and off.

ECPAT-USA (www.ecpatusa.org) and our partners are committed to building a better post-pandemic world. We will redouble our efforts, working every day through awareness-raising, advocacy, policy, and legislation to create a world where no child is bought, sold, or used for sex.