Our supporters & partners

For decades, the Scelles Foundation has been working with national and international public and private organizations to build and implement strategies to tackle sexual exploitation.

The Foundation regularly establishes partnerships to carry out effective joint actions. It belongs to different groups working against sexual exploitation with which it develops advocacy and awareness-raising activities. It is a founding member of the Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution, CAP International, which was launched in 2013 and today brings together 23 abolitionist NGOs from 18 countries.

In order to better combat the system of prostitution, the Scelles Foundation developed and strengthened its partnerships in 2017, to implement and extend the abolitionist law, boost advocacy, protect young people and raise public awareness in France and beyond its borders. It has been particularly active in setting up transnational public-private cooperation.

Legal partnerships established in 2017

• Holding sex buyers accountable & changing mindsets      

Initiated after the adoption of the 2016 law and the decree on awareness-raising courses on the fight against the purchase of sexual acts, the partnership with the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office and APCARS (Association of Applied Criminal Policy and Social Reintegration) was implemented in 2017 with the launch of the 1st Paris training course, on 29 September 2017. Thirteen more awareness-raising courses are scheduled in 2018.

• Bringing justice to victims     

In 2017, the Scelles Foundation developed a new partnership with the Brown law firm in Paris, and enhanced the collaboration that it started in 2016 with the Proskauer France law firm  (725 lawyers worldwide). These 2 firms represent the Foundation as civil parties in criminal proceedings against procurers and traffickers being prosecuted. In this way, the Foundation can make the voices of the victims - usually reduced to absence and silence - heard in the courts, while providing expertise on the types of exploitation they are suffering from. On the schedule for 2017: implementation of partnerships, selection and preparation of cases.

• Enhancing and sharing expertise    

The Scelles Foundation continued its discussion with Proskauer New York in order to set up legal cooperation and share good practices at the international level. In 2017, the Scelles Foundation and its partner completed significant preparatory work for the organization of an international conference, scheduled for the first quarter of 2018 in New York, on online sexual exploitation, as part of legislative developments in France and the United States.

• A new partnership for the evaluation of the law of 13 April 2016

The Scelles Foundation formed a partnership in France with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (Directorate General of Social Cohesion) in December 2017, in order to conduct the first local evaluation study on the implementation of the law of 13 April 2016 aimed at strengthening the fight against the system of prostitution and supporting prostituted persons.

International awareness-raising operations

• Defining the relevant legislative model  

In partnership with Space International and CATW, the Scelles Foundation organized an International Conference on Strategies to Address Prostitution and Sex Trafficking at the Consulate General of France in New York on 13 March 2017.

• Raising awareness at the european level  

In September 2017, the Scelles Foundation launched the European sexual exploitation awareness campaign, A Penny for your Thoughts, in partnership with 5 NGOs from 5 other European countries: the Samilia Foundation (Brussels) which coordinated the project, Ruhama (Dublin), O Ninho (Lisbon), ACSIS (Bucharest), Animus (Sofia).

Networks strengthened for major breakthroughs in 2017

• as part of its advocacy and  awareness-raising missions

Accordingly, it participated in public debate and international advocacy within CAP International* - coalition of 23 abolitionist field associations: at the CSW61 in New York, as part of an international meeting to reinforce abolitionist strategies (Side Event of 14 March 2017 organised by CAP International); at the 2nd World Congress Against the Sexual Exploitation of Women and Girls #LastGirlFirst, 29-31 January 2017 in New Delhi.

On 24 November 2017, building on the major movement against sexism, it called for the full application of the 2016 law in a statement - Implementing the law on prostitution means fighting against sexual harassment - published in JDD-Europe1, and co-signed with the 62 organizations of the Abolition 2012 collective (co-founded by the Scelles Foundation in 2011).

• In the context of its actions to protect young people   

Solid partnerships developed since 2012 as part of its Youth Awards against Sexual Exploitation, with the Paris Bar, the Conference of the Paris Bar, the French National School for the Judiciary, the Lille Superior School of Journalism, and the National Superior School Louis-Lumière, enable the Foundation to reach hundreds of young people every year from very different situations, to prevent the risk of prostitution, and to make these members of the society of tomorrow ambassadors of abolitionism.

As an active member of the Collective Against Trafficking in Human Beings, the Scelles Foundation participated in the launch of the #DEVENIR (“#BECOME”) public awareness campaign on trafficking minors in France, on 4 December 2017 at the Maison du Barreau de Paris (continuation of the #Invisibles operation in which the Foundation participated in 2016).