END CHILD PROSTITUTION : the Fondation Scelles supports the 30 year-old-combat by the ACPE: “Acting against child prostitution”

Published on Monday, 28 November 2016 08:34

Yves Charpenel, the Fondation Scelles President and State Prosecutor at the Supreme Court, was invited in the frame of the symposium “End child prostitution in France” which was organized by the ACPE and its President Armelle Le Bigot-Macaux on November 29^th 2016 to celebrate the association’s 30^th anniversary. He will talk about the tasks of justice and police in the domains of child welfare, prevention of risky situations and repression of exploiters, pimps, networks and clients.

A growing worldwide phenomenon

Throughout the world, children are victims of prostitution, sexual abuses, pedophilia, pedo- pornography and sex tourism.

Three million children are prostituted throughout the world, among whom thousands in France!  To date all countries are concerned by this phenomenon; no child is entirely protected and prostitution clients’ demand for ever younger children is ceaselessly increasing.

Even though child prostitution is an unacceptable breach of children’s rights, which is condemned by international law, it is more and more socially accepted. The pro-prostitution lobbies have been working since the last 90’s at making child prostitution trivial, presenting it, in particular, as an acceptable solution in the case of children faced with destitution.

Break the silence and act against child prostitution

Minors’ prostitution cannot be a taboo any more in France or elsewhere. This phenomenon is not very well known or documented; however experts agree to say that it does exist and is increasing while they worry about the absence of appropriate address: poor investment by public authorities, lack of coordinated actions, institutions deliberately ignoring the issue, different perceptions of the phenomenon depending on the leaders’ and field organizations’ activity domains, absence of specialized institutional structure.

In France, where the problem is deeply rooted, 3 types of minors’ prostitution can be distinguished. They cover various realities which demand specific modes of intervention: prostitution of French minors who were born on the territory and are networks victims, prostitution of French minors who were born on the territory and exercise occasional prostitution, prostitution of foreign minors who are often human trafficking victims.

In all cases, the juridical and judiciary system of protection is defaulting; prevention and repression actors have sometimes no power to address this terrible scourge.

The ACPE symposium will offer the opportunity to hear speeches by experts in childhood and in victims, justice, police or associative worlds: they all act for a better hearing and reinforced protection of children. Some mothers’ testimonies and experts’ interviews will be presented in a new film by the ACPE.

Learn more

>> Cybersexism, prostitution, sexual abuses: a worrying trivialization among young people

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