THE FOLLOWING IS the “Yokohama Global Commitment 2001”, to be adopted at the dosing session on 20 December, and was introduced at the Plenary at 11:15 AM, 19 December.

I. OUR FOLLOW-UP:

• 1. We, representatives from governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-govemmental organizations, the private sector, and members of civil society from around the world, have gathered together in Yokohama, Japan, at the Second World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (17—20 December 2001) (“The Yokohama Congress”). Five years after the First World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children held in Stockholm, Sweden in 1996, we have reviewed developments as a follow-up process to strengthen our commitment to protect children from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.

• 2. We reaffirm, as our primary considerations, the protection and promotion of the interests and rights of the child to be protected from all forms of sexual exploitation, and we welcome the following developments, visible in a number of countries, since the First World Congress:

the greater emphasis on the rights of the child and the call for more effective implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by State Parties to create an environment where children are able to enjoy their rights;

the increasing mobilization of governments, local authorities and the non-govemmental sector, as well as the international community, to promote and protect the rights of the child and to empower children and their families to safeguard their future;

the adoption of multi-faceted, inter-disciplinary measures, including policies, laws, programmes, mechanisms, resources and dissemination of the rights of the child, to ensure that children are able to grow up in safety and dignity;

enhanced actions against child prostitution, child pornography and trafficking of children for sexual purposes, including national and international agendas, strategies or plans of action to protect children from sexual exploitation, and new laws to criminalize this phenomenon, including provisions with extraterritorial effect;

the promotion of more effective implementation/enforcement of policies, laws and gender-sensitive programmes to prevent and address the phenomenon of sexual exploitation of children, including information campaigns to raise awareness, better educational access for children, social support measures for families and children to counter poverty, action against criminality and the demand for sexual exploitation of children, and prosecution of those who exploit children;