Medan Declaration

MEDAN DECLARATION

(To Eliminate Children Trading As Sex Workers in South East Asia)

We, delegates of South East Asia Conference on Children Trading as Sex Workers, held in Medan, Indonesia, 29-30 March 2004, coming from Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Filipina, Taiwan/Republic China, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam together with keynote speakers from India and Nepal. Admit the seriousness of children trading issue to become sex workers in our region, whether cross country in our territory or even from South East Asia countries to be traded outside the region, also local trading inside of the country; Realize the loss and serious suffer caused by the trading upon the children, their families and the public.

Reminding the United Nation convention about children’s rights, Optimal Agreement for convention about children’s rights on children trading, children prostitution, and children pornography, ILO convention 182 about forbidding and Direct Action to eliminate children’s worst job, Agreement to Prevent, Pressure and Punish Human Trading, mostly women and children that add the United Nation Convention toward organized-cross nation crime and the United Nation Convention to eliminate all kind of discrimination upon women (CEDAW);

To enhance the international people’s commitment as stated in Stockholm Declaration and Work Agenda to handle Exploitation of Children as Commercial Sex, Yokohama Global Commitment and East Asia and Pacific Regional Commitment and also Work Plan to eliminate Children Sex Commercial Exploitation; Appreciating efforts of the government, IGO, United Nation representatives; civil organization, including local NGO’s, private sector, academic group in the frame work to eliminate children trading as sex workers in local, national, regional, and international scale. Realizing that the idea has increased the life of many children as victim, children with trading risk, yet the effort still needs to be coordinated, enhanced and improved.

Believing that children participation, mostly the victim and trading-risk, is very important to prevent, early detect, and eliminate children trading and healing of psycho-social and social reintegration of the victim;

Understanding the importance of cross country cooperation, in the frame work of East Asia and Pacific Regional Commitment, and also the Work Plan to handle Children Commercial Sex Exploitation, which was agreed in 2001, also to enhance Stockholm agenda for Yokohama Global Action and Commitment;

Therefore, we are committed to:

1. Develop zero tolerance in our society toward sex exploitation and children trading;

2. To strengthen cooperation and coordination in all levels, inside, and cross-border, mostly by observing the gap between prevention and protection for children toward trading as sex worker;

3. To push all government officials to agree the international main instrument that is connected to children sex trading and exploitation and spreading it widely;

4. To continue our work and make regulation to be more sensitive to children that can protect the rights and needs of the traded children, help the spreading to all levels of society and make sure of the implementation.

5. To enhance the development and agreement of cross-country usage to support identification and suing the trader and exploitation, and make sure the rescue of victim systematically from trading, by re-patriarchy procedure that honor the rights of the children;

6. To put children participation, mostly victim, as main priority in all agenda concerning children trading, especially to prevent, detect and protect, also recovering and social reintegration.

7. To push all efforts of giving authority for children and youth to protect themselves through education, training and job opportunity that is safe and develop their participation in every influencing issue;

8. To push and support effort to strengthen families and communities to be more protective to children from trading through caring, family education and opportunity to develop to get alternative income-source;

9. To develop the importance of good education and relevant for children, in all levels, as preventive strategy, admitting the importance of gender sensitivity to boys and girls, and training for skills including social and environment awareness;

10. To develop and strengthen specific services that support healing and reintegration of children victim, to ensure a children sensitive procedure suits to international human rights standard with main consideration on development in works and social counseling;

11. To raise and strengthen data gathering, research and monitoring system based on unagregate data, including in community level, to monitor trends and to inform policy and plan.

12. To develop partnership with private sector, including tourism, transportation and entertainment industry to take active role to eliminate children trading, through teacher, executor, reporting of cases on trading and victim delivery for the services;

13. To encourage the government, multilateral representatives and corporations to make economic policy that suits the children in the territory to reduce poverty and disparity.

14. To encourage the government, donors, private sectors and communities to prioritize higher allocation of sources to eliminate all kind of children trading, mostly to become sex worker;

15. To arrange a review of Medan Declaration concerning monitoring mechanism for EAP Regional Committee and Work Plan against Children Sex Commercial Exploitation.

Adopted on March 30, 2004

Medan, Indonesia

Deputi IV (Deputy of Welfare and Children Protection)