Brazilian government efforts to combat sexual exploitation of children and adolescents are gaining reinforcement with the launching, during Carnaval, of a Campaign for Preventing Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents.
The campaign will reach seven Brazilian cities (Recife, Olinda, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Fortaleza, Salvador, and Florianópolis) during the festivities (February 25-28th).
Developed by the Ministry of Tourism and the Special Secretariat of Human Rights (SEDH), the campaign is being launched in Recife, capital of the northeastern state of Pernambuco, one of the countries attractions this time of year.
According to a study by UNICEF, sexual exploitation of minors is widespread in Brazil reaching at least 936 Brazilian municipalities.
The Carnaval campaign will use the slogan United Against the
Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents – Join the Club. Warnings against child sex abuse will be shown on TV, hand fans and educational pamphlets.
Passengers flying to the cities reached by the campaign should also receive leaflets informing about laws and procedures in dealing with and preventing child and adolescent violence and sex abuse.
According to Brazil’s Tourism Minister, Walfrido dos Mares Guia, sex exploitation of children and adolescents "is a wound that has to be avoided and punished with severity."
ABHI’s (Brazilian Association of the Hotel Industry) President, José Otávio Meira Lins, said that his association is instructing their employees to be on the lookout to prevent the practice of sexual tourism. "We want to ban this kind of practice from our hotels," he said.
Brazilian Ministers Walfrido dos Mares Guia (Tourism) and Paulo Vannuchi (SEDH) took part on the ceremony marking the launching of the campaign against child sex abuse.
The initiative has the support of the Ministries of Social Development and Hunger Alleviation; Health; Education; Transports, through the National Department of Transportation Infrastructure (DNIT); Justice, through the Federal Highway Police; and the National Council for Children and Adolescents Rights.
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