It started with a reception Wednesday evening in the lobby of the United Nations World Tourism Organization Headquarter in Madrid, followed by yesterday’s action packed one-day meeting of the High-Level Taskforce to end the sexual exploitation of children and tourism met at the UNWTO Headquarters in Madrid.

UNWTO Secretary General Dr. Taleb Rifai opened and closed the meeting and personally attended showing the importance of this issue Rifai called the dark side of tourism.
He said: “I don’t only care about tourism, but I care what it does to our people.”

Dr. Najat Maalla M’jid was the chair of the meeting. The event was co-hosted by the Dutch Ambassador Matthijs van Bonzel, Dorothy Rozga, Executive Director EPCAT International, Cornelius Williams, Chief Private Child Protection, UNICEF, Dr. Susan Bissell, Director, Global Partnership to End Violence against Children, and Helen Marano, Senior VO of WTTC. The global media was represented by eTN Publisher Juergen T Steinmetz, who also published WorldTourismWire.

The purpose of the event was the implementation of the global partnership to end violence against children.

The summary result: Travel – enjoy – respect.

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