In Europe, a traveling child sex offender can be prosecuted and sentenced in his/her country of residence as well as in the country where he/she committed the crime(s). Most European countries have adopted extraterritorial laws, thus complementing the already existing legislative framework that allows the prosecution and conviction of perpetrators of sexual abuse on children outside their national territory. A person who sexually exploited a child abroad may be prosecuted on site, but also upon his/her return home. However, the number of prosecutions against child sex tourists is still low.
The development of the European Platform has been coordinated by ECPAT Luxembourg in collaboration with the five other ECPAT groups that form the project consortium: ECPAT Germany, ECPAT Austria, ECPAT Netherlands, ECPAT France, and ECPAT Poland/NCF (Nobody’s Children Foundation); and with the support of the following European affiliate members of ECPAT: ECPAT Belgium, ECPAT Italy, ECPAT Switzerland, ECPAT United Kingdom, La Strada (Ukraine), Organizatia Salvati Copiii (Romania), Karo (Czech Republic), Tartu Child Support Center (Estonia), Neglected Children Society (Bulgaria), ECPAT International, FUNDESO, and ECPAT Spain.
The platform has been conceived in partnership with the national police in the participating countries, and benefits from the support of Interpol and Europol. Each participating organization is responsible for supporting the development of a national online reporting mechanism or website, in collaboration with their national police.
The platform is now linking 16 national reporting mechanisms in Europe: Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. With time, it is hoped that more and more countries will join this initiative and launch their own national online reporting mechanisms. The web site will exist in 5 languages: English, French and German, Spanish and Russian.
Many tourism companies and associations will facilitate the dissemination of the European reporting platform and promote the link to their customers, among others: Accor, Thomas Cook, TUI Group, Air France, Luxair, Corsair, Selectour Afat, Transat, Carrefour Voyages, The Austrian Round Table on Ethics in Tourism and its members, FFTST, DRV and the working group included, Le Petit Fute, Club Med, Opodo, Sales-Lentz, Emile Weber, PDM Travel, XL Airways, Air Austral, etc.
