Help stop child trafficking around the world! The use of children for commercial sexual exploitation is a global phenomenon. Human trafficking affects millions of children worldwide.

Many countries with a high prevalence of trafficking in children lack financial resources, legal expertise, technical capacity, and other resources to appropriately protect and rescue these children, despite a demonstrated political will to do so.

On January 25th, the Child Protection Compact Act of 2011 was introduced in the Senate as Bill #S.185. The bill was originally sponsored by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and currently has four other co-sponsors: Scott Brown (R-MA), Richard Burr (R-NC), Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).

 This legislation authorizes the Secretary of State to provide assistance through grants, cooperative agreements, and/or contracts to countries with a significant prevalence of child trafficking. In order to receive these resources, eligible countries must enter into a Child Protection Compact with the United States to support policies and programs to eradicate the trafficking of children.

 The bill was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, where it is currently being reviewed. The Child Protection Compact Act will provide incentives to "Tier 2" countries and "Tier 2 Watch-List" countries (as identified in the annual U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report) to protect and rescue children subjected to severe forms of trafficking in persons.  The Compacts will aim to:

1.    address institutional weaknesses within the government that result in the failure to protect vulnerable children and to rescue and properly rehabilitate victims;

2.    increase local government capacity to apprehend perpetrators who engage in severe forms of trafficking in children and bring perpetrators to justice in national courts of law; and

3.    ensure transparency and accountability in achieving the goals stipulated in the Compact over the course of its three-year implementation.

Eligible countries that enter into Compacts with the U.S. could receive up to $15 million in vital funding to combat child trafficking. Contact your congressional representatives and urge them to support the Child Protection Compact Act today!

Want to learn more? Read the text of the Child Protection Compact Act here: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s112-185

Want to learn more about the history of the CPCA? Check out this blog post on It'sOneHumanity: http://itsonehumanity.org/profiles/blogs/fighting-child-trafficking