News items
A welcome victory against the sexual exploitation of children and impunity 
20 May 2011
A second foreign peadophile is sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment in Santa Marta, Colombia – a coastal town where the sexual exploitation of children has become an industry.Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) is a growing problem in Colombia. Numbers are increasing and the ages of children being exploited is falling. At least 35,000 children are sexually exploited every year. Many are too afraid or too ashamed to ask for help.
COTA has responded to this crime by supporting the Renacer Foundation’s work in Cartagena. Our five year project, the most comprehensive CSEC prevention programme ever run in Colombia, started last October. In the 1st year we're working with 40 CSEC survivors and high risk children, as well as parents, teachers, service providers and 800 school children.
COTA welcomes the conviction of a second foreign paedophile in Santa Marta (near Cartagena) this month (May 2011), who was found guilty of child pornography, commercial sexual exploitation of minors and sexual abuse of minors under 14. The sentence of 20 years imprisonment is testimony to the importance of the work by civil society in Colombia who are fighting to bring an end to this appalling crime.
Read more about this case here.
NEW: Read COTA's response to this news here.
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