African Union Argentina Australia Belgium Brazil Cambodia Canada Estonia European Commission (Chair) Finland Ghana Guatemala Kenya Lanzarote Committee – Council of Europe Moldova (Republic of) New Zealand North Macedonia, Republic of Sweden The Netherlands The Philippines The United Arab Emirates The United Kingdom The United States of America
During our Global Summit in June 2022 in Brussels, the European Commission, African Union and twenty governments from around the world joined forces with us to establish a new Global Taskforce on child sexual abuse online.
Driving transnational collaboration
As our latest Global Threat Assessment showed, child sexual exploitation and abuse online is increasing in both scale and complexity. No single actor can address this urgent problem alone: only a coordinated cross-sector global response can bring it to an end.
Our Global Taskforce, which is the first of its kind, aims to promote improved cooperation and collaboration among governments. It can help identify gaps and opportunities in legislative frameworks and facilitate the collaboration needed to close loopholes and ensure there are no safe havens for the facilitation or hosting of child sexual abuse online.
Among its many different tasks, this Taskforce will:
- Develop and drive a global coordinated response to child sexual abuse online;
- Secure engagement at national, regional and global levels;
- Showcase progress and champion best / emerging practice;
- Influence and contribute to key WeProtect Global Alliance products and membership commitments.
The Taskforce will work alongside the Alliance’s other reference groups for the private sector, civil society and law enforcement members to develop a transnational, cross-sector coordinated response to child sexual abuse online. It will also create a mechanism for existing international government initiatives working on this issue, such as the Five Country Ministerial, European Commission, African Union, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the G7, to feed into the strategic direction of WeProtect Global Alliance.
Meetings will take place twice per year; the inaugural meeting took place on 11 October 2022.
Membership of the Global Taskforce is open to any WeProtect Global Alliance government member. If you work for a government member of the Alliance interested in joining the Taskforce, contact us via gro.agtcetorpew@ofni.
Mission statement
Child sexual exploitation and abuse in all its forms causes untold suffering around the world, and is an intolerable violation of children’s fundamental rights. The governments represented in WeProtect Global Alliance’s Global Taskforce on child sexual abuse online are committed to working together towards an end to this horrific crime.
This mission statement includes a list of commitments from the Global Taskforce government members who signed it to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse online.