Click to view this publication. (Note: the publication is
located on another website.) UNICEF, UNESCAP and ECPAT
International, 2006. Sexual violence against children is
recognized internationally as the most severe violation of their
human rights and the worst form of child abuse and exploitation.
It can have severe, long-term and even life-threatening effects
on a child’s physical, psychological, spiritual, emotional and
social development. Sexual violence against children is a global
problem and in recent years there has been increasing concern
throughout Pacific countries regarding the incidence and
suffering that children there experience. In 2003, the Inter-
Agency Group (United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Pacific,
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific (UNESCAP) and End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography
and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT
International)) hosted the Pacific Regional Workshop on
Combating Poverty and Commercial Sexual Exploitatio