United States and Colombia hold second annual dialogue on the Child Protection Compact Partnership

Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy of Bogota Francisco Palmieri and Acting Deputy Minister of State and Director of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Gloria Juliana Bustamante Reyes convened the second annual dialogue of the US-Colombia Child Protection Compact (CPC) Partnership on 25 and 26 September 2024.

The CPC Partnership is a co-developed multi-year plan signed in 2022 to strengthen the Colombian government’s efforts to combat child trafficking and meet the needs of child survivors and children at risk of becoming victims of this crime. In response to the specific context of Colombia, the CPC partnership focuses on ending four crimes: child sex trafficking in the context of tourism; online sexual exploitation of children (“webcam modeling”), which amounts to sex trafficking; forced child begging; and forced recruitment of children into illegal armed groups.

To date, the U.S. government has invested more than $10 million in foreign assistance to civil society partners in Colombia to implement projects for this CPC partnership. The Colombian Government is participating in the implementation of CPC activities and has invested in additional efforts to achieve the objectives of the CPC Partnership.

During the event, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior and the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare provided remarks. Implementing partners from civil society, the American Bar Association-Rule of Law Initiative (ABA-ROLI), Fundación Renacer, Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) and research institution NORC also participated in the discussion.

The Annual CPC Dialogue is an important opportunity to reflect on implementation progress to date, confirm plans for upcoming activities, and discuss performance indicators and related objectives as identified in the US-U.S. CPC Implementation Plan Colombia. These indicators serve as benchmarks for the long-term impact and sustainability of investments made through the CPC partnership.

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