Ecuador, CEDAW/C/ECU/CO/7

23. The Committee calls upon the State party to dedicate adequate resources to the implementation of the national plan against trafficking and sexual exploitation and to establish a mechanism to monitor its implementation and assess its effectiveness. The Committee encourages the State party to tackle the root causes of trafficking, including poverty, discrimination and social exclusion, that make certain groups of women particularly vulnerable. The Committee further encourages the State party to strengthen the protection against discrimination and violence provided to women and girls who wish to leave prostitution as well as to victims of trafficking, develop awareness-raising programmes, conduct research on the root causes of trafficking, provide women with alternative means of livelihood as well as provide adequate training to lawyers, criminal justice workers, health-care providers and law enforcement officials in all matters concerning sexual exploitation and trafficking. The Committee invites the State party to provide in the next periodic report statistical data regarding the level of incidence of the crime, the number of criminal proceedings initiated and the sanctions imposed.