Nicole Kidman, Jamie Oliver and Joanna Lumley are among a group of celebrities who have pledged their support to ECPAT and The Body Shop’s campaign to stop child trafficking by donating their handprints to an exclusive bag designed by Tamara Mellon OBE – co-founder of Jimmy Choo.

The limited edition ‘STOP’ bag will go on sale on 6 October at The Body Shop stores across the UK, retailing at £4.00, with a proportion of the profits from the sale of the bag helping ECPAT UK to raise awareness of the trafficking of children and young people.

The bag, which is printed in full colour on 100% community fairtrade cotton, features handprints from Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman, Absolutely Fabulous star Joanna Lumley, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, musician and producer Mark Ronson, Oscar winner and UN Goodwill Ambassador Mira Sorvino and CNN presenter Piers Morgan.

The bag, which has a fuchsia trim and a shoulder strap, was designed by Tamara Mellon. She said: “I feel very strongly about prohibiting sex trafficking and knowing that the profits will help to end this modern-day slavery and safeguard children makes the project even more worthwhile.”

The Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People campaign is a three-year partnership between ECPAT and The Body Shop. The campaign has collected more than 7 million signatures on petitions calling on governments around the world to act to prevent the trafficking and exploitation of children and young people.

The global petition was handed to the President of the UN Human Rights Council and to the Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva last week (28-29 September).

        

Picture 1: Palais des Nations, Geneva
Picture 2: H.E. Ms Laura Depuy Lasserre (second from right), President of the UN Human Rights Council, receiving the global petition from ECPAT and The Body Shop representatives on 29 September 2011