Child Exploitation

Child trafficking is a form of child abuse. It is the exploitation of children for economic or sexual purposes, and includes the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of a child for exploitation. Children may be sold, illegally adopted, forced into early marriage, recruited into the armed forces, pushed into prostitution, or trafficked to work in mines, factories, or homes. In such environments they are exposed to extreme forms of abuse and are denied access to basic services and the meeting of their fundamental human rights. Trafficked children often lack basic legal status and support networks, making their condition virtually "invisible."

Children without parental care, living in poverty, and those in high risk environments such as war affected regions, are all highly vulnerable to trafficking. Conflict and post conflict environments pose the greatest risk to children since the breakdown in family and social systems, the increase in poverty, and large numbers of troops present, are all factors which make sexual and economic exploitation of children more common.

Prevention is crucial to reduce the incidence of children affected and includes the registering of all displaced children, and their temporary care until verification and family reunification activities can take place. All children, caretakers, and communities should be educated on the risks to children and protective steps to ensure children do not become separated and exposed to abuse and exploitation. Where possible, unaccompanied children should be placed in regulated and protective family environments such as kinship or foster care.

Governments, the police, border controls, teachers, and all organizations responsible for protection must work together to prevent trafficking, identify those children at risk, advocate for their safety, and prosecute those responsible. This includes awareness raising for communities, institutions, and personnel working with vulnerable groups, such as armed forces, peacekeepers, and humanitarian workers.

Support services for children who have been trafficked should include medical, psychosocial, family reunification, and legal elements, to facilitate the reintegration of the child into the community and to enable educational and economic opportunities which are in the child’s best interests.

This section of documents examines the nature of trafficking in more detail, and includes policy and practical information to prevent and respond to child exploitation.

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Dear Volunteer

Forget Me Not and The Umbrella Foundation, 16 Jul 2018

This animated video from Forget Me Not and The Umbrella Foundation, tells the story of a young child placed in an orphanage and highlights the pain and trauma of family separation, the impacts of a revolving door of volunteers on children in institutions, and the ways in which volunteering fuels the orphanage industry.

Still in harm’s way: International voluntourism, segregation and abuse of children in Guatemala

Disability Rights International, 16 Jul 2018

This report from Disability Rights International documents the human rights violations, exploitation, and trafficking of children with and without disabilities in Guatemala.

Country Care Review: Russian Federation

Better Care Network, 03 Jul 2018

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Adversity and intervention needs among girls in residential care with experiences of commercial sexual exploitation

Kristine Hickle & Dominique Roe-Sepowitz - Children and Youth Services Review, 02 Jul 2018

This paper will report on a study comparing case files for girls victimized (n = 73) and not victimized (n = 62) by commercial sexual exploitation who were living in a residential care setting in a large southwestern city in the United States.

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Community-Based Global Learning: The Theory and Practice of Ethical Engagement at Home and Abroad

Eric Hartman, Richard Kiely, Christopher Boettcher, and Jessica Friedrichs - Stylus Publishing, LLC, 01 Jul 2018

This book gathers and develops theoretical insights and practical tools to support ethical global learning through community-campus partnerships like those described in its pages. The book outlines some of the risks of global service learning, including the harmful impacts of orphanage volunteering.

Caring for Boys Affected by Sexual Violence

Family for Every Child, 01 Jul 2018

Family for Every Child examined the critical issue of sexual violence affecting boys through this global scoping study, Caring for Boys Affected by Sexual Violence.

Are Romanian Children Left behind a Vulnerable Group to Human Trafficking?

Rafaela H. PascoalAdina N. E. Schwartz - Childhood and Parenting in Transnational Settings, 09 Jun 2018

The authors of this article have started to conduct a qualitative research intending to determine, if and to which extent, children left behind are vulnerable to human trafficking.

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Child Welfare and the Travel Industry: Global Good Practice Guidelines

ChildSafe Movement and G Adventures, 01 May 2018

The Child Welfare and the Travel Industry: Global Good Practice Guidelines have been developed to provide a common understanding of child welfare issues throughout the travel industry and to provide all travel businesses with guidance to prevent all forms of exploitation and abuse of children that could be related to travelers and the tourism industry.

Briefing notes on SDG global indicators related to children

UNICEF, 17 Apr 2018

This is a series of briefing notes for UNICEF regional and country offices on SDG indicators. The first note summarises the development and implementation of the SDG global indicator framework and UNICEF’s role in supporting member states to collect, analyse and report on child-related SDG indicators at national and global levels.

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Country Care Review: Slovenia

Better Care Network, 16 Apr 2018

This Country Care Review includes the care-related concluding observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as well as other care-related concluding observations, ratification dates, and links to the Universal Periodic Review and Hague Intercountry Adoption Country Profile.