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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Voluntourism Information Sheet – Support families, not orphanages

Linda Reynolds, Senator for Western Australia & Kate van Doore, 2017

This newsletter issue from Senator Linda Reynolds of Western Australia, written in conjunction with Kate van Doore of Griffith Law School, was written in preparation for the Australian Parliamentary inquiry on modern slavery and describes the ways in which orphanage trafficking constitutes modern-day slavery.

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2017 Whole of Syria Child Protection Needs Overview – Compilation of Child Protection Data Collected for the 2017 Syria Humanitarian Needs Overview

iMMAP, UNICEF, 2017

This document provides analysis of child protection needs and risks at the government level to support child protection actors in programmed development, resource mobilasation and advocacy.

Haiti Infographic: Why Funding for Orphanages is Harming the Children it Aims to Help

Elevate Children Funders Group, 2017

This infographic from the Elevate Children Funders Group describes how private donors add to "the pull factors drawing more vulnerable children into institutional care and away from family or community care" in Haiti.

Nepal Policy Brief: Why Funding for Orphanages is Harming the Children it Aims to Help

Elevate Children Funders Group, 2017

This policy brief from the Elevate Children Funders Group describes how private donors add to "the pull factors drawing more vulnerable children into institutional care and away from family or community care" in Nepal.

Short-Term Missions and 'Orphanages': What Australia’s proposed ban on orphanage tourism means for the local church

ACCI Missions & Relief, 2017

This briefing note has been written to give Australian churches an overview of the issue of orphanage tourism and an understanding of the likely ramifications of the legislation for churches.

Key messages from research on child sexual exploitation: Social workers

Maddy Coy, Nicola Sharp-Jeffs and Liz Kelly - Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse, 2017

This briefing paper is for social workers. It brings together key messages from research on child sexual exploitation with implications for practice and should be read in conjunction with guidance for professionals.

Haiti Policy Brief: Why Funding for Orphanages is Harming the Children it Aims to Help

Elevate Children Funders Group, 2017

Nepal Infographic: Why Funding for Orphanages is Harming the Children it Aims to Help

Elevate Children Funders Group, 2017

This infographic from the Elevate Children Funders Group describes how private donors add to the "pull factors drawing more vulnerable children into institutional care and away from family or community care."

Unanticipated outcomes of voluntourism among Malawi's orphans

Andrea Lee Freidus - Journal of Sustainable Tourism , 16 Dec 2016

This project adds to the newly emerging literature on orphan tourism. In-depth, open-ended interviews and participant observations were conducted over a three-month period with American travelers to a Malawian orphanage between 2009 and 2010.

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Why we don’t support orphanage volunteering: a response to IVHQ

Better Volunteering Better Care, 14 Dec 2016

Better Volunteering Better Care (BVBC) responds to a blog by the Executive Director of the volunteer travel company IVHQ expressing his views about the benefits of orphanage volunteering.