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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Country Care Review: Slovakia

Better Care Network , 17 May 2016

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.

Offenders on the Move: Global Study on Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism 2016

Angela Hawke and Alison Raphael - ECPAT International & Defence for Children-ECPAT Netherlands, 12 May 2016

This report aims to raise awareness and spur action from governments, the tourism industry and civil society organisations to end the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism (SECTT).

In Brief: Voluntourism

Global Study on Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism - ECPAT, 11 May 2016

This brief from ECPAT's Global Study on Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism defines the term "voluntourism" and its risks to children, with a focus on orphanage voluntourism.

Orphanage Volunteering - Why To Say No

Better Volunteering Better Care, 01 May 2016

A detailed explanation of the problems associated with volunteering in orphanages (residential care centers).

Mapping Australia’s support for the institutionalisation of children overseas

Kathryn van Doore, Laura Healy and Megan Jones - ReThink Orphanages, 01 May 2016

This report “seeks to map Australia’s contribution to residential care institutions for children overseas across a number of sectors and identify opportunities for strategic engagement with various stakeholders in the Australian context.”

Universal Periodic Review – Republic of Moldova – Stakeholder Report by Lumos

Lumos, 20 Mar 2016

In this report, Lumos welcomes actions taken by the Republic of Moldova to prevent child abuse and exploitation during the period between 2011-2015. Lumos further notes c

Is this Protection? Analyzing India's Approach to the Rescue and Reintegration of Children Trafficked for Labor Exploitation

Elizabeth Donger and Jacqueline Bhabha - FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University, 01 Mar 2016

This report provides a comprehensive and critical analysis of the Indian government’s efforts to rescue and reintegrate children trafficked for their labor.

Volunteer tourism impacts in Ghana: a practice approach

Bertine Bargeman, Greg Richards & Ellen Govers , 29 Jan 2016

Using a practice approach focused on interactions between foreign volunteers and local staff, this study examined the impact of volunteer tourism on Zion Primary School and Tamale Children’s Home (an orphanage), both in Tamale, Ghana.

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Razones para decir NO al Voluntariado en orfanatos

Better Volunteering Better Care, 2016

Este documento provee una explicación detallada de las razones que Better Volunteering Better Care está desalentando el voluntariado internacional en orfanatos (centros de atención residencial).

Child Labor and Household Composition: Determinants of Child Labor in Mexico

Patricia Murrieta Cummings - Asian Journal of Latin American Studies (2016) Vol. 29 No. 3: 29-54, 2016

The researcher in this study investigates the “relationship between child labor and the opportunity cost of schooling, taking into account other factors that influence parents’ decisions about child labor and schooling.”