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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Inter-Agency Statement on strengthening child protection systems in sub-Saharan Africa: A call to action to African Union States

Inter-Agency Working Group (list of organizations below), 01 Apr 2013

Thirteen agencies working in Africa have issued a Joint Statement calling on African governments to strengthen their child protection systems to secure the right of children to a life free from violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect in both emergency and non-emergency settings.

Protect my future: The links between child protection and population dynamics

Emily Delap and Daniela Reale, 01 Mar 2013

This paper is part of an inter-agency series on the links between child protection and major development goals. The report focuses on the links between child protection and population dynamics as they relate to the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals agenda.

BCN , 01 Mar 2013

The Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has submitted its fourth and fifth combined report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (dated 1st March 2013).

Country Care Reviews: Burkina Faso

Better Care Network , 25 Jan 2013

Care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the initial report of Burkina Faso under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

Country Care Review: USA

Better Care Network , 24 Jan 2013

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child as part of its examination of the United States of America’ second periodic report under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, as well as other care-related concluding observations, ratification dates, and links to the Universal Periodic Review and Hague Intercountry Adoption Country Profile.

Knowledge Management Services - OVC Statistics

Matthew Baek - Insight Systems Corporation and John Snow Inc., 2013

This infographic provides statistics on children globally. It then provides information as it relates to the six objectives of John Snow Inc.'s Knowledge Management Services in relation to Orphans and Vulnerable Children, including children living in institutions, HIV/AIDS, child sexual exploitation, and more.

‘Boy, have we got a vacation for you’: Orphanage Tourism in Cambodia and the Commodification and Objectification of the Orphaned Child

P. Jane Reas, 2013

As part of a wider qualitative study of the volunteering experience, this paper seeks to critique the problematic relationship between a touristic experience and the needs of Cambodia’s poor children.

ChildSafe Traveler Tips: Children Are Not Tourist Attractions

The ChildSafe network, 2013

The ChildSafe network has produced important information for people who might be traveling abroad and can be confronted by situations where children are in distress or at risk of being abused or harmed, including through the practice of "orphan tourism".

Homebound Girls in Jordan

Information and Research Center – King Hussein Foundation & Save the Children, 2013

The purpose of this qualitative research was twofold: the first was to explore the phenomenon of homebound girls in Jordan and to understand the reasons that led to their confinement. By shedding light on and investigating this phenomenon, the second purpose of this research, in turn, was to identify possible interventions to allow these girls access to education and strengthen their social development.

No Child’s Play: Respect for Children’s Rights at Tourist Destinations - Examples from Thailand, Cambodia & South Africa

Schyst Resande - Fair Trade Center , 2013

This report was commissioned by the Swedish network Schyst Resande and conducted by the Fair Trade Center, with the overall objective of raising awareness of children’s rights in relation to tourism and travel destinations which many Swedish tourists visit.