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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Out of the shadows: Shining light on the response to child sexual abuse and exploitation

The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2019

Out of the shadows: Shining light on the response to child sexual abuse and exploitation - a 40-country benchmarking index - examines how countries are responding to the threat of sexual violence against children.

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Lesotho: Violence Against Children Survey Factsheet

Together for Girls, 2019

The Lesotho VACS Fact Sheet provides country-specific data on sexual and physical violence against children in Lesotho.

Human trafficking victimization among youth who run away from foster care

Natasha E. Latzman, Deborah A. Gibbs, Rose Feinberg, Marianne N. Kluckman, Sue Aboul-Hosn - Children and Youth Services Review, 23 Dec 2018

This paper uses administrative data to describe the characteristics and experiences of a population of youth in the child welfare system considered to be at particularly high risk of victimization: youth who have run away from foster care.

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Wise and Honoring Representations of Children in Media: Protecting Vulnerable Children

Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO), 12 Dec 2018

This guide from the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) offers strategies for protecting children in creating and sharing digital media of children.

Kristen Cheney 'Combatting the Orphan Industrial Complex'

Kristen Cheney | HagueTalks, 25 Nov 2018

In this video, Dr. Kristen Cheney discusses how her work led her to study the growth of the Orphan Industrial Complex and its adverse effects on children, families, communities, and child protection systems.

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Country Care Review: Philippines

Better Care Network , 16 Oct 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.

Country Care Review: Mauritania

Better Care Network, 11 Oct 2018

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 Mauritania's initial reports, as well as other care-related concluding observations, ratification dates, and links to the Universal Periodic Review.

Country Care Review: Algeria

Better Care Network , 21 Sep 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.

Sexual and physical abuse and its determinants among street children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2016

Ayana Chimdessa & Amsale Cheire - BMC Pediatrics, 19 Sep 2018

The purpose of this study is to point out the experience of sexual and physical exploitation and its determinant factors among street children in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia.

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Community-based prevention of child trafficking in Southern Ethiopia

Asayeberhan Kastro & Karen Dullea - International Social Work, 19 Sep 2018

The focus of this article is on children trafficked or migrating alone from rural areas of the Wolaita zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region to the urban centres of Jimma or Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

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