Child Rights - Child Trafficking

Child Trafficking

Part 1

Child trafficking is the "buying, selling, or stealing of children for personal gain"(Meier, 2008). Child trafficking is a violation of human rights for the child being trafficked. Child trafficking is a global problem affecting large numbers of children both within domestic borders and across transnational borders (Polaris Project, 2007). Some estimates have as many as 1.2 million children of all ages both boys and girls being trafficked every year (ILO, 2004). Child trafficking is a lucrative business that makes $2 billion a year according to the ILO (ILO, 2001). Like any lucrative business child trafficking depends on supply and demand. The demands from both the commercial sex industry and the industry for cheap, dispensable labor are growing around the world.

Victims of trafficking predominantly belong to Eastern European, Asian and African nationalities (UNODC, 2006). According to the UN; 161 countries are affected by child trafficking. Of those, 127 countries are the supplier, 98 countries are used for transit, and 137 are the destination countries (UNODC, 2006). Children and young people are usually trafficked from poorer areas to richer and more profitable regions or countries.

There are quite a few root causes of child trafficking. One of the main causes as mentioned earlier, is the demand. The demand side of trafficking prompts forcing children into "prostitution or child pornography, exploitative labor, slavery, illicit international adoption, early marriage, jockeying, or as child soldiers" (UNICEF, 2007). Demand also comes from cheap labor in the garment, agricultural or other industries trying to compete in the global market. Trafficking can also supply children to households needing assistance with domestic work, or a childless couple, or an army that needs children to fight a war (UNICEF, 2007).

On the supply side of trafficking, some of the main causes frequently cited are poverty, lack of employment opportunities, natural disasters, wars, low social status of girls, inadequate legislation, week law enforcement and the HIV/AIDS epidemic (UNICEF, Chapter 4).

Poverty is the main culprit of child trafficking. Poverty can heighten one's vulnerability to become a victim. Eliminating poverty can eradicate one root cause of child trafficking and that is why the number one goal of the Millennium Development Goal is to "to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger"(UN, MDG 2000). Poverty levels in some regions around the world help provide children in the trafficking business. Children are born into families that cannot protect them or afford them. In these cases children are sold to traffickers in order to provide families with both income and reduction in expenses (UNICEF, Chapter 4).

Trafficked children, especially adolescents are lured through false promises of better jobs or education overseas or in other cities with the opportunity to send money back to their families (Dessy & Pallage, 2003). Most often the recruiters are trusted relatives, friends or even neighbors (ECPAT, 2004). Younger children may be tricked or stolen. Some children are sold to traffickers by their families in the hopes for a better future for the child, to pay off debts or gain income (ECPAT, 2004). In most cases parents are deceived with the prospect of training and a better life for their children. In many cultures, children are expected to work at a young age to support their families (UNODC, 2006). Parents and children therefore gladly take an opportunity to work abroad or somewhere else to earn more money for their families. Only after they arrive at their destination does the trafficker use force or coercion to keep them under their control (UNODC, 2006).

Children have been given special rights by the UN Convention for the Right of a Child (CRC) to a healthy childhood and a productive, rewarding life. Part of the treaty was created to protect children from risks of abuse and exploitation. Due to their vulnerabilities they need to receive special attention and care. Article 35 of the CRC asks State Parties to take "all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent the abduction of, the sale of or traffic in children for any purpose or in any form" (CRC, Article 35) and to "promote physical and psychological recovery and reintegration of a child victim" (CRC, Article 39). However the language used by the CRC stands in the way of effective implementation of these articles. One of the problems is article 4 which states "States Parties shall undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the present Convention. With regard to economic, social and cultural rights, States Parties shall undertake such measures to the maximum extent of their available resources and, where needed, within the framework of international co-operation" (CRC, Article 4). The use of the words "maximum extent of their available resources" could be used by some states as an excuse as to why they fell short of meeting their obligation of protecting children from trafficking.

The child's rights to recovery as mentioned in article 39 of the CRC is addressed specifically in the Guidelines to remind authorities of their obligation to ensure that children who have been trafficked have the right to physical and physiological recovery also in the country that is not of their origin (CRC, Article, 39). However far too often, trafficked children are "arrested and detained as illegal aliens rather than recognized as the victims"(Rafferty, 2008). Government efforts to combat human trafficking have been entirely inadequate. When trafficked children are freed from their abusers, in most cases they are not given access to services available for victims, but instead face further mistreatment at the hands of the authorities. Even when confronted with clear evidence of trafficking and forced labor, officials focus on violations of their immigration regulations and anti-prostitution laws, rather than on violations of the trafficked victims' human rights (ECPAT, 2009). Thus the children are "targeted as undocumented migrants and/or prostitutes, and the traffickers either escape entirely, or else face minor penalties for their involvement in illegal migration or businesses of prostitution (ILO, 2006).

These policies and practices are not only inappropriate, they are ineffective. By making the victims of trafficking, the target of law enforcement efforts, governments only exacerbate the victims' vulnerability to abuse and deter them from turning to law enforcement officials for assistance. By allowing traffickers to continue to engage in these practices without