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.

Displaying 71 - 80 of 337

Browse Other Topics

Country Care Review: Saudi Arabia

Better Care Network, 09 Apr 2019

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.

Child trafficking victims and legal guardians: Exploring the fulfilment of the EU trafficking directive in the context of the UK modern Slavery Act 2015 – Best practice or not fit for purpose?

Amy Weatherburn & Yvonne Eloise Mellon - New Journal of European Criminal Law, 25 Mar 2019

This article will consider the extent to which the protection of child trafficking victims under the jurisdiction of the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 is sufficient to fulfil the legal positive obligations imposed by EU Law.

View Article

Country Care Review: Czech Republic

Better Care Network, 05 Mar 2019

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. The Committees' recommendations on the issues relevant to children's care are highlighted, as well as other care-related concluding observations, ratification dates, and links to the Universal Periodic Review and Hague Intercountry Adoption Country Profile.

"Baby Factories": Exploitation of Women in Southern Nigeria

Jacinta Chiamaka Nwaka & Akachi Odoemene - Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence, 01 Mar 2019

This paper examines the development and proliferation of baby-selling centers in southern Nigeria and its impacts on and implication for women in Nigeria. It demonstrates how an attempt to give protection to unwed pregnant girls has metamorphosed into “baby harvesting” and selling through the notorious “baby factories,” where young women are held captive and used like industrial machines for baby production.

Disadvantaged Childhoods and Humanitarian Intervention: Processes of Affective Commodification and Objectification

Cheney, Kristen, Sinervo, Aviva (Eds.), 24 Feb 2019

This book explores how humanitarian interventions for children in difficult circumstances engage in affective commodification of disadvantaged childhoods.

View Book

Child Trafficking for Adoption Purposes: A Criminological Analysis of the Illegal Adoption Market

Elvira Loibl - The Palgrave International Handbook of Human Trafficking, 19 Feb 2019

This chapter identifies the structural components of the transnational illegal adoption market by applying the basic logic of the routine activity theory that has been developed by Cohen and Felson.

View Article

The Strength to Carry On: Resilience and Vulnerability to Trafficking and Other Abuses among People Travelling along Migration Routes to Europe

Dr. Claire Healy - International Centre for Migration Policy Development, 01 Feb 2019

This study analyses the incidence of human trafficking among people travelling along the ‘Eastern Mediterranean route,’ the ‘Balkan route’ and the ‘Central Mediterranean route’; factors of resilience to human trafficking and other abuses; and factors of vulnerability to human trafficking and other abuses. The study reveals the particular vulnerability of unaccompanied minors to child exploitation and abduction and highlights key recommendations for addressing human trafficking along these routes.

Webinar: Care for Boys Affected by Sexual Violence

Omattie Madray and Zenainda Rosales - RISE América Latina, 29 Jan 2019

In this webinar presented by RISE Learning Network, Omattie Madray and Zenainda Rosales presented an extensive study recently carried out which analyzed over 100 documents and conducted over 20 interviews to gain insights on practices of organizations supporting and caring for boys affected by sexual violence in their recovery process.

View Webinar Recording

Empowering children with disabilities for the enjoyment of their human rights, including through inclusive education: Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights , 22 Jan 2019

In the present report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 37/20, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights provides an overview of the legal framework and practical measures to empower children with disabilities.

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.