MANILA , 4 April 2005 --- Carol Bellamy, outgoing Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund, today will launch a handbook for legislators offering practical information on how to enact policy and laws to effectively combat child trafficking, one of the most widespread abuses of children worldwide.

The launching is part of the ongoing 112th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly. Established in 1889, the IPU brings together representatives of Parliaments in over 140 states. It contributes to the defense and promotion of human rights and has a long-standing commitment to the protection of children. The Philippines hosts this year’s assembly.

Working in 158 countries, UNICEF undertakes child protection programmes focusing on children without primary caregivers, the worst forms of child labour, and violence against children. Over the last two years, UNICEF has allocated over $240 million to its work on protecting children and ensuring they arrive into adulthood, safe and ready to thrive.

In the Philippines, children are usually trafficked for domestic work, commercial sexual exploitation, and hard and cheap labor. UNICEF works with the government and non-government organizations to prevent the trafficking of children and women.

Determining the extent of trafficking is difficult. Since 2000, UNICEF has worked with the Visayan Forum, an NGO campaigning against child trafficking by keeping an eye out for possible victims at the country’s major port areas. Nearly 4,000 children and women have been provided services, and close to 1,400 of these are victims of trafficking. Most of them were trafficked from provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao islands.

In 2003, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed into law the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act making child trafficking a criminal offense. UNICEF hopes that this law will further spur massive advocacy against child trafficking. UNICEF funds community education against trafficking. In some areas, rescue and quick action teams have been set up to curb the increasing number of trafficking cases.