Centro de prensa

Discursos

Briefing on Trafficking in Children to the Congressional Human Rights Caucus

6 June 2002

Thank you for this opportunity to speak on child trafficking on behalf of UNICEF. The United States has taken commendable steps to address this issue, making it an international leader in systematic data-gathering and in protection for victims of trafficking. The release of today's report also helps to call international attention to the crime of child trafficking.

Last month, the UN General Assembly held a Special Session on Children, which brought together government leaders and Heads of State, NGOs, children's advocates and young people themselves. The GA adopted a document called A World Fit for Children, which called for action on child trafficking and exploitation, among other abuses. And this past January, the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography came into force.

Child trafficking violates human rights in many ways. Every year, hundreds of thousands of children are, like commodities, smuggled across borders and sold. Their survival and development are threatened, and their rights to education, to health, and to protection from exploitation and abuse are denied.

In this netherworld, children are channelled into prostitution, begging and soliciting, labour on plantations, in mines, in markets, in factories and in domestic work. They are physically abused, their working conditions are dangerous, they don't go to school, they get little rest, they don't have health care, and they don't have the care and protection of their family. At a certain point, they may be regarded as expendable. They are usually scared, and with good reason. Their presence is often illegal; they have no papers, and usually no protectors. In combating the phenomenon of child trafficking, we must remember that its victims need protection.

These remarks will address anti-trafficking initiatives supported by UNICEF.

Despite the major international standards now in place, child trafficking persists, and we must focus on practical measures to stop it. The US has taken a lead through the Trafficking Victim Protection Act (2000), with its commitment to imposing sanctions against significant violator countries who do not comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and are not making a significant effort to check the practice.

UNICEF, present in over 162 countries and territories, is in a strong position to advocate against child trafficking, to take initiatives at regional or cross-border level and also to work through our country programmes. Many aspects of these programmes can have a bearing on child trafficking: we contribute to design and innovation in basic education, particularly girls' education; to helping address the spread of AIDS among children and young people and the consequences for those who are affected; and of course child protection issues, namely violence, exploitation, abuse and discrimination.

Trafficking occurs for many purposes - sexual exploitation, agricultural and minework come readily to mind, but it also occurs for some forms of sport and for adoption. Both boys and girls are trafficked. Even when these children are not destined for the sex industry, they are often physically abused and sexually exploited. They are powerless, and nobody's watching.

Increasingly, we know where to look for the most vulnerable. Most trafficked women and children are from minorities and disadvantaged groups. This helps explain the disregard for their maltreatment, and often the discrimination and lack of opportunity that has made them vulnerable to trafficking in the first place. As we plan steps to address child trafficking, it helps to understand the gaps and vulnerabilities that affect both the supply of, and the demand for, children.

Where social protection mechanisms erode, young people are vulnerable: we've seen this following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and in all conflict situations. Some of the side-effects of conflict - the development of criminalised economies, powerful warlords, the advent of international peacekeepers - can enhance demand for prostitution. Where children are not registered at birth they are readily 'lost' and untraceable; and their ages can never be known with certainty. Porous borders, as in west and central Africa, make it relatively easy to move children from country to country.

The illegality, shame and stigma that surround so much of this activity - principally for the victims, rather than the consumers - contribute to creating an enabling environment for trafficking. So do official corruption, including of the judiciary. Public opinion in some receiving countries is not hostile but ambivalent to child trafficking. In some countries, children themselves glamorise trafficking and their future prospects.

By looking more closely at this phenomenon, we learn about the dynamics of child trafficking both across and within borders. Understanding and analysing the different variables lets us come up with a range of interventions, including preventive measures, detection and identification of the children at departure, transit and arrival points, support to children trapped in exploitative work and post-trafficking rehabilitative efforts. We know that these must target not only children, but also their families, their communities, the recruiters, traffickers and exploiters, and civil society.

Other links, such as that between trafficking and HIV/AIDS, need to be better understood, and measures taken in these areas should also protect victims of trafficking. Recent research by Imperial College London, for example, estimates that 5% of the adult population in Russia will be HIV-positive by 2007. The virus has spread most quickly among drug users who share needles - one third of whom fund their habit through prostitution.

Regional Initiatives

UNICEF has found regional initiatives promising: they can offer a political entry point to this sensitive issue, and are practical when many neighbouring countries are affected. The strongest example, and one where we have been pleased to play a leading role, is in West and Central Africa.

West and Central Africa

Trafficking of children for economic exploitation is a growing phenomenon in West and Central Africa, and it involves almost all the countries in the region. Trafficked children work as domestic servants, plantation and mine labourers, are found in the urban informal sector and increasingly in the prostitution and pornography markets.

UNICEF has been working closely with partners, in particular the ILO, regional government organisations such as the OAU, international organisations such as the IOM, and NGOs. Since a meeting in Cotonou, Benin in June 1998, where seventeen governments came together to discuss trafficking for the first time - governments in the region have shown considerable political commitment and have adopted a number of measures in this relatively brief timeframe. The main workshop recommendations were to increase budget support to child protection activities, introduce emergency preparation into potentially problematic countries, adopt operational tools and increase the frequency and participation of regional networking meetings.

The Libreville Consultation

In February 2000, a Sub-regional consultation was held in Libreville, Gabon with the support of UNICEF and the ILO, capping extensive discussions between the UN and governments of the region. It brought together senior government officials, some representatives of employers' and labour organisations, representatives of national, regional and international NGOs, as well as media and representatives of UNICEF and the ILO from the headquarters, regional and country offices. Its objectives were to review follow-up to the recommendations made in Cotonou, to increase awareness of the problem of the worst forms of child labour in the sub-region, especially trafficking for exploitative labour purposes, and to adopt a common platform for action in this area. One of its outcomes was a Memorandum of Understanding on international trafficking in children between the Governments of Cote d'Ivoire and Mali- the first such agreement to be signed in Africa. It identifies areas for cross-border co-operation in combating child trafficking, including the repatriation of trafficked children and the detection and tracking of child trafficking networks. This is an extremely positive step.

This adverse implications of human trafficking and child abuse on sustainable development will be addressed at an upcoming international summit, Combating Human Trafficking and Slavery through International Cooperation and Legislation, scheduled for 1st-3rd August 2002 in Abuja, Nigeria. The summit will identify and examine the magnitude, nature, patterns and manifestations of human trafficking, child abuse and slavery, and seek an exchange of ideas and experience with a view to developing national and regional frameworks for international co-operation in combating the problem.

Southeastern Europe

UNICEF has joined with many partners in trying to address the explosion of trafficking in this region, initiating an assessment of the situation of trafficking in women and children in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia and Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This report was released by the Stability Pact in August 2000, and provides an inventory of regional and country level anti-trafficking activities by governments, international agencies and NGOs.

East Asia and the Pacific

In the greater Mekong Sub-region, UNICEF has been a major partner in developing the UN Project on Trafficking of Women and Children in the Mekong Sub-Region, and is identified as the key UN facilitating agency in at least four of the six participating countries.

In 1998, UNICEF introduced a Strategy Framework to improve protection of children in the region, including protection against trafficking. The strategies, broken down into prevention and early intervention, responsive social service systems, recovery and reintegration services, and comprehensive legal protection, include awareness raising campaigns, parenting education, outreach to vulnerable school children, the creation of special police units for child protection and rescue, centre-based crisis intervention services for child victims, and support in helping trafficked children re-enter society. In addition, legal reform and the training of lawyers has been undertaken.

South Asia

Two regional conventions on the trafficking of women and children and child welfare were signed by seven South Asian countries during a SAARC summit in Kathmandu, Nepal this past January.

Country level efforts:

Prevention: UNICEF is trying to help families and communities become the first line of protection for children.

In Cambodia, a Child Protection Network is being established in Poipet, the border town which is the main gateway to Thailand. It will inform children and families about child rights and to encourage communities to look for early warning signs of children at risk.
In Thailand, community based activities to counter trafficking focus on the Northeastern provinces. These activities include volunteers who report abuses at the local level.

Benin's first village committees were created in August 1999 in the sub-prefectures of Ze, Dogbo and Agbangnizoun in the south of the country - the area most affected by child trafficking - following research by the Government of Benin and UNICEF, and a plan to decentralize activities against child trafficking, There are now more than 170 committees carrying out a range of activities, most of which are believed to have an impact on trafficking. These Committees raise community awareness, report cases of sexual or other abuse of children by assigning a Committee who keeps a close count on the number of children in the village. In addition, the Committee contacts the police immediately when a child is discovered to be missing, and monitors the re-integration of children who return to their villages.
Education: UNICEF recognises that early interventions are the most effective, and works closely with the Ministries of Education to ensure that children, particularly girls, are enrolled in school and that they do not drop out. Life Skills are incorporated into school curricula: this information gives children and parents better information with which to protect themselves.

Economic support: In Thailand and the Philippines, an innovative partnership with the hotel industry provides much sought-after training and employment opportunities to youth regarded as being in situations of particular vulnerability.

Strengthening legislation and law enforcement:

In Vietnam, an amendment to the penal code has increased sanctions against adult offenders
In Cambodia and Thailand, police and justice officials are being trained on child rights and child friendly procedures that treat the child as a victim, rather than as a criminal.

In Thailand, UNICEF has supported the Government's initiative to establish a "Common Agreement" with other countries in the Mekong Sub-Region to improve cross-border procedures. The first agreement is being drafted by Thailand and Cambodia.

In Nepal, UNICEF has initiated community surveillance systems and para-legal communities working against child trafficking in 14 districts. UNICEF has also assisted in establishing women's cells in district police office.
Recovery and reintegration: Helping children who have been trafficked and exploited re-enter into society is a key area of UNICEF's work. We support social workers and teachers to respond to the needs of exiting, often traumatised children. Transit centres and training activities are underway in China and Cambodia, with some 180 female victims of trafficking waiting to be reintegrated into their countries. These girls are from China (8), Laos (104), Cambodia (28), Myanmar (23) and the rest are from South Asia. In Nepal, UNICEF has supported hostel facilities and rehabilitation centres for sexually abused and working children.

Data-and information gathering

Research and analysis of existing policies and programmes is essential to the creation of effective strategies against child trafficking, as are better data. The UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre has worked with the UNICEF Regional Office for West and Central Africa in identifying more effective anti-trafficking measures in eight countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Mali, Nigeria and Togo.

The Principles

UNICEF supports principles which have been elaborated consultatively by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and which will be made public in the OHCHR report to the 2002 Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The Recommended Guidelines and Principles are intended as a framework and reference point for all efforts to prevent trafficking and to protect the rights of trafficked persons.

The nine key principles related to the trafficking of children are:

The very real distinction between trafficking in adult persons and trafficking in children must be recognised. The particular physical, psychological and psycho-social harm suffered by trafficked children and the fact of their increased vulnerability to exploitation requires them to be dealt with separately from adult trafficked persons in relation to laws, policies, programmes and interventions.
Definitions of trafficking must reflect their need for special safeguards and care including appropriate legal protection. In particular, and in accordance with the Palermo Protocol, evidence of deception, force or coercion should not form part of the definition of trafficking where the person involved is a child.
Procedures must be put in place for the rapid identification of child victims of trafficking.

Children who are victims of trafficking must not be subjected to criminal procedures or sanctions for offences related to their situation as trafficked persons.

In cases where children are not accompanied by relatives or guardian, steps should be taken to identify and locate family members. Following a risk assessment and consultation with the child, measures should be taken to facilitate the reunion of trafficked children with their families where this is deemed to be in their best interest.

In situations where the safe return of the child to their family is not possible or where such return would not be in the child's best interests, adequate care arrangements with respect the rights and dignity of the trafficked child should be made.

Specialised policies and programmes should be developed in order to protect and support children who have been victims of trafficking. Children should be provided with appropriate physical, psycho-social, legal, educational, housing and health care assistance.
States should adopt the necessary measures to protect the rights and interests of trafficked children at all stages of criminal proceedings against alleged offenders and during procedures for obtaining compensation.
Steps should be taken to protect, as appropriate, the privacy and identity of child victims. This means taking measures to avoid the dissemination of information that could lead to the identification of child victims.

Conclusion

In summary, in countering trafficking UNICEF seeks and encourages community mobilisation and vigilance; regional and cross-border initiatives; time-bound measures linked to national development goals; the strengthening of existing laws and the implementation and monitoring of international conventions; and raised awareness of the consequences of trafficking, including among children themselves, schools and parents. We will follow closely any changes in country practice that follow from the US legislation, and look forward to learning in due course the protective benefits of the innovative T-visa.