Child Trafficking : How to Protect Children from Exploitation ?

Child trafficking is a human right violation and a crime, affecting at least one million children today – and probably many more. This briefing note gives an overview of this horrifying trade, which consists in taking children away from their home, transporting them elsewhere, often across borders and even to other continents, in order to be exploited by others, who usually make money out of them. This process results in enormous suffering and severe consequences for both the children and their families. Child trafficking is a tragic pattern of abuse which is, despite continued efforts from governments and international organisations, continuing and even increasing. In order to protect vulnerable children, it is important to understand the process and patterns involved in trafficking both within and across borders. Urgently, efforts need to be intensified and coordinated at all levels if the trafficking of children is to be stopped. What is child protection and child trafficking? One of today's most pressing issues on the development and international agenda is child protection. The term 'child protection' is used by UNICEF (2006a) to refer to the " prevention and response to violence, exploitation and abuse against children – including commercial sexual exploitation, trafficking, child labour and harmful traditional practices such as genital mutilation and child marriage ". The issue of child protection is linked to every one of the Millennium Development Goals, from poverty reduction to education, from eliminating gender inequality to reducing child mortality and from combating preventable diseases to the need for a global partnership (UNICEF, 2006a). This briefing note focuses on one particular violation of children's rights, namely child trafficking. A child victim of trafficking is defined as any person under eighteen, who is recruited, transported, transferred, harboured or received for the purpose of exploitation either within or outside a country 1. The trafficking of children is a thriving and dramatic business, affecting children all over the world, both in industrialized and developing countries. UN estimates indicate that trafficking in persons generates $7 to $10 billion annually for traffickers (UNICEF, 2003). The clandestine nature of trafficking makes it difficult to know the exact number of child trafficked but according to the latest estimates, more than 1 Definition of the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and children. The protocol entered into force in December 2003, has been signed by 117 parties and ratified by 95.