[NYTr] UNICEF: Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

[nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com]

sent by Bill Kohenlein - Dec 13, 2006

UNICEF
http://www.unicef.org/protection/files/sexex2.pdf

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

FACT SHEET: COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

Facts and Figures

An estimated 2 million children, the majority of them girls, are
sexually exploited in the multi-billion dollar commercial sex industry

* At the end of 2000, as many as 325,000 children were at risk of
commercial sexual exploitation in the United States alone.

* An estimated 16,000 children in Mexico are exploited in prostitution,
with tourist destinations being among those areas with the highest
number.

* In Cambodia, a third of those in prostitution are children under 18
years of age.

* In Lithuania, 20 per cent to 50 per cent of those in prostitution are
believed to be minors. Children as young as 11 can be found in brothels
and children between 10 and 12 years of age have been used to make
pornographic films.

* An estimated 30 percent of trafficking victims from Moldova are
adolescent girls trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation.

Building a Protective Environment for Children

An effective response to the sexual exploitation of children requires
coordinated and consistent efforts at every level:

* Governments need to recognize the problem and respond by creating,
enforcing and implementing appropriate legal frameworks to protect
children.

* Laws that that address demand by adequately punishing people who
sexually exploit children need to be in place and enforced.

* Attitudes need to change, including the perception of girls as
commodities who can be sold into the sex industry and the reluctance of
communities to act and intervene in cases of sexual exploitation.

* The media needs to help protect children, in part by providing
information on the dangers of sexual exploitation and the penalties for
those who sexually exploit children.

* Education needs to be made free, compulsory, relevant and safe.

* Families need to be supported in caring for their children, and
interventions must be made when homes become places of sexual abuse.

* Everyone needs to be involved in fighting sexual exploitation, from
parents and communities to law enforcement officers and the travel
industry.

* Children need to be armed with knowledge of the dangers of sexual
exploitation so that adults are less able to take advantage of them.

* Monitoring and reporting are essential since sexual exploitation often
thrives on secrecy.

* Survivors of sexual exploitation need the right care and support to
return to their normal lives and, if possible, to their families.

COMBATING SEXUAL EXPLOITATION: UNICEF IN ACTION

UNICEF’s Approach: building a protective environment:

UNICEF works internationally and nationally to combat commercial sexual
exploitation of children.

* International legislation: At the global level, UNICEF advocates for
ratification and enforcement of international laws that protect
children, such as the International Labour Organization's (ILO)
Convention No.182 that prohibits the worst forms of child labour, the
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons
especially Women and Children, and the protocol to the Convention on the
Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and
child pornography.

* National commitment: At the national level, UNICEF works with
governments to address the problem of sexual exploitation of children. A
key element of prevention includes ensuring that all children,
especially girls, attend school. When children are in school, they are
less vulnerable to people who may try to coerce them into the sex trade
or exploit them in other ways.

* Awareness raising: UNICEF tries to help governments ensure that the
police and judiciary are aware of the problem and that they take steps
to better enforce existing laws against sexual exploitation of children.

* Recovery and Reintegration: UNICEF and its partners reach out to
children who have fallen victim to sexual exploitation in the aim of
extracting them from that situation, providing them with appropriate
care and support and finding long-term solutions.

Examples of UNICEF in action around the world:

Help the Children, a UNICEF-supported NGO in Albania, works with
sexually abused or exploited children, many of whom have been trafficked
to Greece. Each year the NGO reintegrates hundreds of children into
Albanian schools and provides their siblings with counselling and
support, assisting a total of 2,500 children.

In Montenegro, UNICEF supports training for judges, prosecutors, police
and social workers on child rights and special protection measures of
child victims of trafficking, many of them victims of commercial sexual
exploitation.

In Angola, adolescents who have experienced sexual exploitation and
abuse are supported through community-based "open-centres" and an
institutional centre offering care on a voluntary basis, both run by
NGOs.

In Cambodia, UNICEF is supporting ensuring legal representation through
the Bar Association for child victims of abuse and exploitation

In Thailand, a partnership with the Pan Pacific Hotels is providing
training and employment opportunities to children particularly
vulnerable to sexual exploitation.

In Central America and Dominican Republic, UNICEF is supporting efforts
to criminalize the perpetrators of sexual crimes and ensure that
children that are victims of commercial sexual exploitation and
trafficking are treated as victims and not criminals.

In Gabon, a telephone hotline has been developed where children can
collect information on available services and request support when faced
with situations of abuse or exploitation.


Bill Koehnlein
bill at toplab.org

"My fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the
battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."
                                        --George W. Bush, May 1, 2003

"...I told the American people that the road ahead would be difficult, and
that we would prevail. Well, it has been difficult--and we are
prevailing."
                                        --George W. Bush, June 28, 2005

+U.S. military fatalities through May 1, 2003: 140
+U.S. military fatalities through June 28, 2005: 1743
+U.S. military fatalities as of December 13, 2006: 2937 (this figure
exceeds the number of people killed at the World Trade Center on September
11, 2001)

+Iraqi civilian fatalities through May 1, 2003: 1982
+Iraqi civilian fatalities through June 28, 2005 (estimated by
IraqBodyCount.net): 22,563 – 25,560*
+Iraqi civilian fatalities as of December 13, 2006 (estimated by
IraqBodyCount.net): 50,429 – 55,926*
+Iraqi civilian fatalities as of July 2006 (estimated by The Lancet): 654,965

*These figures are based on the number of fatalities cited in various news
reports and have been criticized, with much justification, for not giving
an accurate assessment of the real civilian death count. A much more
rigorous and statistically-reliable study, conducted by teams from Johns
Hopkins University, Columbia University and Al-Mustansiriya University,
and published in The Lancet (the British medical journal) in the Fall of
2004, put the figure at around 100,000 civilians dead. However, that data
had been based on "conservative assumptions", according to research team
leader Les Roberts, and the actual count at that time was credibly assumed
to be significantly higher. For example, The Lancet study's data greatly
underestimated fatalities in Fallujah due to the surveying problems
encountered there at that time. Most recently, a second Lancet study,
released on October 10, 2006, now indicates that 654,965 "excess" deaths
of Iraqi civilians have occurred since the outbreak of the aggression and
genocide committed by the United States against the people of Iraq.

Sources: http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
http://icasualties.org/oif/
http://www.zmag.org/lancet.pdf
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1338749,00.html
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/Iraq_war.html
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=6271
http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20041025/008279.html
http://www.thelancet.com/webfiles/images/journals/lancet/s0140673606694919.pdf