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ExploitationThe Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 34 States Parties undertake to protect the child from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. For these purposes, States Parties shall in particular take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent: (a) The inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful sexual activity; (b) The exploitative use of children in prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices; (c) The exploitative use of children in pornographic performances and materials. What can one say when you read about what happens to children, both boys and girls, at the hands of adults? One can rant and rave or lose one's temper or cry "pervert" or threaten violence against the perpetrators but this does not stop the problem. These are just emotional responses.Statistics and evidence show that exploitation of girls and boys happens in all countries. The exploitation is perpetrated by both family members and strangers:
http://www.boes.org/coop/censor1.html To find lasting solutions to the continued exploitation is the key to any program. To find solutions, however, we need to identify the problems and then deal with, identified problems strategically. The problem of exploitation of children can be broken into different subsets: Problem 1: Child trafficking and sexual slavery Every day, across the world, a miserable cargo of women and children is being trafficked across well-beaten paths. The illegal and highly profitable transport and sale of human beings for the purpose of exploiting their labour is a human rights abuse of global dimensions. In any given year many thousands of women and girls around the world are lured, abducted or sold into forced labour, forced prostitution, domestic service, or involuntary marriage. On just two established routes, from Nepal to India and from Bangladesh to Pakistan, an estimated 9,000 girls a year are trafficked. Problem 2: Rape Rape in war was outlawed by the Geneva Conventions which state that "women shall be especially protected... against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault." Women are raped because their bodies are seen as the legitimate spoils of war. Women are raped as a weapon of war, as an act to intimidate opponents. This example is about women, but there is substantial evidence that both both girls and boys are raped as "spoils of war". Problem 3: Paedophilia First and most easily distinguishable -- but in the minority -- are paedophiles. Paedophilia is a condition in which adults prefer to have sex with pre-pubescent girls and boys. Paedophile behaviour follows quite defined patterns: often paedophiles put themselves in situations where they come regularly into contact with children. They find relationships with adults difficult but claim to have a "caring" relationship with a child, often suggesting that they are paying the child for sex in order to help the child and its family financially, or to help the child to learn about sex from a caring person. Paedophiles regularly obtain pornography involving children and are "collectors" of photos, videos and other keepsakes of the children they come into contact with, in order to "freeze" the age of the child and replay the pornography time and again. http://www.childhub.ch/webpub/csechome/2182.htm Problem 4: Family Worldwide, researchers have noted the strong correlation between family abuse of children, especially girls, and the drive to enter the sex trade. The mother, in particular, plays a central role in her daughter's life decisions. Widespread evidence of family involvement in the direct, commercial sexual exploitation of children is disturbing but perhaps not surprising, given the heavy burden of severe economic inequities and hardships under which many families labour. Carriers of poverty and despair, inherited and newly dislocating values that view children is property and hence as a source of economic support, families pass these values and their consequences on to their children. In fact, most often, parents who sell their children into the sex trade do so unwittingly. They are told, and believe, that their children are going into domestic service or some other form of labour, or marriage. Many remain ignorant of the eventual fate of their “working” children. http://www.childhub.ch/webpub/csechome/218a.htm Problem 5: Economics Commercial sexual exploitation of children has many characteristics of an organised industry sector: from small businesses to large enterprises, with bank accounts, advertising campaigns and glossy brochures. There are marketers who use technology to sell the “product”, hierarchies of profit-takers (always with the child on the bottom of the ladder) and strategic planners who work to protect and promote “good business”. This “industry” is a flagrant abuse of children, involving deception, kidnapping, enslavement, smuggling, false passports, bribery, and corruption at many levels. http://www.childhub.ch/webpub/csechome/218e.htm Problem 6: Sex tourism As for sex tourism, the participants debunked the myth surrounding the role played by foreigners. The investigators made a distinction between the concepts of sexual tourism, the sexual exploitation of children, and the difference between adult and child prostitution. According to testimonies, adolescents, rather than children, are most often the victims of sexual exploitation of minors involving foreigners. Moreover, the abuse of children primarily involves local clientele and often starts in the home at a young age. Problem 7: Customs and traditions Trokosi (pronounced TRO-KOSI) means "fetish slave". Trokosi is a traditional practice in which young girls are made slaves to a fetish shrine for offences, allegedly committed, sometimes generations before, by a member of her family in order to appease local gods. The offences may range from stealing tomatoes to stealing personal effects like jewellery or alternatively the girl may be given in order to improve a run of believed bad luck. The girls are bonded to the priests for life and become their domestic and sexual servants. They may be raped and abused and become temple prostitutes. No law specifically exists to outlaw the practice, and it is estimated that there may be up to 10 000 girls who are dedicated as Trokosi. Girls as young as eight may be accepted as fetish slaves. Trokosi girls are cut off from their families and most are too scared to talk about their lives. The priest is under no obligation to take care of the girl, nor care for the children he would have by her. The girl is responsible for feeding herself, her children and also the priest.
As you can see there are many ways in which adults exploit children. To find lasting solutions it is important to deal with each of the problems. Therefore it is important to recognise that there exists a variety of problems related to the exploitation of children. Each problem needs a different solution. The most important thing to do is to find lasting solutions.
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