Protection against child trafficking

International legal protection against child trafficking

UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish the Trafficking of Persons, Especially Women and Children (2000)
Known as the Trafficking Protocol; supplements the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. Defines child trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of any person under 18 years of age for the purposes of sexual or labor exploitation, forced labor, or slavery. Requires states to take legislative and other measures to criminalize trafficking in persons; to assist and protect victims of trafficking; to consider implementing measures to provide for the physical, psychological and social recovery of victims; and to take measures to prevent and combat trafficking, and cooperate with relevant authorities to achieve these objectives.

Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (2000)
Obliges states to criminalize the “offering, delivering or accepting” of a child for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor; to prosecute or, where necessary, extradite offenders; to provide support services and witness protection for victims of the prohibited offences; to ensure appropriate training for people working with victims; to strengthen international cooperation to combat the offences.

International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 182 on the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999)
Places child trafficking within the broader context of child labor. Describes trafficking as a “practice similar to slavery.” Obliges states parties to take “immediate and effective measures” to eliminate child trafficking “as a matter of urgency”.

Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
Obliges states parties to “take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent the abduction, the sale of or traffic in children for any purpose or in any form”. Obliges states to ensure that children are not separated from their parents against their will; to take measures to combat the illicit transfer and non-return of children abroad; and to protect children from economic exploitation, hazardous labor, involvement in drug trafficking, sexual exploitation and abuse and any other form of exploitation. Makes states responsible for providing special protection and assistance to any child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment, or in whose own best interests cannot be allowed to remain in that environment.

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