FORCED LABOR:

THE PROSTITUTION OF CHILDREN

U.S. Department of Labor

Robert B. Reich, Secretary

Bureau of International Labor Affairs

Joaquin F. Otero, Deputy Under Secretary

1996

Papers from a symposium co-sponsored by the U.S. Department

of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, the Women's

Bureau, and the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of

Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, held on September 29,

1995 at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, DC.
Acknowledgments

This collection of papers was edited by

Maureen Jaffe and Sonia Rosen of the

International Child Labor Study Office,

Bureau of International Labor Affairs,

U.S. Department of Labor. Contributors

to this volume include: Dorianne Beyer,

Panudda Boonpala, Gilberto Dimenstein,

Robert Flores, Representative Joseph

Kennedy II, Bertil Lindblad, Vitit

Muntarbhorn, Karen Nussbaum, Joaquin

F. Otero, Ladda Saikaew and Andrew

Samet. Opinions stated in this document

do not represent the official position or

policy of the U.S. Department of Labor.

The individual authors are solely

responsible for the content of their papers.

These proceedings from the Bureau of International Labor Affairs' (ILAB)

symposium on the prostitution of children are part of a series of reports

produced by ILAB on international aspects of the exploitation of child labor.

Additional copies of this report, or copies of Volumes I and II of By the

Sweat and Toil of Children can be obtained by contacting: United States

Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, International

Child Labor Study Office, Room S-1308, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW,

Washington, DC 20210. Telephone (202) 208-4843; fax (202) 219-4923.

The reports can also be accessed electronically at FTP site ftp.ilr.cornell.edu;

via GOPHER at gopher.ilr.cornell.edu; or at World-Wide Web site

http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/e_archive/ChildLabor/. 
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

 Joaquin F. Otero, Deputy Under Secretary

for International Labor Affairs .......................... i

Foreword

 Karen Nussbaum, Director, Women's Bureau ................... ix

Keynote Address

 Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II ........................... 1

Part I: Overviews on Child Prostitution

1. International Perspectives and 

Child Prostitution in Asia, Vitit Muntarbhorn ............... 9

2. Child Prostitution in Latin America, Dorianne Beyer ............ 32

3. Child Prostitution in the United States, Robert Flores ........... 41

Part II: Responses to Child Prostitution 

1. The Role of the International Labor Organization, Panudda 

Boonpala ........................................... 53

2. A Non-Governmental Organization Perspective, Ladda Saikaew . . 63

3. The Role of the Media, Gilberto Dimenstein ................... 72

4. The Convention on the Rights of the Child and the World 

Congress on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of

Children, Stockholm

1996, Bertil Lindblad .......................... 77

Afterword

 Andrew James Samet, Associate Deputy Under Secretary

for International Labor Affairs ......................... 81

Appendices

A. The International Law Enforcement Response, International 

Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) ............... 87

B. About the Symposium Speakers ............................. 90

C. ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor ......................... 95

D. UN Convention on the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and of 

the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others ...... 111

E. UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination 

Against Women, Article 6 ............................ 122

F. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child ................... 123

G. 1994 Child Sex Abuse Prevention Act ...................... 152

i

PREFACE

The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) and the Women's

Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, together with the Bureau of

Democracy, Human Rights and Labor of the U.S. Department of State, cosponsored a symposium in Washington, D.C. on September 29, 1995 to

explore the growing international problem of the forced prostitution of

children. This volume contains an edited collection of papers that were

prepared for the symposium. 

The goal of the symposium and these proceedings is to focus public

attention on the issue of child prostitution as a problem of international

dimensions. No country or region is untouched. This volume can serve to

further international discussion as we try to increase international

cooperation, sharing of information, and the development and

implementation of solutions. 

Forced child prostitution is forced labor and child labor in their

most exploitative forms. The Department of Labor plays an active role

nationally and internationally in protecting worker's rights and in promoting

internationally recognized labor standards worldwide. As part of this role,

ILAB established an international child labor project to report on the

exploitation of child labor in all its forms. Two major reports on child labor

have been published. The 1994 report, By the Sweat and Toil of Children

(Volume I): The Use of Child Labor in U.S. Manufactured and Mined

Imports, describes how children are illegally employed in the manufacturing

and mining industries in 19 countries. The 1995 report, entitled By the

Sweat and Toil of Children (Volume II): The Use of Child Labor in U.S.

Agricultural Imports and Forced and Bonded Child Labor, reviews many

of the deplorable situations of forced child prostitution described at the

September symposium. Additionally, ILAB received an appropriation from

Congress to fund International Labor Organization (ILO) projects aimed at

the elimination of child labor. Part of this $2.1 million contribution to the

ILO's International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) is

being used to fund a program in northern Thailand to protect children at risk

of being forced into prostitution. 

The Department's concern for the rights of child victims of
Preface

ii

prostitution is best summarized by the words of Secretary of Labor Robert

B. Reich, who said that "in many countries, young girls are sold into

prostitution, many times trafficked long distances -- this is simply

intolerable."

Many international non-governmental organizations have

denounced the commercial sexual exploitation of children. For example, the

Nobel Prize Winner's Committee against Child Exploitation condemns the

practice by stating "it is unacceptable that children are seen as commodities

traded on the street, that children's bodies are used as products, smuggled

and thrown away." The organization "End Child Prostitution in Asian

Tourism" (ECPAT) has developed an international network of institutions

to fight child prostitution. Working with UNICEF and the Government of

Sweden, ECPAT is sponsoring a world conference on the commercial sexual

exploitation of children to be held in Stockholm in August 1996. 

As Karen Nussbaum, Director of the Labor Department's Women's

Bureau notes in the foreword to this volume, the program of action for the

Beijing Women's Summit addressed the forced prostitution of children and

encouraged governments to take action against the trafficking of women and

girls. In Beijing, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke to this problem,

stating that "it is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold

into slavery or prostitution for human greed."

This symposium brought together experts to describe child

prostitution as it occurs worldwide and to discuss various responses to the

problem. The speakers shared their expertise on the prostitution of children,

children's rights, and the roles, responsibilities and responses of

governments, intergovernmental organizations, law enforcement, the media,

and non-governmental organizations.

The keynote address for the symposium was delivered by

Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II. In his address, Representative

Kennedy notes that child prostitution is the most denigrating and

dehumanizing of all crimes. He stresses the need for this issue to be

exposed and discussed so that progress can be made towards eliminating the

practice. Representative Kennedy is the sponsor of recent U.S. legislation
Joaquin F. Otero

iii

(the 1994 Child Sex Abuse Prevention Act) which makes it a crime

prosecutable in a U.S. court for an American to conspire to travel abroad for

the purpose of engaging in sexual acts with a minor. 

Representative Kennedy recommends that solutions begin with

tougher enforcement of existing laws, both in the United States and abroad,

including the Child Sex Abuse Prevention Act. The United States should

make child prostitution a higher priority in bilateral discussions with other

countries, and should explore possible avenues for bringing pressure to bear

on certain countries, such as through the World Bank and the International

Monetary Fund. He advocates that the U.S. support the work of

intergovernmental organizations in this area, and urges U.S. ratification of

the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

The volume is then divided into two parts containing the

proceedings of two panel sessions. Part I describes the situation of forced

child prostitution internationally, with specific examples from Asia, Africa,

Latin America, and the United States. Part II looks at different types of

programs and strategies for combatting child prostitution.

First, Vitit Muntarbhorn, former United Nations Special Rapporteur

on the Sale and Trafficking of Women and Children, offers an international

perspective on child prostitution as well as a regional emphasis on Asia. He

provides an overview of actions undertaken by intergovernmental

organizations such as the United Nations and the ILO, as well as anti-child

prostitution campaigns launched by non-governmental organizations such

as ECPAT.

Professor Muntarbhorn states that the root causes of child

prostitution are multiple and complex. While poverty is consistently cited

as a cause, and sometimes even used as a justification for child prostitution,

he stresses that poverty alone does not push children into prostitution.

Family disintegration, incest and domestic violence, migration, demand for

child prostitutes, criminal networks, socio-cultural traditions and religious

practices are important additional factors. The children come from a variety

of situations: some are runaways, some are sold by their parents or are

tricked into prostitution, others are street children. Despite the existence of
Preface

iv

laws against child prostitution in most countries, law enforcement tends to

be poor. 

Professor Muntarbhorn describes child prostitution in Asia as a

transfrontier issue. Children are known to be trafficked into Thailand from

neighboring countries such as Burma, Cambodia, China and Laos, trafficked

into India from Nepal and Bangladesh, and into Pakistan from all the

neighboring South Asian countries. 

Finally, Professor Muntarbhorn points to a list of priorities for

future action in tackling the problem of child prostitution. These include

implementation of more effective anti-poverty measures, universal access

to education, the broadening of anti-crime measures, and the maximization

of community participation and awareness through neighborhood watch

programs, educational initiatives, and community alliances. He stresses that

the quality of law enforcement needs to be improved by addressing issues

such as low pay, corruption, and insufficient training. He calls for higher

profile national and international campaigns against child prostitution and

sex tourism, international exchanges for law enforcement officials and

community leaders, and improved, broader assistance to child victims of

sexual exploitation. When children are trafficked across borders,

Muntarbhorn states, independent monitors should be responsible for

guaranteeing their safe return to their countries in cases of repatriation. 

Dorianne Beyer, Director of Defense of Children International/USA,

provides comments on child prostitution in Latin America. Beyer notes that

most Latin American nations do not have laws specifically addressing child

prostitution, and few governments in the region have programs aimed at

eradicating child prostitution. Poverty, she states, is a general trend

affecting child prostitution in the region, but there are other factors that are

specific to most of Latin America and provide fertile soil for child

prostitution. These include, in her view, the phenomenon of machismo, and

the accompanying factors of physical violence towards women. Another

general trend in Latin America, according to Beyer, is the high level of

secrecy, shame and denial that surrounds the issue of child prostitution.

Beyer attributes this to the pervasiveness of strong religious mores and

corresponding teachings on morality and sex. 
Joaquin F. Otero

v

In Latin America, Beyer stresses, the point of intervention should

be in improving the situation of mothers, so that when they have girl

children they will not expose them to the conditions that result in child

prostitution.

Robert Flores, of the U.S. Department of Justice's Child

Exploitation and Obscenity Section, describes child prostitution in the

United States and the particular challenges faced by U.S. law enforcement

authorities. Prostitution in the United States, according to Flores, involves

thousands of children age 12 to 17, many of whom come from broken

families, may be runaways, and have a history of drug abuse. Flores stresses

that the female prostitution industry in the U.S. is an extremely well

organized network. The Justice Department has tried to encourage a more

holistic approach to victims' needs by putting together local, multidisciplinary teams composed of social work professionals, medical and

psychiatric professionals and law enforcement officials. Additionally,

Flores stresses that law enforcement must send a strong message that

violators will be prosecuted and punishments will be adequate. On the

international level, Flores notes the need for cooperation among law

enforcement officials in order to better prosecute cases involving transborder movement.

Part II of this volume begins with Panudda Boonpala's presentation

of the ILO's response to forced child prostitution. This response includes

the formulation and promotion of Conventions on child and forced labor and

IPEC's technical assistance programs to eliminate practices such as child

prostitution. Ms. Boonpala describes several experiences of IPEC, including

data collection, local prevention programs, and strengthening of law

enforcement. She notes that the rehabilitation of victims of child

prostitution is extremely difficult -- and success rates very low. 

Ladda Saikaew, Coordinator of Vocational Training at the

Development and Education Program for Daughters and Communities

(DEP), provides a non-governmental perspective on prevention programs at

the local level in Thailand. She describes how young women from the north,

many of whom are from poor, ethnic minority groups and hill tribes, make

up a disproportionally high percentage of commercial sex workers. She
Preface

vi

explains how establishments offering commercial sex are often closely

integrated into legitimate business activities such as tourism, the hospitality

industry and domestic services. Many groups benefit from the recruitment

of young women into the sex industry, from their own parents, to corrupt

police, to the tourism industry. Recruitment into the sex industry takes

place through relatives, friends or neighbors. Families with economic

difficulties are most commonly targeted. 

Brazilian journalist and author Gilberto Dimenstein presents the

potential role of the media as a guardian of human rights, examining how

journalists can bring public attention to an issue that tends to remain behind

the shadows. The media, he states, can provoke awareness and action to

improve the lives of current and future child prostitutes. He explains that

child prostitution in Brazil typically does not receive the media attention

that more powerful groups attract, due to the fact that child prostitutes are

usually poor, female and often of a racial minority. This creates what

Dimenstein calls the "law of social cowardice," under which society is most

perverse towards those who most need its protection. It was this general

lack of concern for girls rights that led Dimenstein to pursue an

investigation of child prostitution in northeast Brazil and Amazonia. 

Finally, Bertil Lindblad of UNICEF describes the relevant

provisions of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF

activities related to the issue of child prostitution, and reports on the 
Joaquin F. Otero

vii

upcoming 1996 World Congress on the Commercial Exploitation of

Children. 

I would like to thank the symposium speakers for their cooperation

in the preparation of this volume, Director of the Labor Department's

Women's Bureau Karen Nussbaum for participating in the symposium, and

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Gare A. Smith for chairing one of the

symposium sessions. I would also like to acknowledge the invaluable

assistance of my colleagues at the Bureau of International Labor Affairs,

especially Associate Deputy Under Secretary Andrew J. Samet, Maureen

Jaffe, Sonia Rosen and Daniel Solomon, for helping to arrange the

symposium and make this volume a reality.

The papers in this volume represent the views of the authors. We

hope the publication of this volume will further the effort to stop the tragedy

of the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Joaquin F. Otero

Deputy Under Secretary

for International Labor Affairs

U.S. Department of Labor

Washington, DC

February 1996

ix

FOREWORD

I participated as a member of the United States official delegation

to the Beijing conference and spent a great deal of time at the NGO forum

as well. I am glad to be here today to present my observations on both of

these proceedings, particularly on how they relate to the topic of forced

child prostitution. 

 United Nations conferences such as the international women's conference

at Beijing serve to establish markers and set agendas. The markers that were

set at Beijing are of particular relevance to the symposium. 

At Beijing, probably the overriding theme, as the First Lady

forcefully brought home in her remarks, was that women's rights are human

rights and human rights are women's rights. A second broad theme, which

for the first time in the history of the United Nations women's conferences

took its place at front and center, was the issue of violence against women.

Both of these themes are of direct importance to the subject of child

prostitution. 

The formal proceedings at the conference resulted in a United

Nations platform of action, characterized by advances on several fronts that

are relevant to the issue of child prostitution. Consensus language was

adopted relating to women's rights in sexual relations. The platform states

that human rights of women include their right to have control over and

decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including

sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and

violence. This language basically states that women have the right to say

no, and this is a very important new marker. 

Language in the final platform also establishes that the interests of

the child are paramount. The bodily integrity of young girls and young boys

is absolute. In addition, the United States supported strong language calling

on governments to take responsibility for preventing and punishing violent

acts against women.

The platform of action also addressed the role of the "media," in
Foreword

x

particular those that depict rape, sexual slavery and the use of women and

girls as sex objects, including pornography. These all contribute to the

continued prevalence of such violence, adversely influencing the community

at large, in particular children and young people. In addition, the severe

cruelty suffered by refugee women and girls were cited as crimes against

humanity and violations of human rights. 

The conference called for the effective suppression of trafficking in

women and girls for the sex trade as a matter of pressing international

concern. While the issue of trafficking of women and girls had been

addressed in prior conferences, the platform of action from Beijing, more

than in any previous document, identifies concrete and specific actions that

governments, intergovernmental organizations, and youth and community

groups can take. It calls on governments, community organizations, and

non-governmental organizations to organize, support, and fund communitybased education and training campaigns to raise public awareness of

violence against women and girls. It urges them to develop and fund

counseling, healing, and support programs for girls involved in abusive

relationships, including trafficking.

 

The platform compels governments and intergovernmental

organizations to address the root factors that encourage trafficking of

women and girls. It calls on them to step up cooperation by all relevant law

enforcement agencies to dismantle trafficking networks and urges the

development of education and training programs aimed at preventing sex

tourism.

At the non-governmental forum, attended by approximately 40,000

people, there were dozens of workshops on the prostitution of women and

children and child labor. One session which I attended on the last day of the

conference addressed the topic of migrant women workers, and how a

number of them are tricked into prostitution after they leave their country of

origin. 

The pillars for moving forward from here can be found in the

platform in a couple of ways. On one hand, we should look at the call to

address the root causes of prostitution, namely poverty and the lack of
Karen Nussbaum

xi

legitimate sources of income and employment. On the other hand, we

should look at the rights of women and children in sexual relations.

Successfully addressing these two issues are the pillars for moving ahead.

The fact that participating countries made specific commitments on

how to implement the platform of action establishes imperatives for

government, and gives us the tools to move forward within our own country

and around the world on this important issue.

Karen Nussbaum 

Director of Women's Bureau

U.S. Department of Labor

Washington, DC

February 1996

1

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II

I want to thank all of you for taking the time to discuss what is

really one of the most fundamentally outrageous issues that the world faces.

I hope you can not only learn from the speakers, but perhaps help us with

some ideas, particularly in the Congress of the United States, on what you

think we ought to be doing to try to improve this situation. I do not think

people around the country, around the world, or in Congress truly

understand the extent to which this issue exists, and I think all of you are to

be commended for taking time to think about and to deal with the issues that

we are facing. 

I also want to thank the State Department for the work that they are

doing in terms of exposing this issue and the Department of Labor for

sponsoring this important conference today. 

I think this is truly a gut-wrenching issue. It is an issue that many

people have a hard time coming to grips with because of simply outrageous

behavior that leads so many young children across our world, across our

country, to become involved in prostitution. This is the most denigrating,

dehumanizing of all crimes that can be possibly imagined. And much can

be done to prevent it.

The extent to which this crime exists on our planet today is

absolutely astounding. We as individuals and societies can to some extent

take steps, maybe not to eliminate it, but certainly to lessen it. We can take

steps to take this terrible burden off the shoulders of so many young

children, children six and seven years old, that are being drawn into

prostitution rings, in many cases to serve Americans that have the money to

go abroad and take advantage of young children. Here in the United States

there are over 100,000 children involved in child prostitution. It is an issue

that needs to be discussed. It is an issue that needs to be exposed. And if we

take steps, we can go a long way towards reducing it.

Many of you recognize that we are living in a time when

compassion for our own children is considered to be an unacceptable quality
Keynote Address

2

in the political arena. A time when we are preparing to cut off the life

support for millions of American children simply because of the supposed

sins of their parents. I intend to continue to fight these efforts with all of my

energy in the Congress. But we must reach beyond our borders when it

comes to creating a safe and loving and nurturing environment for all our

children. That is what you are all about and it is what I want to salute you

for -- the unbelievable efforts that many of you have made. I want to let you

know that in coming here today and in the work that you will continue to

carry out, you are doing the Lord's work, and I am proud that you have asked

me to come and spend a few minutes with you this morning.

Last year in the United States Congress, I introduced legislation that

took aim at the international child prostitution and pornography industry.

The bill was passed, but it was just a small step, as today's dialogue is a step,

along the path to ending the awful abuse of the most innocent inhabitants of

our planet, our children. 

Frankly, most of my congressional colleagues have no idea that

such an industry even exists. But the people in this room know better and

know the horrible statistics on this issue. Twenty-five thousand children in

Brazil, 30,000 children in Sri Lanka, 40,000 children in the Philippines,

300,000 children in Thailand, 400,000 children in India, all engaged in child

prostitution, and 100,000 children right here in the United States of

America. 

We think of ourselves as civilized people living in modern times,

yet child prostitution is a growing problem in both developing and

developed countries. It represents the ultimate betrayal of our commitment

to human decency and respect. Child prostitution is an attack on humanity

that focuses exclusively on the next generation. It subjects children to

emotional and physical dangers that can leave scars for a lifetime.
Representative Joseph Kennedy II

3

Of course we can blame many factors. We can point to poverty, the

disintegration of families, incest and domestic violence. But one factor is

clear: somebody, somewhere made a conscious decision to force a child

into prostitution, and this decision was made by a growing demand for child

prostitutes, both domestically and from international sex rings and sex

tourism.

Ultimately the goal of these rings is one thing: money. In the

poorest societies, children are often sold by their families in a desperate

attempt to get money. Some are kidnapped or lured by traffickers with

promises of employment in the city, only to end up in brothels. 

In fact, in many countries young girls are often viewed as less

valuable, even in their own families. The resulting discrimination

sometimes leads to their sale into prostitution by those same families. Little

boys are not immune either. They are being forced into prostitution to

satisfy a growing demand for young males. 

Child prostitution hurts children both physically and emotionally.

Many child prostitutes contract AIDS and other diseases. Many are beaten.

There are some reports that children are tattooed by organized crime

elements that control them as property. The emotional toll on these kids is

immeasurable. Child prostitution undermines a child's development and

robs a child of his or her dignity and basic human rights. A child in that

situation can never look at an adult, at a fellow human being, in the same

way. Those scars will last forever.

What must it be like for a seven year old girl forced into prostitution

in a Brazilian gold mining village, or to be a six year old boy in Sri Lanka

forced to have sex with a European businessman? The countries I just

named are far away, but we must ask ourselves these questions here as well.

The problem is much closer than many realize. I am ashamed to say

that in the United States the problem is of unimaginable proportions. I

remember when I was a young fellow working in the juvenile courts in the

city of Boston and seeing case after case of teenage prostitutes. These were
Keynote Address

4

mixed up kids, kids that had emotional problems, that were being terribly

abused by some of the worst criminals in Boston.

It is a problem that we sweep under the rug in this country. We

need to focus, as we are in today's meeting, to bring the light of day onto

what happens in these situations. Advances in technology like the Internet

have increased the opportunities available for those who seek sex from

children. Recent arrests uncovered a child pornography operation in the

United States using America Online. 

Sex tours from Europe and the United States supply a significant

portion of the demand for child prostitutes throughout the world. Recently

an Austrian airline even used a cartoon drawing of a child in a sexually

explicit pose to sell sex tours. There seems to be no low to which these flesh

peddlers will not stoop.

Many U.S. travel agencies set up sex tours for thousands of

Americans every year. These package tours include airline, hotel,

transportation, and a choice of escorts for the duration of the tour. The tours

take travelers to far-off destinations like Bangkok, where Thai police

recently arrested 18 underage girls servicing 17 men per night. Seventeen

of the 18 girls tested HIV-positive. The sad truth is that one-quarter of all

the visitors abusing children in Asia are American businessmen or military

personnel. So there is plenty of blame and plenty of shame to go around.

So what can we do to deal with this awful abuse of children? We

can start by tougher enforcement of existing laws, both here and abroad.

The law I sponsored last year, the Child Sex Abuse Prevention Act, makes

it a crime for United States citizens to conspire to travel abroad for the

purpose of sexual acts with minors. The law also makes it a felony for any

person outside the United States to produce or traffic in child pornography

with the intent to distribute those materials in this country. 
Representative Joseph Kennedy II

5

We should make child prostitution a higher priority in our bilateral

discussions with other countries. These discussions must take place in Asia,

in Europe, and North and South America -- every place where children are

exploited and abused. Individuals and nations must be held accountable. 

Let us be clear. Those engaged in the prostitution of children

should be viewed as pariahs by the world. I personally conducted a number

of meetings with ambassadors from these countries to confront them with

the reports of such abuses taking place in their countries. We must have

confrontational discussions with these countries about what is going on and

what they expect from the United States as well. 

Involvement of intergovernmental organizations like the United

Nations as well as the Women's Conference in Beijing is important. Their

work is essential. The good work of the United Nations Special Rapporteur

on the Sale and Trafficking of Women and Children must be supported.

The United States should join the more than 150 countries that have

ratified the Convention on Rights of the Child adopted by the United

Nations in 1989. It is unbelievable to me that at this point in our history we

have still not ratified that document. I am hopeful that the U.S. Senate will

soon come to the decision that this is something that it can support.

We should also be creative in examining new ways to bring pressure

on governments that tolerate the sexual abuse of children. We should

explore these opportunities at the World Bank and the International

Monetary Fund. If appeals to decency and morality fail, let us make attacks

on these countries' pocketbooks in order to get their attention.

Ultimately, the desire for these sexual encounters will wilt under the

light of exposure. The press can be very effective by creating awareness of

the problem and exposing those who profit from the activity. Last year I

wrote an essay on child prostitution and sex tourism that appeared in the

Christian Science Monitor. I can think of no topic more right for

investigative reports than child prostitution.

Your participation here today helps to shed light on this evil. This
Keynote Address

6

forum offers an opportunity to exchange ideas and coordinate new

initiatives to fight this disgrace. You represent the world's best hope and the

best solution to this problem. A solution must be found, because the soul

of every human being is being tainted so long as the horrible treatment of

children is allowed to continue.
PART I: OVERVIEWS ON CHILD

PROSTITUTION

9

1. INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES AND

CHILD PROSTITUTION IN ASIA

Vitit Muntarbhorn

Introduction

Child prostitution has emerged in recent years as a global

phenomenon of disquieting proportions. It is found in both developing and

developed countries, although the numbers loom larger in the case of the

former. Despite attempts to counter the situation, it remains daunting and

intractable. In various parts of the world, the situation is deteriorating. The

sexual exploitation of children has become more insidious because of its

transfrontier nature. Children are increasingly sold and trafficked across

frontiers -- between developing and developed countries, among developing

countries, and among developed countries. The spread of child prostitution

worldwide is part and parcel of the less positive aspects of globalization, and

all continents of the globe deserve attention.

Child Prostitution

According to the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of

the Child, the term "child" generally encompasses a person under 18 years

of age. 

A definition of child prostitution, derived from the 1990-94 reports

of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, can be

given as follows:

...the sexual exploitation of a child for remuneration in

cash or in kind, usually but not always organized by an

intermediary (parent, family member, procurer, teacher,

etc.).

I do not pass judgment on the pros and cons of adult prostitution.

However, child prostitution is inadmissible -- it is tantamount to
International Perspectives and Child Prostitution in Asia

10

exploitation and victimization of the child because it undermines the child's

development. It is detrimental to the child both physically and emotionally,

and is in breach of the child's rights.

Laws against exploitation of child victims of prostitution exist to

some extent in all countries. Both specific and general laws on child

prostitution exist. An issue of concern regarding exploitation of children in

the sex industry is the age of consent. Although in principle, no child

prostitution should be permitted for those under 18 years of age (the age

range covered by the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child), many

countries set the age of consent for sexual intercourse below 18, usually

between 13 and 17. In some contexts, this means that the customer is

exempt from criminal responsibility if the child victim consents, even if he

or she is under 18. This discrepancy may lead to a situation where law

enforcement authorities would be reluctant to act, particularly in cases where

the child victim is considered to be old enough to consent but is younger

than 18.

The occurrence of child prostitution varies from individual cases to

mass victims of organized crime. Some victims are runaways from home or

State institutions, others are sold by their parents or forced or tricked into

prostitution, and others are street children. Some are amateurs and others

professionals. Although one tends to think first and foremost of young girls

in the trade, there is an increase in the number of young boys engaged in

prostitution. The most disquieting cases are those children who are forced

into the trade and are then incarcerated. These children run the possible

further risk of torture and subsequent death.

Trafficking networks are not only found between developing and

developed countries but also among developing countries, and among

developed countries.

The situation is rendered more convoluted by the unavailability of

accurate statistics. In one country, there is a debate as to whether there are

really 800,000 child victims of prostitution or whether this often quoted

number is a gross exaggeration. Available statistics are often out of date.

I submit, however, that even if one child is exploited sexually, it is a serious
Vitit Muntarbhorn

11

matter.

It may generally be said that the numbers of child victims of

prostitution are highest in Asia and Central and South America. It is not

difficult to see the linkage between the massive numbers of street children

in these regions and child prostitution. However, there are also reports of

an increase in child prostitution in Africa, North America, Europe and

Australia. Given the fact that demand and supply are worldwide, the

problem of child prostitution affects all countries.

The root causes of child prostitution are multiple and complex.

There is a certain scenario that I would like to leave with you as my initial

ten point rule. 

1. The first issue I would like to present is the poverty argument.

Often we find that poverty is invoked as a reason for child prostitution.

Because many families are unable to support their children, the latter

become easy prey for the trade that lurks beyond. It is the poor sister-in-law

or the poor father who sells the child into prostitution. This is compounded

by family disintegration, including incest and domestic violence, and

migration from rural to urban areas and from one country to another in

search of a livelihood. However, more often than not, it is not poverty alone

which pushes children to become victims of prostitution. Many societies

that are poor do not have a high degree of prostitution, so prostitution does

not necessarily follow from poverty. Unfortunately, in many societies the

poverty argument is used as a justification for child prostitution. Again, I

do not accept this argument because child prostitution is in breach of

children's rights.

 

2. The poverty argument is incomplete because of a second issue:

criminality. Poverty may explain certain conduct but it does not justify or

lead necessarily to exploitative, criminal conduct. We need to look more

from the angle of criminality, the fact that there are criminals at work --

intermediaries, pimps, and procurers -- all benefitting and profiteering from

children. Sadly, it is often the child who is regarded as the criminal, even

though the child is merely a victim, and the real criminal, the owner of the

brothel or the pimp, gets off scott-free because of nonchalance or negligence
International Perspectives and Child Prostitution in Asia

12

in the judicial system or otherwise.

3. A third factor is commercialization; the dynamics of supply and

demand. It is true to some extent that child prostitution has existed for a

long, long while, whether in our traditions or otherwise. But the scenario

has become more commercialized. It has become more of a business,

transnational or otherwise, and we regrettably live in a world of supply and

demand. Poverty may explain supply, the parent pushing the child into

prostitution, but it does not quite explain demand. It is the demand that we

must equally tackle in our global efforts against the commercialization of

child prostitution. This means that we have to tackle a certain business in

crime. And it is this new face of child prostitution that leads in many

countries to a degree of dehumanization, rendering the child an object of

certain conduct rather than a subject with vested rights and interests.

4. A fourth issue is globalization. Child prostitution has become

globalized. It is easier to exploit children in our age of communications and

information networks. It is easier for us to press a button on our computer

and enjoy, sadly, regrettably, cyberporn which is sometimes linked with

child prostitution. It is easier for the transnational pedophile to get onto a

plane and go to Thailand or the Philippines in order to videotape a child and

sell it abroad. 

5. A fifth issue is transnationalization. Child prostitution occurs

across frontiers and boundaries. The new face of exploitation is a

transnational face, with transnational criminal networks or conduct that

takes place not only in neighboring countries but across the globe as well.

This conduct may take the form of abduction, false documentation and sham

marriages. 

6. A sixth issue is the contrast between modernity and traditionalism.

You have already heard about the use of computer networks to exploit

children sexually. In many developing countries, we have traditional

practices that are inherent to our societies, such as the sending of children

into temples to become sex goddesses who ultimately fall into prostitution.

In many societies, there exists a certain ethnic belief that an older person

will rejuvenate himself or herself by having sex with a minor. Such a belief
Vitit Muntarbhorn

13

is rampant in many societies.

7. A seventh issue is the spiral effect. We must deal with multiple

forms of exploitation. Child prostitution leads to child pornography, leads

to torture, leads to AIDS, leads to death. We have a plethora of concerns to

address; not only child prostitution, but its linkages with other forms of

torment and, ultimately, destruction.

8. An eighth issue is law enforcement, or very often the lack of law

enforcement. All countries, developing or developed, have laws that can be

used to protect children. But which country does not suffer from lax or

weak law enforcement, corruption, and collusion? The criminal system

pervades law enforcement in many societies. The crunch is therefore how

do you deal with child prostitution even though the laws are in place? We

will look at some strategies in a moment. 

9. A ninth concern involves the family and community. I believe that

child prostitution emerges from a family and community perspective.

Countries, communities, and families are falling apart for various reasons,

whether it be due to economic need, neglect, abuse, declining values, or the

criminal conduct that pervades them. If this is a community and family

affair, no amount of law enforcement from the will ever be sufficient,

precisely because it is too pervasive a problem to be tackled by one sector

alone. While we must strive for better policing, our strategy must also

emerge more from and for the community and the family.

10. Finally, the private sector is a tenth issue. We are dealing with a bad

private sector which must be countered by a good private sector. So where

are our colleagues from the private sector? Dear friends, those of us here

today are preaching to the converted. We need the better part of business

and community to deal with the perverted or potentially perverted parts.

International Perspective

The approach at the international level varies from "hard law" in the

form of international conventions to "soft law" in the form of persuasive

pronouncements.
International Perspectives and Child Prostitution in Asia

14

There have been a host of international conventions, dating back to

the early part of this century, touching upon the issue of slavery and sexual

exploitation. For many decades, the International Labour Organization

(ILO) has been instrumental in pressing for international legislation against

forced labor, thereby covering also child prostitution. In 1930, the Forced

Labor Convention (No. 29) was adopted, later reinforced in 1957 by the

Abolition of Forced Labor Convention (No. 105). State Parties to these

Conventions undertake to counter and penalize forced labor, which is

defined as "all work or service which is exacted from any person under the

menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself

voluntarily."

One of the more frequently cited instruments relating to the issue of

sexual exploitation is the 1949 Convention on the Suppression of Traffic in

Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. The

Convention legislates against procurers and exploiters of prostitutes rather

than the prostitutes themselves. The 1979 Convention on the Elimination

of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women provides in Article 6 that

"States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to

suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of

women."

Some of the earlier conventions suffered, in particular, from a

paucity of accessions by States and the lack of effective monitoring

mechanisms. All of them have been impeded by poor implementation at the

national level. Moreover, the legalistic approach advanced by some of these

instruments fails address both prevention and cure.

Children were specifically addressed in the 1959 United Nations

Declaration on the Rights of the Child, which called for the protection of

children from child neglect and exploitation but was not a binding treaty.

This has burgeoned into a new convention -- the Convention on the Rights

of the Child -- a milestone in the process as it is a binding international

agreement. Article 34 of the Convention states as follows:

States Parties undertake to protect the child from all forms
Vitit Muntarbhorn

15

of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. For these

purposes, States 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...

Implementation is a daunting challenge. In the various country

reports that have been submitted to the Committee on the Rights of the

Child established under the Convention, the information provided on child

prostitution has so far not been very detailed and deserves closer monitoring

in future.

The "soft law" approach may also be helpful. Most relevant is the

Program of Action for the Prevention of the Sale of Children, Child

Prostitution and Child Pornography, adopted by the United Nations

Commission on Human Rights in 1992. It was originally prepared by the

Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and was propelled by

the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of

Minorities. The Program calls for better law enforcement and more

cooperation between key organizations such as INTERPOL and United

Nations agencies. Its multi-faceted approach includes the following, inter

alia:

a) Information and education

i) An international information campaign to raise

public consciousness, including participation of

religious and lay organizations and the media;

ii) Improvement of the sources of information;

iii) Provision of educational measures to raise

awareness of the issue;

iv) Alternative educational programs for street

children.

b) Social measures and development assistance

i) Development activities to tackle poverty and aimed
International Perspectives and Child Prostitution in Asia

16

at improving the conditions of women and

children;

ii) Severe penalties for consumers and procurers;

iii) Punishment of the intermediaries and confiscation

of proceeds from their activities;

iv) Accession to relevant international treaties and

implementation.

c) Rehabilitation and reintegration

i) Inter-disciplinary programs to assist the

rehabilitation and re-integration of victims and

their families.

d) International cooperation 

i) Bilateral and multilateral cooperation among law

enforcement agencies.

Various specific concerns are voiced as follows:

46. Incest and sexual abuse within the family or by the

child's employers may lead to child prostitution. States

therefore should take all appropriate legislative,

administrative, social and educational measures to protect

children against all forms of abuse while in the care of

parents, family or legal guardians or any other person.

47. Special attention should be paid to the problem of sex

tourism. Legislative and other measures should be taken

to prevent and combat sex tourism, both in the countries

from which the customers come and those to which they go.

Marketing tourism through the enticement of sex with

children should be penalized on the same level as

procurement.

48. The World Tourism Organization should be

encouraged to convene an experts meeting designed to

offer practical measures to combat sex tourism.
Vitit Muntarbhorn

17

49. States with military bases or troops, stationed on

foreign territory or not, should take all the necessary

measures to prevent such military personnel from being

involved in child prostitution. The same applies to other

categories of public servants who for professional reasons

are posted abroad.

50. Legislation should be adopted to prevent new forms of

technology from being used for soliciting for child

prostitution.

The Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery of the U.N.

Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of

Minorities has also prepared a draft program of action for prevention of

traffic in persons and the exploitation of the prostitution of others. While

it does not specifically address children, this draft program of action

includes strategies which can be promoted for their protection. These

include information, social measures, development assistance, legal

measures, law enforcement, rehabilitation, reintegration and international

coordination.

These programs of action deserve to be disseminated broadly at the

national level. Implementation by States should be encouraged, as well as

consistent monitoring and reporting to the United Nations Commission on

Human Rights and to other concerned international entities such as the

Committee on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Special

Rapporteur on the Sale of Children.

From the angle of children being used as instruments of crime, it is

worth noting the work of the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Branch

of the United Nations. Related to its work was the adoption of the United

Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (the Riyadh

Guidelines) in 1990, which recommend in part:

- Stepping up research on child exploitation, prevention

programs and their assessment, interdisciplinary
International Perspectives and Child Prostitution in Asia

18

cooperation, circulation of information about behavior

liable to create child victims (recommendations regarding

legislation, appointment of ombudsmen, training courses

of police officers);

- (Propelling) the United Nations Congress for the

prevention of crime and the treatment of offenders;

- (Promoting) international cooperation and mutual

assistance by instituting training programs and

exchanging experts;

- Protecting crime victims;

- Reassessing legislation on the exploitation of children;

- (Providing) legal aid for children;

- (Fostering) a multidisciplinary approach to crime

prevention;

- (Advocating) the introduction of free telephone help-lines

for children.

Since tourism is being increasingly scrutinized for its linkage with

child exploitation, it should be recalled that in 1985 the World Tourism

Organization adopted the Tourism Bill of Rights and Tourist Code which

included the following exhortations:

a) States are reminded of the need to prevent any

possibility of using tourism to exploit others for

prostitution purposes;

b) Tourism professionals and suppliers of tourism

and travel services are asked to refrain from

encouraging the use of tourism for all forms of

exploitation of others;

c) Tourists themselves are requested to refrain from

exploiting others for prostitution purposes.

This Code may also be used to exert peer group pressure on tourists and

tourist agencies to be more responsive to the call to eradicate child sexual

exploitation.

More recently, INTERPOL has stepped in to probe the issue of
Vitit Muntarbhorn

19

sexual offenses against minors by establishing a Standing Working Party on

Offenses Committed against Minors. In 1993, it established sub-groups to

look into the issues of law enforcement, legislation, including on child

prostitution, international cooperation, liaison networks, sex tourism, victim

assistance, police structures, missing children, free telephone help-lines,

prevention models, training, and research and statistics. INTERPOL is

proposing to share information via contact agents, particularly on

pedophiles' movements, and collect information about national laws on child

prostitution.

The multilateral approach can be paralleled by regional and bilateral

initiatives. This is exemplified by the 1987 African Charter on the Rights

of the Child, which calls for protection of the child from exploitation. In

1991, the Council of Europe adopted the Recommendation on Sexual

Exploitation, Pornography and Prostitution of and Trafficking of Children

and Young Adults. It placed emphasis on the importance of organizing the

public against sexual exploitation, information campaigns, information

collection, interaction with travel agencies, accession to international

instruments, expansion of national jurisdiction to cover the misdeeds of

nationals abroad, exchange of information, and more research on pedophilia

and the link between the sex industry and organized crime.

In the lead-up to the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights,

various regional meetings also highlighted the plight of the child and called

for more cooperation. Asian governments, in their 1993 Bangkok

Governmental Declaration on Human Rights, voiced the following:
International Perspectives and Child Prostitution in Asia

20

23. Recognize the rights of the child to enjoy special

protection and to be afforded the opportunities and

facilities to develop physically, mentally, morally,

spiritually, and socially in a healthy and normal manner

and in conditions of freedom and integrity.

At the same time, non-governmental organizations adopted their

own Bangkok Non-governmental Declaration on Human Rights and called

for attention to the following:

13. Children. A variety of abuses and exploitation of

children arise in the region. These include child labour,

children in bondage and sexual slavery, child prostitution,

sale and trafficking of children .... Implementation of the

rights of children to survival, protection, development and

participation as embodied in the International Convention

on the Rights of the Child must be a paramount concern of

every State regardless of considerations of national

capacity and security.

Non-governmental organizations have become increasingly

coordinated in networking to prevent child prostitution with effective media

campaigns. A noteworthy campaign is run by End Child Prostitution in

Asian Tourism (ECPAT). Its country links include Australia, France,

Germany, India, Japan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Taiwan,

Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. It has been effective in mobilizing

action at the national level, e.g., children's forums against military bases, and

advocacy against pedophilia and the exploitative use of children in

advertising in various countries.

In great part due to the efforts of ECPAT, a First World Congress

Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children will be convened

in Stockholm in 1996. It is expected that the Congress will adopt a strategic

Plan of Action to counter child prostitution with realizable goals to be

achieved in a fixed timeframe.

National Developments
Vitit Muntarbhorn

21

As already implied above, laws which could be used to apprehend

exploiters of child prostitution are to be found in virtually all systems.

Examples in North America include the various state laws in the United

States and the Canadian Criminal Code. In Europe, Criminal Codes provide

protection to children in virtually all countries including Bulgaria,

Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands,

Norway, Spain and Sweden, although the age of consent varies by country.

There is also specific legislation on children and young persons which

defines the powers of the police in such matters, e.g., in the United

Kingdom.

Legislation in Asian countries is similar. Provisions in the Criminal

or Penal Codes exist in such countries as Bangladesh, Japan, the Philippines

and Thailand. Specific legislation on children and sexual exploitation can

be found in several countries, e.g. India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Some

traditional practices which may lead to children being used in child

prostitution, such as the Devadasi custom of deifying young girls (who

ultimately fall into prostitution), have also been banned by law, e.g., the

Indian Devadasi Prohibition of Dedication Act. However, the custom

persists in practice.

In Central and South America, there are criminal laws or specific

child-related laws which can be used to protect children from sexual

exploitation. Innovations include the 1991 Statute of the Child and

Adolescent in Brazil, which provides more decentralized measures against

child exploitation. In Africa, the juridical situation is similar, with either a

criminal code or specific child/youth law bearing on child prostitution in all

countries. In Australia, there is a wide variety of state legislation in a federal

setting. Child prostitution is illegal, and in most states, there is protection

for children under 16 years of age. In some situations, however, the

protection is raised to cover those under 18. The laws vary from the

Criminal Code to Children's Services Act.

Although most countries have child protection laws, exploitation of

child prostitution persists in practice.

A serious problem persists in Southeast Asia. The cases of child
International Perspectives and Child Prostitution in Asia

22

victims of prostitution in Thailand and the Philippines are well documented.

However, the problem is expanding. Trafficking of children for sexual

exploitation to and from neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, such as

Cambodia, China, Laos, Burma and Vietnam, has become more evident.

The range of sex tourists visiting these countries covers many regions,

including Australia, North America, Europe, Japan and the Middle East. In

addition, the impact of local tourism should not be underestimated. Many

customers are local rather than foreign, and customers from countries in the

immediate vicinity are also visible, such as Malaysian tourists in Thailand.

The prosecution of sex tourists is an uphill task. In 1995 in Sweden,

there was the first successful prosecution of a Swedish pedophile caught in

flagrante delicto in Thailand. His passport had been confiscated by the Thai

authorities but he subsequently had managed to acquire a new passport. He

then jumped bail and fled the country. The resultant prosecution was due to

bilateral responses from Swedish and Thai authorities with back-up support

from the non-governmental sector.

The high proportion of child victims of prostitution in Thailand is

aggravated by the arrival of children lured and trafficked from countries

such as Cambodia, China, Laos, and Burma. The present Thai Government

has adopted the issue of child prostitution as an urgent priority for countermeasures. However, law enforcement is still weak. Numerous reports

concerning the inhumane treatment of girls from Burma trafficked into

Thailand and then sent back to Burma have appeared in recent years. There

have been indications that when those repatriated from Thailand are found

to be HIV positive, they are segregated by the Burmese authorities and/or

may come to physical and psychological harm. The situation calls for

guarantees of safety for these girls if they are to be returned to the country

of origin. The process of return should be subject to consistent and

independent monitoring, with international supervision.

In the Philippines, the extensive problem of child prostitution is

linked to the large number of street children and the spread of the sex trade.

The Philippine Government has taken positive measures to curb child

exploitation by promoting the Special Protection of Children against Child

Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act. There has been a clamp-down
Vitit Muntarbhorn

23

on foreign pedophiles, and a number of them have been arrested and

deported. However, judicial action against child exploitation is not a simple

matter. In a 1991 case concerning the death of a girl allegedly abused by a

foreign pedophile, the latter was acquitted upon appeal on grounds of

reasonable doubt concerning the evidence. The court also noted that

pedophilia was still not a statutory crime. However, the court added that the

appellant had abused Filipino children, enticing them with money, and

recommended his expulsion.

Reports are also on the rise concerning child prostitution in China

and Vietnam. This increase can be partly attributed to the liberalization of

economic policies and the resultant openings to the outside world and

foreign investment. These transitions may also give rise to opportunities in

the service sector, at times with negative results for children who are lured

into that sector. There are also reports on Japan, mainly concerning the

demand factor. Japanese tourists sometimes visit Asian countries for the

purpose of acquiring sexual services. In Japan itself, there is a large number

of undocumented workers, including workers in the sex trade, who are

sometimes abused by their employers. There have been successful lawsuits

filed by non-governmental organizations in Japan against local employers

of foreign prostitutes on charges of abduction and forced prostitution.

South Asia has an extensive market of child victims of prostitution.

Sri Lanka is a destination for many foreign pedophiles. In 1991, a boy

prostitution ring was identified and action taken against the exploiters. A

number of pedophiles were deported. There remain, however, various

concerns regarding girls working in the free trade zone of Sri Lanka, some

of whom are coerced into rendering sexual services.

The situation in India is disquieting, not only because of the large

number of local and foreign child victims of prostitution, but also because

of the spread of AIDS. A number of girls are trafficked into India from

Nepal and Bangladesh. Cultural practices detrimental to children continue

to exist, in particular the practice of selling children into religious

institutions where they ultimately end up in prostitution.

Reports from Pakistan indicate trafficking of children into that
International Perspectives and Child Prostitution in Asia

24

country from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Tragically,

girls forced into prostitution are sometimes arrested and placed in prison

pending their return to the country of origin. Various legislative anomalies

discriminate against girl victims of prostitution, and at times procurers even

offer bail to the authorities under the guise of wishing to help the girls who

have ended up in prison. If released, the girls fall back into the hands of the

procurers.

In Africa, many countries are faced with a rising child prostitution

problem, partly due to poverty, migration from rural to urban areas, and

increased tourism. The linkage with tourism is exemplified by the situation

in Senegal. In Zimbabwe, the problem is related to the sex trade near the

border. The Sudan, Kenya and Libya are all on the list of countries facing

the challenge. Algeria has been reported as a place of transit for traffickers.

In Mauritania, there are reports of foreign pedophiles at work and an

increase in boy victims of prostitution. In Ghana, young girls are tricked

into prostitution in the belief that they will be housemaids. Visible increases

of children in sexual exploitation are noted in Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina

Faso. Parents are at times involved directly in the abuse, as documented in

the report of Namibia to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the

Child.

In Europe, child prostitution is often linked with runaway and

homeless children. There are novel features to the problem, particularly in

light of new technology. In France, recent developments concern the use of

the telephone-accessible on-line provider "Minitel" to offer the sexual

services of children. One report suggests that parents may be involved in

the trade. Police have also complained that tour operators in France are now

increasing the price of holidays in the Far East to cover the cost of legal

proceedings in case their tourists are arrested on child exploitation charges

abroad.
Vitit Muntarbhorn

25

In Belgium, there are reports of networks luring foreign women

under the guise of dating agencies and marriage bureaus. In Spain, public

attention was focused recently on the Edelweiss case involving trafficking

of women from abroad and the provision of sexual services through saunas.

However, it is not certain whether the women involved were minors. On

another front, Eastern Europe is an expanding market for child exploitation.

Cases of children sold for sex in Russia were well covered by the

international media in 1993.

In 1992 in Switzerland, a non-governmental organization took

action in court against a travel agency for arranging sex tours in developing

countries. As a result, the travel agency was excluded from the Swiss

Federation of Travel Agencies and was forced to shut down. This

exemplifies the positive role which the private sector can play in exerting

peer pressure to be accountable to children.

There is often a close link between child prostitution and child

pornography. A case in point in 1992 was an advertisement placed by

Lauda Air, an Austrian airline, with the cartoon depiction of a child in a

pornographic pose inviting sexual exploitation. Due to protests from the

non-governmental sector, the offending advertisement was withdrawn.

Cases of European pedophiles who travel from such countries as

Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavia to developing countries have led to

the call in originating countries to extend criminal jurisdiction to acts of

their nationals committed against children abroad. Sweden has a

longstanding law on the subject, and Germany and other countries have

followed suit by adopting extra-territorial criminal laws on child sexual

exploitation.

Countries in the Middle East tend to deny that the problem of child

exploitation exists in their region. However, it is reported that some citizens

of these countries travel to other regions in search of sexual services,

particularly to Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, the flow of migrant workers

from other regions to the Middle East does not rule out 
International Perspectives and Child Prostitution in Asia

26

the possibility of a trade in sex with consequences for child prostitution in

those countries.

In North America, economic considerations, domestic violence and

abuse, family disintegration and drug addiction are increasingly recognized

as factors leading to the spread of child prostitution. Organized crime is also

a factor. Recently, there was a report from the United States to the effect

that some victims of child prostitution were tattooed by the criminal

elements who had control over them.

Similar factors lead to child prostitution in Canada. Some children

have returned to the streets in pursuit of the trade after being

institutionalized in state facilities. This may reflect the poor quality of some

of these facilities and their failure to offer the children viable alternatives.

Pedophile rings are known to operate from North America. In a

recent case, one American group set up a so-called children's shelter in

Thailand as a front for pedophilia. The organizer was arrested and

imprisoned. There is also a connection between American rings and

European pedophiles, particularly regarding child pornography, which is

now proliferating due to computer bulletin boards.

Central and South America are generally known for their large

number of street children, and the link between that environment and

prostitution is strong. Child victims of prostitution are present in large

numbers in such countries as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia,

Ecuador, Mexico and Peru. One should not forget the rising number of

women from this region who travel to the North in search of a livelihood.

Here again, children may be candidates for trafficking and migration to the

more developed countries. Many countries in this region are now taking

more interdisciplinary measures to tackle the root causes of child

prostitution, including enacting new laws and policies in such countries as

Brazil. However, the enormous debt burden of these countries and structural

adjustment programs imposed by world financial institutions make it

difficult to allocate sufficient resources to meet the needs of families and

children. The structural imbalances created by this burden and the

inequitable structures at the local level take their toll in terms of the root
Vitit Muntarbhorn

27

causes of child prostitution and the efforts to mitigate those causes.

Although the Western Pacific region is not known for having a large

number of child victims of prostitution, a number of people from these

countries take part in sex tourism, particularly to Southeast Asia. As the

Australian police have noted:

In recent months, a joint Child Exploitation

Unit/Australian operation uncovered a number of

prominent male offenders involved with an international

boys' association who were travelling to both Thailand and

the Philippines and having sexual relations with Asian

boys, the same age as those normally committed to their

care in the youth organization ... Given the low cost of

labor generally in Asia, a holiday for an average

Australian tourist can be very cheap if not competitive with

having a holiday within Australia. Unfortunately, what

has emerged in the tourist boom is the black market for

children to become prostitutes and be at the whim and call

of wealthy westerners.

The Australian Federal Government's proposal to charge Australians

who indulge in such behavior outside Australia has now led to an extraterritorial law on the subject. This innovation of "extra-territoriality" is in

line with various countries (most recently New Zealand) that are extending

jurisdiction to apply to the misdeeds of their nationals abroad. Interestingly,

the federal police has liaison teams in Thailand and the Philippines which

cover drug trafficking but which can also be used to cover child

exploitation.

There are many national initiatives conducted by non-governmental

organizations. A wide range of non-governmental organizations are

operating at the field level to attenuate the root causes of child prostitution

and to offer help where the problem exists. Projects include helping families

in social development, hot lines to help children in difficulty, and

emergency homes and shelters for abused children. Even if such efforts are

drops in the ocean, they cause significant ripples in terms of advocacy and
International Perspectives and Child Prostitution in Asia

28

consciousness raising. Yet, their work is daunted by the huge scale of the

problem and the lack of sufficient funds and resources. Where NGOs are

able to initiate projects, there is at times insufficient coordination with other

non-governmental and governmental counterparts, thereby rendering their

operations piecemeal rather than comprehensive. They also are faced with

the question of how to sustain their efforts on a long-term basis and how to

generate a pool of funds. In several settings, their initiatives are not helped

by the lack of incentives from Governments, especially as the latter may be

wary of them or may refuse to yield to their request for tax exemptions or

other incentives.

From the angle of the community, it may be noted that participation

of the community and of the children themselves has not been maximized

in many countries. This weakness fails to respond to the truism that child

prostitution is a community problem and the community should be activated

to help prevent the problem as well as to provide remedies. This is evident

in the areas of child protection and law enforcement. The police alone do

not have sufficient personnel to tackle the problem where it is extensive.

The involvement of community leaders, including religious leaders and

politicians, is also imperative. In England, some 200 Members of

Parliament recently joined in a campaign against child exploitation under

the banner of Eyes Campaign against Child Exploitation.

This implies that it is the community itself -- the civil society --

which should take vigilant action, such as forming child protection groups

or forms of "community watch." Likewise, one should not underestimate

the role of prostitutes and child victims of prostitution. Often it is they who

may provide the channels to reach other children who are caught in the

underworld. Indeed, ex-prostitutes and ex-child victims may become role

models for others in the process of rehabilitation and adaptation to a new

life.
Vitit Muntarbhorn

29

Future Action

The analysis above has provided an array of initiatives both at the

international and national levels to tackle the issue of child prostitution.

Some have been more successful than others. For the future, the following

priorities require particular action:

1. There needs to be more effective anti-poverty measures,

improved flow of information, universal access to education and an

equitable socialization process to counter exploitation and discrimination.

These go hand-in-hand with community consciousness-raising and

mobilization against the victimization of children in prostitution,

availability of and access to basic necessities, occupational opportunities,

and subsidies for families and children facing economic difficulty as part of

social protection.

2. Networking and the broadening of anti-crime measures to

counter child prostitution should be promoted. All countries already have

laws which can be used to protect children from exploitation. They require

more effective enforcement. Some laws need to be improved, e.g., laws

which discriminate against women and children and which place them in the

hands of the exploiters. This is all the more significant as the scenario is

that of criminality and it is only through effective law enforcement and

reform that the problem will be reduced in the short term.

3. As reliance upon traditional law enforcers, such as the police and

inspectors, will never be adequate -- because we have to deal with pervasive

and systemic criminality -- community participation needs to be maximized

to protect children as part of community or neighborhood watch programs

and related volunteer corps, including an alliance between villagers,

religious leaders, teachers, doctors, youth-child groups, women's groups,

local leaders, parliamentarians, the media, the business sector and nongovernmental organizations.

4. The issue of improving the quality of law enforcers -- the police,

immigration personnel, judges, inspectors, etc. -- should be addressed. Low

pay, poor selection process and insufficient training concerning child rights
International Perspectives and Child Prostitution in Asia

30

often result in weak law enforcement and corruption. The good officials

need incentives and in-service training for quality performance, while those

who indulge in malpractices should be penalized for being part of the

criminal system.

5. The responsibility of the customers and their abettors in child

prostitution needs to be highlighted by more national and international

campaigns. This implies the call to incriminate the customers of child

victims of prostitution. The law should also be extra-territorial in scope so

as to cover the misdeeds of one's nationals when perpetrated against children

in other countries. It could be bolstered by extradition and other cooperative

arrangements between countries to counter the criminal system that profits

from children. Child prostitution should also be classified as an

international crime over which all countries have universal jurisdiction.

6. Exchange programs between law enforcement officials and

community leaders of different countries should be fostered, with

concomitant training, to counter the transfrontier traffic in children. Such

programs could entail the stationing of police personnel from one country

in another country to track the behavior of one's own nationals where there

is a threat to the children of the other country. This can be facilitated by

exchange of information and data to trace and track pedophiles and

criminals who exploit children.

7. The provision of remedies should be improved so as to help child

victims of sexual exploitation. These may include increased prosecutions,

compensation, legal aid and assistance, confiscation of the assets of the

exploiters and reuse of those assets for child protection and assistance, and

socio-medical and psychological remedies, such as access to counseling, hot

lines, hospices, half-way houses, and other support facilities. These should

cover community care and help, and mobilization against new forms of

discrimination, such as discrimination against those with HIV/AIDS.
Vitit Muntarbhorn

31

8. When children are trafficked across frontiers, their true age

should be ascertained by independent monitoring. If they are to be returned

to the country of origin, their safety must be guaranteed. Pending their

return, they should not be treated as illegal immigrants by the receiving

countries but should be dealt with humanely as special cases of

humanitarian concern. Upon the child's return, the country of origin should

treat them with respect, bolstered by adequate family-based and communitybased reintegration.

9. Sex tourism, both local and international, needs to be lambasted

more strongly by broader community networking and related laws and

policies against such practice. The business sector, including the tourist

industry and the service industry, should encourage more accountability of

its own members in this regard. Peer group pressure should help to

reprimand those in the same sector who are or might be involved with child

prostitution. Measures are also required to counter the use of computers and

other new technology for the purpose of child sexual exploitation; this

requires more cooperation from the computer and technology industries to

act as a watchdog against those who might otherwise use their products for

exploitative purposes.

10. The cultural and traditional practices that lead to child sexual

exploitation need to be tackled by long-term community mobilization and

a broad educational process, coupled with incentives and sanctions aimed

at behavioral changes for the sake of child protection. This is particularly

pertinent to those parents, families and/or communities that profiteer from

child prostitution. The issue of child sexual exploitation should also be

raised more openly in the classroom, coupled with more access for all

children to at least the sum total of primary education, so as to forewarn and

protect them from the dangers that may lurk in the world beyond.
32

2. CHILD PROSTITUTION IN LATIN AMERICA

Dorianne Beyer

For the big picture of Latin America, let us start out with some of

the numbers. For comparison's sake, there are about 100,000 child

prostitutes in the United States. In Brazil, there are 200,000 children and

adolescent prostitutes; 25,000 in the mining towns, and 5,000 in the town of

Belem. In Costa Rica, there are over 2,000 child prostitutes in San Jose, the

capital city. And in Peru, it is estimated that about half of the one million

adult prostitutes are in fact minors working with false identification cards.

The numbers are obviously not as important as the denial of the rights of any

one of these children.

Regarding the ages of these children, the average age is somewhere

between 13 and 17. There are cases of children as young as six or seven

documented in Brazil. 

 

What are the general trends? What can be said from a macro view

of child prostitution in Latin America? One thing that can be said is, unlike

in Asia, there really are no government programs in Latin America. The

programs that exist, by and large, are NGO programs. There are, for

example, Catholic Church programs. There are no government programs for

child prostitution in Colombia, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador,

Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Chile, or Peru. 

Some, but not all, of these nations have laws against pandering.

They have laws against pimping. But they have no laws against child

prostitution per se. However, law is but one means by which to attack or

even assess the child prostitution problem in any particular area.
Dorianne Beyer

33

Another general trend regarding child prostitution in Latin America

is, of course, generalized poverty. Although it is no justification, poverty is

in fact a well-spring from which child prostitution grows and expands. 

There are, however, special sociological conditions in most of Latin

America that are different and distinct from other regions. One of those

distinct sociological conditions is the concept of machismo, which affects

the culture in most Latin American countries and provides fertile soil for girl

child prostitution in particular. How this sociological phenomenon affects

the problem of child prostitution is not merely that males are viewed as

superior and women as inferior. In fact, the tenets of machismo are the

bedrock of child prostitution in Latin America, which in the great majority

of cases (about 95 percent is the estimate), is the prostitution of girls.

According to the cultural mores of these often rigidly patriarchal

societies, not only are men seen as superior, but there is an understood

agreement within the society that men have ravenous, uncontrollable libidos

and that these libidos are a sign of their strength and their power. It is

therefore comprehensible, expected, and accepted by most Latin American

societies that men will need more sex than women, and shall have more sex

than their marital relations permit.

On the other hand, women, under the theory of machismo, are

deemed to be by nature passive and much more rooted in family and

domestic life. Their sexual urges, needs, and desires are considered to be

satisfied by their domestic life, both in terms of their marital sexual relations

with their husbands and in the satisfactions gained by the rearing of their

children and the running of their homes. Consequently, it is not expected,

condoned or ascribed to women in this type of society, that they have the

same need, right and desire to go outside of the home for sex.

All of this leads to a situation that not only is oppressive towards

women and patriarchal, but inexorably leads, in fact, to violence against

women. This permeation of violence against women fuels the female child

prostitution situation in most of Latin America. Many female child

prostitutes are escapees from family violence and family incest; violence

perpetrated by male members of the family against the females, both
Child Prostitution in Latin America

34

mothers and daughters.

 

Many of the girls who end up as child prostitutes in Latin American

countries have chosen a sexually exploitative life on the streets, rather than

suffer continued family violence and male incest in their own homes.

Again, this type of society supports and condones such behavior as

absolutely indigenous to the aggressive, predatory nature of men and the

passive and compliant nature of women.

This is not only because of the strong machismo culture in those

societies, but is also due to the worldwide trends of oppression of women.

But the additional layer of machismo in Latin America does create

exaggerated forms of oppressive violence towards girls and women as well

as traditional societal and familial pressure to produce large numbers of girl

child prostitutes. The pervasive occurrence of extreme cases of violence

emerges as both a cause and a condition of girl child prostitution.

In Asia, the issue of violence, although real, is not as primary as is

documented in Latin America, where child prostitution is really the

equivalent of and in fact mainly includes, physical and sexual violence

towards children. 

Another general trend in the case of Latin America is that data is

very difficult to come by. Data is much more difficult to ascertain than for

Asian child prostitution for several reasons. One reason is that we are

talking about criminal behavior. As is true with any type of illegal activity,

it is very difficult to gather reliable statistics on the number of participants

in child prostitution.

 

An additional Latin American aspect that makes data difficult to

come by is the pervasiveness of the Roman Catholic church and its

teachings about morality, sex within marriage, etc. In addition to the usual

secrecy that surrounds illegal child prostitution all over the world, in Latin

America there is an overlay on the family level, the community level, and

the governmental level, of shame, denial and covertness due to the

permeation of the Roman Catholic culture. 
Dorianne Beyer

35

Bolivia is a case illustrative of the degenerative effects found

throughout Latin America of extreme machismo, incest, familial violence

and the increased secrecy and shame borne on the dogma of the Roman

Catholic culture. Those religious beliefs create a class of girls and women

who are seen as "tainted" by shame, and therefore available for prostitution,

as the taboos against pre-marital or extramarital sex in Bolivia are not only

enshrined in law, but also affect the widowed and divorced. When you add

the narrow, circumscribed roles of men and women, as defined by the

concepts of machismo, a ripe environment for child sex exploitation is

created. As women are seen as "bad" once they have extramarital sex or

even if they are seen walking in the streets alone, it is not a large cultural

leap for men to consider such women as prostitutes or as sexual lures,

available to satisfy their enormous libidos. The concept of rape does not

exist for these girls and women. Many teen-aged girls who become

involved in prostitution are, in fact, runaways from familial violence or

incest. Some are sent to brothels by their families. The University of

Cochabamba in 1989 found that in its home city alone, there were 20

brothels with about 350 prostitutes, of which half were minors. The average

age of these prostitutes was 16.

These observations paint the general, big picture of child

prostitution in Latin America. But like any macro view, there are details and

differentiations between the countries that deviate from this panorama. For

one thing, children get involved in prostitution in different ways in different

countries. In Chile, for example, there is a much greater incidence of and

relationship between drug use and child prostitution, both as a lure to entice

them into the sex trade and to keep them addicted to drugs as an "insurance

policy" for their continuance as child prostitutes.

Very frequently, the traffickers and pimps will addict the children

to inhalants such as benzene gum and glue. The children taking these

inhalants are as young as nine, ten, or eleven years old. They are kept

addicted. This is not only a Chilean phenomenon, but is especially notable

in Chile.

Peru is also notable for several peculiarly characteristic types of

child prostitution. There are over half a million children under 14 years old
Child Prostitution in Latin America

36

living in poverty in Peru, and it is no surprise to discover that many enter

prostitution just to survive. Frequently, older men will engage very young

girls (twelve or thirteen years old) in their homes as sex partners, after they

have taken them by force from their impoverished country shanties. There

is also the phenomenon of the "fleeteo," the young boy of eight to twenty

years old, living at home, who prostitutes himself to supplement the family

income or to buy drugs or new clothes. Some of these boys sell themselves

to men only, while others offer themselves to both sexes.

The Dominican Republic shares some similar patterns with the Thai

situation, in that it has sex tourism beaches and beach resorts. The procurer

and the trafficker may be the manager of the holiday condominium complex

where the vacationing sex tourist understands that the renting of young

children as sexual partners is part of the package of "services" offered.

These beach resorts procure and permit boys and girls to come into these

premises for the duration of the sex tourists' stay.

There is also a particular Dominican Republic permutation on the

use of young boys as prostitutes, known as "Sanky Panky" boys. These are

beach boys, some as young as 13 years old, who will stay with foreign

tourists on the beaches of Boca Chica and Sosua, for example, establishing

a relationship with their visitor for years. That is, they will be the sex

tourist's annual partner, year after year, for the week or two that the sex

tourist is there. The boys are frequently supported throughout the year by

the foreign sex tourists, whom they only see once or twice a year.

Sometimes there are bonds of affection that are sought and established by

both the boys and their exploiters in addition to just sex. This situation is

more peculiar to the Dominican Republic than it is to other nations in the

region.

In Colombia, there is an enormous amount of violence in the general

civil population that is economic, political and criminal, in addition to

family-related. As violence pervades the family level, many of the children

who are escaping that violence in the countryside move to the city and

become easy prey for the procurers of child prostitutes. In Bogota alone

there has been a 500 percent increase in child prostitution among children

aged eight to thirteen years old between 1986 and 1993. This is due to civil
Dorianne Beyer

37

dislocations, poverty and drugs. Girls as young as eight years old are plying

the sex clubs as strippers in Medellin, Armenia, Ibague, Manizales, Neira

and Cucuta. With no state agencies to intervene, criminal organizations that

recruit and sell boy and girl children into prostitution thrive. Again, the

connection between violence and child prostitution is a critical component

in Latin America.

Brazil is quite an unusual case and has unique elements that do not

exist elsewhere. This is partly due to the large number of small, remote

outback mining communities and villages that are not even specks on the

map, all over Amazonia in northern Brazil. Young girls, around 15 or 16

years old, are imported like chattel after being lured to these isolated areas

by traffickers promising them employment in the canteens and restaurants

of the Amazonian mining towns.

 

They are falsely guaranteed wages of $100 a week for working as

waitresses. They are then taken, by plane, from northern and southern cities

and villages to perform their "waitress" duties. When they arrive, the bar

owner, saloon keeper or canteen owner tells them that they now have a debt

to pay. That debt is charged both for their transportation from their native

villages to Amazonia and for their continued upkeep, including food

provisions and malaria medicine. It is the classic indentured situation. The

girls must work off this continuing and growing debt by prostitution. This

is nothing short of slave labor.

This type of forced child prostitution meets every criteria of slavery.

The money for their sexual services is paid directly to the restaurant, saloon

keeper or the agents who brought the girls there. The girls are further

enslaved as they are unable to leave their captors because of the remoteness

of the region. There is generally one airstrip in these small outposts. The

chartered planes coming in and out are closely monitored, and it is

prohibitively expensive to purchase a seat since air service is so infrequent

and valuable. There is no commercial aviation available, only the ad hoc

chartering of private planes. So the girls cannot physically leave and are

locked into their exploitation.

 

There have been reported cases of girls trying to flee and being
Child Prostitution in Latin America

38

found murdered at the airstrip. So there is no distinction between this type

of situation and the usual forms of historic slavery. These girls are there by

the dint of their physical isolation, their eternal financial bondage and the

threat and actuality of violence should they try to leave. This is not the

usual situation in Latin America, as not every nation has large groups of

male laborers working in isolated outposts and criminal rings anxious to

serve them with mass importations of young girl prostitutes.

There are two other situations that make Brazil notable in any Latin

American summary on characteristics of forced child prostitution. One is

that there is the same sort of utilization of young girls' sexual services for

the benefit of itinerant laborers working at construction sites on large civic

construction projects, such as dams, bridges and electric power plants in the

interior of Brazil as there is in the mining outposts. Again, the girls are

taken there to service the laborers, and again, there is no way for them to get

out. So it is not a phenomenon found only in the remote mining

communities which have developed in the last couple of decades, but it is

also common as a criminal and exploitative adjunct to continuing civil

engineering projects. It is therefore no surprise that Brazil has the largest

and most sophisticated criminal rings and syndicates to provide these girls

for workers.

The other particular element of the child prostitution situation in

Brazil is the enormous numbers and preponderance of street children. There

may be millions of these abandoned children in Brazil. When you start with

that massive a number of "street entrepreneurs," it may be no exaggeration

to posit that there are perhaps half a million who are child prostitutes. 

Child prostitution in Argentina frequently takes the form of sexual

exploitation of young girls, who are hired as cleaners or kitchen help and

live in the home of their employers. Usually, these poor fourteen, fifteen or

sixteen year old girls are abandoned or are fleeing familial sexual or child

abuse. Sometimes, employers will take them to brothels or to the homes of

their friends in order to sexually service a wider community. The taint of

slavery is also indicated here.

In Costa Rica, there are over 2,000 child prostitutes in the capital
Dorianne Beyer

39

city of San Jose alone. But Costa Rica is notable because its utilizers of

child prostitutes are almost entirely foreigners. Like the Dominican

Republic, children selling sex are frequently offered to foreign pedophiles

as part of a sex tour "package." The interaction between foreign tourists and

child prostitution is therefore particularly pronounced in Costa Rica.

Additionally, with over 40 percent of Costa Rican families living in poverty,

it is predictable that girls as young as twelve years old are sent out by their

parents to earn money through prostitution. Some are beaten by their

parents for not bringing home a certain amount of money per day to

supplement the meager family income.

The comparisons of child prostitution in Latin America with other

regions, particularly Asia, are accurate as far as they go. However, there is

the particularly ingrained and notable sociological phenomenon of violence

against women and the total absence of any sort of power in women, that is

pervasive throughout Latin America and has a direct relationship to its child

prostitution situations.

As to solutions, I support many of Professor Muntarbhorn's

strategies. However, the other emphasis that I would propose, particularly

since Latin American governments have not been significantly involved in

remediation efforts, is the use of global pressure by NGOs, other

governments, and aid and trade criteria and agreements to influence Latin

American governments to fund prosecution, prevention and remediation

programs. On the one hand, there is law and legal enforcement, both of

which must be strengthened in this area. But at least equally important,

because of the many known difficulties and corruption of law enforcement

in this region, is the establishment of the crucial principle that these

governments must fulfill their responsibility for designing, funding, and

implementing a full array of responsive programs aimed at reducing and

eradicating child prostitution. If global pressure can hasten the

implementation of that responsibility, then global pressure must be

organized. 

 

It is known that many of the effective rehabilitative programs find

those who are at risk in the culture before they ever join the ranks of child

prostitution. When you talk in Latin America about finding the people who
Child Prostitution in Latin America

40

are at risk, you are largely talking about mothers. The point of intervention

that must occur for the child prostitution situation to markedly improve in

Latin America is the rehabilitative social, psychological, and medical

support of its mothers. If mothers are turning to prostitution, if they are

victims of domestic sexual abuse and violence or if they are victims of

incest in their own childhoods, we have now identified many sources of the

five-fold increase in the incidence of the prostitution of their girl children.

So obviously, the necessary point of intervention must be in the state of

women and the way in which they are perceived and treated within the

society. Special women's services must be funded to break this cycle of

exploitation, so that when they have girl children, they are not further

exposing those girls to the obvious deteriorations that result in widespread

child prostitution.
41

3. CHILD PROSTITUTION IN THE UNITED

STATES

Robert Flores

The Department of Justice deals with the issue of child prostitution

from a law enforcement perspective, and the attorneys in our office deal with

actual cases. 

By definition, law enforcement is probably the least effective way

to deal with child prostitution because we get the cases once there has

already been a victim. We get the cases once the damage has been done, and

we only get a very few of them.

Under our system, we only have jurisdiction to pursue those cases

which involve interstate movement, foreign commerce, or take place on land

over which the Government has responsibility, such as Indian reservations,

Indian land, military bases, or federal parks. For the longest time,

prostitution generally has been considered a local problem. It has taken a

substantial amount of time to convince people that this is, in many ways, a

national problem and something that we must deal with on a national level.

One of the things that we have learned over the past several years

is that child prostitution in the United States does not occur as depicted in

"Monday Night at the Movies." It does not always involve a ten year old

white girl who is violently kidnapped, beaten and tortured, and forced to

work the streets night after night. It does involve thousands and thousands

of children who are 14, 15, 16, and 17 years old, who do not have families

to go home to, have long arrest records, have a history of drug abuse of one

form or another, and have very few social skills that would allow them to

function in the world of most Americans. It is very difficult to get them to

come into the system or to have them benefit from the system.
Child Prostitution in the United States

42

So we encounter, on a daily basis, a lot of culture shock. It is almost

as if these kids come from a different place, and that has been a big problem

for us in terms of dealing with law enforcement, prosecutors, the courts and

the judges. This is a very dark and dirty secret that we have in the United

States, but there are a lot of children working the streets every night. 

Another mischaracterization, and part of the reason that we do not

see more cases, is that everyone is looking for a certain type of case. They

are looking for the pimp who operates a stable with 30 or 40 girls, who runs

around in a Cadillac wearing funny hats and bright clothing. That is just not

the case today. 

We have a huge problem on both coasts with thousands of runaway

children and throwaway children engaging in prostitution. There are also

some children who come from very solid homes who have decided that the

street is probably a little bit more exciting. When they leave home, they

realize they have bitten off much more than they can chew, and they find

themselves either having to admit that they need mom and dad and have to

go back home, or take the offerings of pimps and the johns who want them.

So, perception is one of the biggest obstacles that we have in

fighting this problem. We do perceive of this as a problem that takes place

in the Pacific Rim, a problem that takes place in Latin American and other

poor countries, but we must recognize that it is a problem here as well.

Over the past two and a half years, the Justice Department has tried

to make substantial efforts to address this issue. We have done that in a

number of ways. One of the things we have done is to assemble a team of

prosecutors who focus on this issue nationally, in terms of policy,

legislation, and trying to convince prosecutors in the field that these cases

are important.

I cannot over-emphasize the importance of NGOs, or in this country,

the participation of citizen groups and parents. Could you imagine if a law

enforcement agency decided not to pursue bank robberies or environmental

dumping that was in violation of the law? If that were deliberately done, if

law enforcement just simply chose not to look at one of those problems, you
Robert Flores

43

can imagine what would happen, because it happens today. We would have

marches in the streets. We would have organizations that are pushing, and

the issue would be on the front page of every newspaper.

Al Santoli (of Freedom House) wrote an article for Parade

Magazine about a year or a year and a half ago, after talking with us about

what the Department of Justice was doing on this issue. It was not a very

long article but it brought something onto the pages of Parade Magazine

that had not been there for a while. I know that there were pieces done in

Reader's Digest, but there simply is not enough information out there to

convince the people who need to be convinced that this is a major issue and

we have got to commit resources to it. We are not going to get new

resources. New money is not going to be found. So that means we are

going to have to reprioritize how we spend our money in terms of law

enforcement if we are going to address this issue.

One of the biggest problems with child prostitution cases is that

they are very difficult to put together. This is one of the things that we have

tried hard to remedy. It typically takes months and months after an arrest for

these cases to get to trial. In the United States that typically means that the

pimp will be back out on the streets and the girls and the boys know it.

Let me add that the boy prostitution problem in the United States is

carried out very differently than female prostitution. Most of the boys do

not have pimps. You do find exceptions -- there are houses that specialize

in boys or in men but most of the boys do not have pimps. They band

together in small groups and are physically able to fend for themselves.

The female prostitution problem, whether you are talking about

underage girls, teenage girls, or older women, is an industry that is run by

pimps who are surprisingly well organized. Not in the way you would

imagine a cosa nostra or mafia family might be organized, but they do know

each other and their phone numbers. They know who the other pimps are in

town, and if they happen to be in jail awaiting trial, they can get word to

other pimps who will execute some street punishment to keep the rest of the

girls in line in their absence. 
Child Prostitution in the United States

44

So these prosecutions take place over a substantial amount of time,

and it is difficult for us to manage our victim. If you watch television

reports or movies, your guess is that these girls are more than happy to

restore their lives, to go right back into their home, go to school every day,

get back to bed at a decent time and get up early. But sometimes those lives

are a shambles, or they are bored with that kind of life. These are kids that

are used to staying out as long as they want and doing whatever they want,

even if they are virtual slaves to their pimps or their profession. 

Some people suggest that we should just lock those kids up, put

them in protective custody. That seems to me, on many levels, to

revictimize a child. So we need to determine how we are going to help those

children and how we can ensure that they are available when they need to

testify at the trial. That has been a big challenge. I talk to law enforcement

officers all the time who say, "Look, these cases aren't worthwhile to me. I

make the arrest. The pimp is back out on the street in a short amount of

time, and then after two or three months go by the girl doesn't want to talk

to me anymore." 

We have started to address this problem by putting together multidisciplinary teams made up of professionals who are experts in the area of

social work, medicine, psychiatric health, and law enforcement. These

teams know the resources that are available, as meager as they are, and can

put the prosecutor or the police officer or agent in contact with them

quickly. When you go back to the places that you have come from, talk with

your local police, your prosecutors on the federal and state levels, and urge

them to put these multi-disciplinary task forces together. We at the

Department of Justice are more than willing to assist them in putting those

groups together. They are often the only thing that will help us make a case,

because it provides a way for someone to worry about the emotions,

spiritual, mental, and physical welfare of the child, while we work hard to

address the legal issues.

Law enforcement needs to send a convincing message to the general

public, the victim, and to the john, and the pimp. Some advocate the

passage of laws with very long penalties so that if we find you and we get

you, you go away for 10 or 15 years. My experience with that type of
Robert Flores

45

sentence is that there is so much machismo involved in the world of the

pimp that they do not believe we are going to ever get to them and it is very

difficult for us to put the fear of God into them if we only have a case once

every several months.

As we try to increase the number of cases, a short but certain

amount of punishment often works well. I come from New York City. I was

a prosecutor in Manhattan. At the time that I was there, ten years ago, the

penalty for prostitution was three days or $300. The pimps would line up

outside the door with their $300 because they knew their girls could make

more than $300 in a night. It made sense for them to simply pay out their

money. 

Some cynically said this was the tax that New York levied on

prostitution as a way for the city to get its cut. I do not think that is fair

because cases are very difficult to put together against the pimp or the

prostitute in light of the constitutional issues that exist and the short nature

of the penalties. In the neighboring counties, however, the penalty for a

conviction was 30 days in jail. This was not a lot of time, but it meant that

the pimp lost his girl for 30 days. Many prostitutes, especially the young

ones, 14 to 17 years old, can make five or six hundred dollars in a night. So

you multiply that times the 30 days and you are talking about a significant

loss of funds. Thus, prostitution, although it occurs throughout the New

York City area, is rampant in Manhattan. I think that is because the pimps

have done the math. They know when they are losing money. They have

their girls ply their trade in areas of lax law enforcement.
Child Prostitution in the United States

46

We have worked very hard to address the issue of child pornography

in the United States. Our section oversaw the latest computer child

pornography investigative project that the FBI ran, "Innocent Images," that

made the papers about two weeks ago. We have kept the pressure on in

every way that we could find. 

One result has been that in the North American Man-Boy Love

Association's membership publication, members have been advised that they

are crazy if they have sex with kids in the United States. They say the

government is nuts. It does not understand the need for free love and the

ability to experiment sexually and the loving relationships that adults can

have with children. So they advise members to go overseas. 

I do not think the solution for the United States is the

encouragement of its citizens to go to Southeast Asia or Latin America to

commit their crimes. But international cooperation is difficult. I am glad

to say that we are working with Interpol to address that issue. Twice a year,

members from law enforcement agencies throughout the world meet to try

to draft model legislation to address these issues. But perhaps most

important are the informal relationships.

Now one of the things that was said earlier was that in a border

situation, it is a good thing for the town councils and law enforcement of

those locations that are right on the border to meet together. So much can

be done informally that would take months and months in the way of formal

applications, formal extraditions, and letters rogatory that have to be signed

all the way up the ladder by the Secretary of State. 

Those kinds of protocol, while they are very useful, take a lot of

time. And one of the benefits that these criminals -- and I think that is really

the way we need to refer to these folks -- have is that time works to their

advantage. The longer it takes us to make a case, the better the chance that

the girl will move on to someplace else, that we will lose control or that the

pimp will reestablish control with that girl. In addition, the more time that

goes by, the greater the chances are that a new crime will come up, a new

fire will arise that the investigator has to put out, something that is more

pressing at the moment. 
Robert Flores

47

So time is a major issue. And informal relationships that are made

are priceless. With one phone call to someone that you have met at an

international conference, you can get real information. You can then decide

whether it is worthwhile going through the formal channels and getting

certified records to move an issue.

We now have new statutes on our books which address international

sex tourism and the creation of child pornography that is destined for

importation into the United States. Those are all well and good but they will

live or die on the ability of our law enforcement to work well with law

enforcement in other countries.

Part of the problem is that the uniformity in laws is a real challenge.

In the United States, federal child pornography and most federal laws

dealing with minors use the age of 18 as the age at which we have

jurisdiction or we lose it. In certain provinces in Canada, the age of consent

is 14. So that if someone travels to Canada and has sex with a girl who is 15

years old, we have a daunting challenge. Additionally, we have to prove

that one of the purposes of the individual's travels to Canada was to engage

in that sexual activity. It cannot simply be a mere incident to the travel.

Conduct which is a crime in the United States is not necessarily a

crime in other countries. For instance, in certain European countries, the

creation of pornography which does not involve ultimate sex acts, things

that you would clearly recognize, intercourse, masturbation, fellatio, things

like that, do not constitute child pornography in foreign countries. In this

country we have a prohibition against the creation of material which

involves the lascivious exhibition of children's genitalia. This also may not

be a crime elsewhere. Therefore, extradition may be impossible on that

basis alone. 

We still have a substantial amount of work to do in this area, but I

think enormous progress has been made. Over the last two and a half years,

for the first time, we have really focused the efforts and the resources of the

Justice Department on this issue. We are seeing 
Child Prostitution in the United States

48

prosecutions in areas where we have not seen them before. I want to tell you

briefly about a case in Hawaii because I think it is instructive.

Two years ago, after talking to a number of people in the United

States who are familiar with this problem, the Justice Department put me on

a plane and said, "Okay, look, we'll pay for you to go. We want you to

actually gather information, talk to people, meet people." It was in many

ways a fact-finding tour. 

Some people would say, "Well, it's just a junket. Gee, the guy gets

to go from Washington to Vancouver and then down to Hawaii. Good fun.

That's a great job if you can get it."

Well, that trip took place going and coming in five days. Those of

you who are familiar with international travel and those kinds of time zones

realize that it is a little difficult, but I had a chance to sit down and actually

meet with the police officers who do vice prosecution in Vancouver. They

know the American kids who come over to be prostitutes and more

importantly, they know the children from their country who are taken by

pimps in Canada down through Seattle or Portland into California and then

ultimately to Hawaii, which is sometimes used as a jump-off point to take

the girls into Japan or other far-eastern countries.

After the discussions I had with law enforcement, the Child

Advocacy Center in Honolulu, and Honolulu police, we finally determined

that this was a problem. Because I was able to put people together to talk to

each other, they were able to put together a case against a pimp who

specialized in girls who were 14, 15, and 16.

Initially, the Honolulu Police Department refused to assist on a case

with one young lady from Canada who was working in Hawaii. So the

family, the mother and father and some of the brothers got on a plane on

their own money, flew down to Hawaii and spent a couple of nights looking

for their kid. They had her picture and with the assistance of someone who

is an advocate in this area, they tracked her down and brought her home. 

This young lady agreed, after contact by the Vancouver Police
Robert Flores

49

Department, to cooperate with us and we were able to bring a successful

case. The pimp pled guilty in the middle of the trial because the evidence

was so overwhelming. The story carried a lot of publicity on the island and

in Vancouver but unfortunately, probably little coverage elsewhere. But the

message was sent, to the local community at least, that this is an issue to

which we are willing to commit resources. 

If we are going to do a credible job, however, we need the assistance

of mothers and fathers and teachers and principals out there, folks like

yourselves who represent groups who are interested in this issue. There has

to be a recognition that this is in fact not a victimless crime, and that it is a

crime if the girl is 14 or 15 years old, not just if she is eight or nine, because

most of the prostitutes in this country who work the streets are not eight or

nine years old, and there is no shortage of prosecutions when those cases are

found. In fact, prosecutors fight over them, quite frankly, because they are

wonderful cases to prosecute.

We need to make sure that prosecutors and law enforcement agents

are fighting over cases where the girls are 14, 15, 16, and 17 years old. That

will send the message that I think is necessary for us to convince children,

not only that they should cooperate and seek help, but that help would

actually assist them in moving out of these lives. Kids are not doing this

work because they have options to become doctors or lawyers. They are

doing this because, as far as they are concerned, this is their only option.

And unless we recognize that and recognize that we are dealing with a very

difficult population, we are not going to be able to make the progress that I

think is necessary in this area.

PART II: RESPONSES TO CHILD 

PROSTITUTION

53

1. THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL

LABOR ORGANIZATION

Panudda Boonpala

What is your immediate reaction when you read a newspaper or

watch a television program about children in prostitution?

 

 About ten years ago, I was shaken by an incident in my own

country. A brothel in a province in the South of Thailand caught on fire, and

a young girl was killed because she had been locked up and had no way to

escape. 

Five years ago, "Pom," a fifteen year old girl and victim of child

prostitution, was rescued by police and the Center for the Protection of

Children's Rights. The medical examination reported that "Pom" had

contracted AIDS. 

 Last year, a child prostitute, age 15, escaped from a brothel and

went to seek help from the police. Later on she committed suicide.

These are some of the tragic cases that appeared in the media. There

are actually thousands of cases of this kind, but most are hidden and never

heard of.

On the positive side, "Ayi," at the age of 16, talks about helping

other girls in her village so that they do not become victims of prostitution.

"Ayi" comes from the Akha hill tribe in the North of Thailand. In her

village many people are addicted to heroin, and most of the girls have gone

away to work as prostitutes. "Ayi" is one of the girls benefiting from the

education program provided by the Daughters' Education Program, a nongovernmental organization in the North of Thailand.
The Role of the International Labor Organization

 World Labour Report (Geneva: International Labor Organization, 1993) 17. 1

54

Over the years, I have realized that fighting against child

prostitution is a big battle, because the problem is complex and widespread

in many countries of the world today. According to "End Child Prostitution

in Asian Tourism" (ECPAT) and various other sources, the problem is

alarming throughout Asia, particularly in Korea, Thailand, the Philippines,

Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal and others. ECPAT estimates that at

least one million children in Asia are victims of different forms of sexual

exploitation. 

My presentation will concentrate on three main areas: first, on

children in prostitution in the context of forced labour; second, on the

response of the International Labor Organization (ILO), which includes the

related ILO Conventions and its technical cooperation work; and third, on

the concrete experiences of the International Program on the Elimination of

Child Labor (IPEC Program) and our future plans of action.

1. Forced labour of children: children in prostitution

All forms of child labour could be considered forced labour since

children are rarely in a position to give free "consent," and most aspects of

their lives are determined for them by adults. But there are millions of

children working in conditions which are considered forced labour because

they are specifically coerced. Most of them are not in a position to defend 1

their rights. Children in prostitution fall into this category, because they are

lured and recruited by traffickers within their own countries and across the

borders. They are offered lucrative "work" in cities but end up in the

underground brothels. They are sold by their parents who are addicted to

drugs, or they are working on the streets and end up with foreign pedophiles.

Often, the children who are victims of prostitution belong to poor,

illiterate and socially disadvantaged and excluded groups. Prostitution for

children means severe physical and emotional abuse and a high risk of

contracting diseases, particularly AIDS. These children can rarely seek help

or be reached, because child prostitution is criminal by nature and hidden
Panudda Boonpala

55

from public view. Case studies and testimonies of many children in

prostitution speak of a trauma so deep that the child is unable to return to or

re-enter a normal way of life. The conditions the children must tolerate are

tantamount to forced labor.

2. The ILO Response to Forced Child Prostitution

2.1 ILO Convention 29

Because of the conditions described above, the ILO has made a firm

commitment that child prostitution cannot be tolerated, and all efforts must

be made to bring an end to the practice. This commitment is reflected in

Convention 29 on forced labor, which was adopted in 1930. The aim of this

convention is the suppression of the use of forced labor in all its forms. It

states that the illegal exaction of forced or compulsory labor shall be

punishable as a penal offense. "Forced or compulsory labor" is defined as

all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of

any penalty and of which the said person has not offered himself or herself

voluntarily. 

The ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions

and Recommendations (Committee of Experts) first took the issue of

children in prostitution specifically into consideration in the context of

forced labour in its 1985 report. In addition, in its 1992 report to the

International Labour Conference, the Committee of Experts identified the

use of children as one of the worst forms of forced labor. Be it child

prostitution or child pornography; in factories, sweatshops, brothels, private

houses or elsewhere; the situation should be exposed and the individuals

responsible severely punished.

The application of Convention 29 has not been promoted in

isolation. It is linked to a number of other international standards. These

include, among others, the Slavery Convention (1926), the Abolition of

Forced Labor Convention (1959), and the Convention for the Suppression

of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others

(1949). In addition, ILO Convention 138 (1973) on Minimum Age for

Employment of Children prohibits the employment of children in hazardous
The Role of the International Labor Organization

56

work. 

The most recent standard, the Convention on the Rights of the Child

(1989), reaffirms the existing principles of the previous Conventions. It

requires countries to: a) provide for the protection of the child from

economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be

hazardous; b) take measures to prevent the abduction of, the sale of, or

traffic in children for any purpose or in any form; and c) protect the child

against all forms of exploitation.

In addition to the promotion of the application of the international

standards, the ILO provides technical assistance to member countries who

are committed to tackling problems such as child labor and child

prostitution.

2.2 The International Program on the Elimination of Child

Labour (IPEC)

The IPEC program was established in 1992 as a technical

cooperation arm of the ILO in the area of child labor. IPEC's aims are to

support member countries in implementing their national policies and

programs in order to contribute to the elimination of child labour. The

priority of the IPEC program is to find solutions to the most serious forms

of child labor such as bonded child labour, forced child labour, slavery

practices and various other forms of hazardous child labor, including

children in prostitution. 

IPEC programs are implemented with the technical support of

various experts at ILO headquarters, including staff from the Statistical

Department, Labor Administration Branch, regional and sub-regional

offices, directors of respective area offices, as well as members of MultiDisciplinary Teams. A National Program Coordinator is appointed to coordinate the program's implementation in every country where IPEC

operates. 

The main areas of IPEC work include the following:
Panudda Boonpala

57

Supporting the preparation of a National Program of Action against

Child Labor, containing multifaceted intervention such as policy

development, strengthening of law enforcement, awareness raising, and

taking direct action with the target group themselves. 

Conducting situational analyses of the problem in specific sectors,

locations, or at the national level, e.g., a national child labor survey.

Mobilizing governments, workers' and employers' organizations and

NGOs to take part in implementing the National Program of Action. 

Developing and implementing demonstration projects at local and

national levels. 

Conducting consultation at the policy-making level in order to

review progress and obstacles and identify strategies to improve the

implementation of the program and to integrate successful programs into

national policies and budgets.

The IPEC program has been operational for four years. At present,

there are 11 countries participating in the program, including Bangladesh,

Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand,

Tanzania and Turkey. By next year, several other countries in Central and

Latin America will also join the program. Experiences so far have been

extremely encouraging. There has been a breakthrough at the political level

with much of the "sensitive" attitude being overcome. In situations where

sensitivities continue to exist, there is nevertheless more readiness to discuss

problems and intervene. 

At the technical level, IPEC has gained experience in implementing

different types of interventions with different groups of child labour. IPEC

has worked on data collection at the micro and macro levels, developing

preventive programs at the community level, strengthening of law

enforcement capacity, and creating social awareness at the national level.

At the social level, there are many actors who are ready to support action

against child labor and forced child prostitution. 
The Role of the International Labor Organization

58

3. IPEC Experience in the area of children in prostitution

Existing knowledge tells us that children who are victims of forced

labor and slavery conditions have gone through traumatic experiences. To

cure or rehabilitate them is extremely difficult. IPEC is therefore developing

different types of action programs with partner organizations that aim not

only at eradicating the practices but also at finding the right strategies to

prevent the problems from occurring in the first place. This means that we

have to operate with various short term measures and a long term goal. 

At present, IPEC is supporting programs to tackle child prostitution

in Thailand and the Philippines. In the future, additional programs will be

implemented in Nepal and at the sub-regional level.

Thailand

The problem of forced child prostitution in Thailand has been very

much in the context of regional trafficking. Recently, there have been

increases in trafficking of women and children into Thailand from

neighboring countries.

Prior to the implementation of IPEC activities in Thailand, the main

strategies applied to the problem of child prostitution involved the

rehabilitation of rescued victims. It was soon realized that rehabilitation

alone was not sufficient, and concerted efforts to tackle the initial pressures

which force children into prostitution were needed. Rescue operations and

rehabilitation continue as well as various preventive programs developed by

both governmental and non-governmental organizations over the last two

years. Ongoing action includes legal action against traffickers, brothel

owners and procurers, the provision of educational opportunities and

alternative education, skills training, and 
Panudda Boonpala

59

income generation, as well as the education of children, parents and

community leaders on the effects of forced child prostitution. 

In addition, IPEC in Thailand supports the work of a NGO, the

Daughters' Education Program (DEP), which has developed a preventive

program at the community level. With the support of IPEC, the DEP

provides alternative education -- a combination of non-formal education,

skills training and leadership training among girls at risk. The client group

includes girls belonging to or living nearby families of former prostitutes,

girls from broken homes, girls from families with debts, and girls from

families of drug addicts. Many of these girls' parents eventually become

convinced that other options are available, and that their daughters are

capable of developing skills and of getting decent jobs.

Though the DEP program is small, when I was serving as the IPEC

National Program Coordinator in Thailand I felt that it deserved recognition

and technical support from the education authorities in order to expand and

improve its operations. I therefore introduced DEP to the Non-formal

Education Department of the Thai Ministry of Education. As a result, the

DEP is now officially authorized as a community-based non-formal

education center, and receives technical support from the Department of

Non-formal Education. In the future, I hope that the DEP will get financial

support from the Non-formal Education Department.

About a year ago, the Ministry of Education started to provide

thousands of scholarships to girls at risk in eight northern provinces of

Thailand. A few hundred of them are studying in the Ministry's boarding

schools. During one of my conversations with the Permanent Secretary of

the Ministry of Education, I was told that some girls had dropped out. I

visited one of the schools and could understand the reasons why they

dropped out. I proposed to the Ministry that IPEC could support the

Ministry in reviewing the school curriculum and teaching environment, in

order to make them more relevant to the problems and needs of girls at risk

in the Northern region of Thailand. With the results of the review, the

Ministry will revise the curriculum and the teaching environment. We

believe that, as a result of this project, a large number of girls at risk in the

near future will receive education that guides their future careers.
The Role of the International Labor Organization

60

IPEC recently proposed to the Governor of Chiang Rai the

development of a provincial program to prevent child labor and children in

prostitution. In the proposed project, teachers, NGOs, police, local district

chiefs and various other actors would cooperate with each other at the

district and provincial levels. The Governor responded favorably. Within

the next two years, with the additional support IPEC receives from the

United States Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs,

we hope to develop a solid prevention program at the provincial level with

a strong operational network at the district level. What I mean by "a solid

preventive program" is systematic monitoring of the problem in all districts,

a good coordination of strategies, and the use of resources in preventing the

problem. At the same time, IPEC should be able to extend its program to

the Mekhong Basin countries in the near future.

Philippines

Prior to the implementation of the IPEC program in the Philippines,

tremendous work had been done in community mobilization and awareness

raising. IPEC supplements ongoing activities in two main areas: the

strengthening of law enforcement and the improvement of rehabilitation

programs. STOP Filipino Trafficking, a NGO active in advocacy and

lobbying for legislation to protect women and children, has implemented an

action program with IPEC's support to strengthen law enforcement through

advocacy programs. The action program consists of seminars and symposia

among judges, prosecutors, police, local government officials, and

community practitioners in nine provinces of five regions. Following each

forum, televised discussions are organized to further inform the public of the

issue and the existing legal system.

Because the problem has existed for a long time, and a large number

of children in the Philippines have been victims of prostitution, there is an

obvious need for rehabilitation programs. Experience in the Philippines,

similar to that of Thailand, has found that rehabilitation of victims of child

prostitution is very difficult, and the rate of success is very low. This is due

to the fact that the trauma that each child victim suffers is very deep, and

there is a scarcity of professionals and individuals with the requisite skills

for rehabilitation programs. 
Panudda Boonpala

61

IPEC has supported action-oriented research, conducted by the

International Catholic Children's Bureau in the Philippines, in order to

improve the rehabilitation programs for child victims. The research hopes

to achieve a better understanding of the value system of the children,

develop and implement training programs for care-givers, and establish

monitoring and assessment mechanisms to determine whether the

rehabilitation programs are giving the victims the care and nurturing they

need.

Nepal

In Nepal, forced child prostitution is related to the trafficking of

girls across the border into India. IPEC started preparatory work in Nepal

earlier this year. I was in Nepal last month to take part in the preparation of

the National Program of Action, which includes the prevention of child

prostitution and the trafficking of girls as one of its objectives. Preventive

programs at the community level are being initiated for implementation in

1996-97. These programs will mobilize local police, teachers, youth and

community leaders to play an active role in monitoring trafficking

movements. In addition, various types of alternatives for the children,

including non-formal education, skills training, and family income

generation will be developed and implemented at the community level,

along with awareness raising programs.

As I mentioned earlier, several countries in Latin America are

expected to join the IPEC Program in the near future. At that time, we will

explore the feasibility of developing preventive programs on child

prostitution in Latin America.

The trafficking of girls across the borders is becoming visible in the

Asian region, and the conditions faced by victims who end up in foreign

countries are very severe. This is why IPEC plans to conduct research in

several Asian countries to determine the nature of the trafficking and the

conditions of the victims. The research will be conducted in both sending

and receiving countries in order to develop a program of action at the

regional or sub-regional level. In this way, we can encourage countries who

share this problem to identify common strategies and solutions.
The Role of the International Labor Organization

62

Lastly, at the international level, the ILO supports the preparation

of the World Congress on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, to

be held in Sweden in August 1996.
63

2. A NON-GOVERNMENTAL

ORGANIZATION PERSPECTIVE

Ladda Saikaew

The Development and Education Program for Daughters and

Communities (DEP) is a non-governmental organization working in Chiang

Rai, the northernmost province in Thailand. Chiang Rai is predominantly

rural with approximately 1.2 million people engaged in rice and other

farming. While the population is mainly Thai, other ethnic and hill tribe

groups (such as Akha, Lahu, Lisu, Mien, Hmong, Karen, Shan, Thai Leu and

Yunnanese) also live in the area and generally have a poor standard of

living.

The aims of DEP are the following:

1. To prevent girls at risk from being forced into the sex industry due

to outside pressure and a lack of educational and employment alternatives.

2. To improve the material, social and spiritual quality of life for these

girls and their communities.

3. To encourage girls, especially those from hill tribe villages, to be

proud of their culture and customs.

DEP currently receives support from UNICEF, ILO (International

Program for the Elimination of Child Labor), Japanese Office of

Development Assistance, Australian Agency for International Development,

DANIDA, Asian Children's Fund and other agencies and private donors.

The program was established in 1989 and operates from six different sites

in the province with headquarters in the town of Mae Sai, on the border with

Burma.
A Non-Governmental Organization Perspective

64

Nature of the commercial sex industry

There is a high level of patronage of commercial sex workers by

nationals and foreigners in Thailand. There is a disproportionally large

representation of young northern and northeastern women among

commercial sex workers. Many are girls aged from 12 years and in some

cases even younger. Women in their early twenties may therefore have been

engaged in prostitution, intermittently, for up to 10 years.

An informal survey of the number of brothels in Mae Sai over the

five years from 1989 to 1994 revealed:

Year Number of No. of sex workers

brothels

1989 38 250

1990 unknown unknown

1991 42 289

1993 52 318

1994 26 200

In 1994, women from hill tribes or other ethnic minorities in Burma

made up approximately 80 percent of those working in brothels in Mae Sai.

Women from Thai hill tribes or other ethnic minorities made up

approximately 17 percent of that population, while Thai women made up

only three percent of brothel workers in Mae Sai in 1994. 

Commercial sex workers are found not only in brothels but in many

types of establishments. These establishments often house legitimate

business activities but also offer the services of commercial sex workers. 
Ladda Saikaew

65

Examples of these types of establishments include restaurants,

where boys and girls wait on tables but may also be available to keep the

customer company in the restaurant or be rented by the hour or night.

Domestic workers or baby sitters may also be expected to provide sexual

services to the employer and his friends. Beauty salons, in addition to their

traditional beauty services, may provide private rooms for commercial sex

work or a telephone service through which customers request sex workers

to visit their hotel or home. Young women in bars, cafes, pool clubs, game

rooms or karaoke establishments are often available to keep customers

company and may also be rented by the hour to accompany customers

elsewhere. Some massage parlors offer "modern" massages that involve

some form of sexual service. In music pubs, young women perform singing

and dancing for clients and are also available for rent. Young women who

work as caddies on golf courses and on the driving range may be available

for rent to provide sexual services. Young women are often available in

guest houses, hotels or motels to provide room service or to act as a "friend"

to the guest for the period of their holiday. Tourist agents or trekking

companies may also offer young women as companions for the duration of

the customer's vacation.

As can be seen from these examples, the commercial sex industry

is well integrated into other aspects of business life in Thailand, and entry

into sex work can occur through other forms of employment. Child

prostitution must therefore be considered in the context of the labor options

available to young people generally. 

Recruitment into the Sex Industry

Recruitment often takes place through relatives, neighbors, or

friends who are already working in the industry and return home to invite

younger women to join them. Brothel owners in Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai,

and the south of Thailand also have well-established networks of agents.

These people systematically target families who are undergoing economic

hardship and other difficulties in order to convince them to sell their

daughters for much needed cash.

Recruitment of young women into the commercial sex industry
A Non-Governmental Organization Perspective

66

tends to occur in pockets, i.e., in a particular village or even certain streets

within a village. It marks an acceptance, tacit rather than explicit, within the

community that it is acceptable for young women to enter prostitution

because of the perceived financial rewards.

Cross Border Trafficking

While the Thai-Burmese border is currently officially closed, Mae

Sai and surrounding villages act as a funnel for the trafficking of labor from

Burma and southern China. Elsewhere in the province, it is easy to cross

from Laos into Thailand. The economic and political conditions in

neighboring countries make Thailand a desirable destination for many

people. Thailand is also used as a conduit for traveling into other countries.

The relationships and movement of people among these countries will

increase as closer economic and trade relationships develop in the region.

Some women make their own way into Thailand while others are

recruited by agents. People from Mae Sai (who may have Burmese identity

papers or speak Shan) go into Burma and Yunnan (China) to find young

women in remote hill tribe villages who they sell to agents in Chiang Rai.

Involvement of Family, Government Officials, and Local Business

Many people benefit from the recruitment of young women into the

commercial sex industry (see Exploitation Spiral diagram on page 71). The

majority of recruitment occurs with the support of parents. Although there

are reported cases of young women being kidnapped for commercial sex

work, they are in the minority. Family support stems from the view that the

daughter will be able to contribute to the household income and the

purchase of desirable consumer goods.

Traffic on the main roads in Chiang Rai Province is closely

monitored by the police, who demand to see the identification papers of

young people and those whom they suspect are not Thai citizens. For young

girls to travel from their village, or through Mae Sai, there must be a degree

of complicity from village headmen, police and government officials. These

groups can make large profits by assisting in the movement of young
Ladda Saikaew

67

women through providing transport, allowing passage through a roadblock,

and issuing false identity papers. 

Owners of other forms of businesses may also benefit from the

stimulus that the presence of the sex industry provides to commerce as a

whole. In the south of the country, many Malaysians cross the border and

travel to Hat Yai, Phuket and Surat Thani for the weekend. They are

attracted by the open availability of commercial sex. While in Thailand,

they use other services such as hotels, taxis, and restaurants and bars and

buy other products in the markets and shops.

Identification of Target Groups

Young women at risk of entering commercial sex work are

identified through consultation with local teachers and other community

leaders such as monks. These referrals are followed by interviews with the

girl and her family. Case studies are then screened to determine which girls

will be offered places in the program. In 1995, 130 girls were accepted out

of a total of over 400 referrals.

Over six years of experience, the major risk factors, in order of

importance, have been identified as the following:

1. The girl is about to complete primary school and is therefore considered

to be of a suitable age and no longer legally required to go to school.

2. An older sister or relative is already involved in prostitution.

3. The girl has been expelled from school or is not interested in continuing

education or what she sees as hard work, but wants to have money and nice

clothes and to follow her peers.
A Non-Governmental Organization Perspective

68

4. The girl's parents have separated or divorced (especially if one or both

partners have remarried).

5. One or both of the girl's parents are dead, and she is living with relatives

or friends.

6. One or both of the girl's parents are drug addicts, alcoholics, or

compulsive gamblers.

7. The family is living in a village where there is an established tradition of

girls entering the sex industry.

8. The family is living in extreme poverty; for example, they are landless

and depend on erratic, casual work for their income and/or are in debt to the

bank or moneylenders.

From this list, it can be seen that poverty alone is not considered to place a

girl at risk. It is rather the level of family dysfunction and cultural

acceptance of child prostitution that pose the greatest threats.

Activities of the DEP

DEP is currently conducting the following projects:

1. Educational Sponsorship. DEP supports 230 girls attending primary and

secondary school in six districts of Chiang Rai province. They have all been

identified as being at risk of entering prostitution. Most girls live at home

but attend extra-curricular activities at the DEP Centers. Others live at the

Centers because they are considered too vulnerable to live at home or have

no suitable person to take care of them.

2. Vocational Training. DEP conducts vocational training programs in

sewing, weaving, and gem cutting for 90 girls, most of whom also study at

non-formal schools on the weekends.

3. Youth Leadership Training. DEP supports 20 girls who have already left

school in continuing their education through the non-formal education
Ladda Saikaew

69

system. They also participate in personal and leadership development

activities and work experience with a view that they will be future

community leaders.

4. Non-formal School for Young Children. DEP sponsors day care and

instruction in basic literacy for children from very poor and troubled

families who have no nationality or identity papers and therefore have

difficulty enrolling in the formal education system.

5. Information Center. Through the Information Center, DEP disseminates

information about problems which affect children in the North, through girls

doing their own research and producing a newspaper, puppet shows and

other forms of media.

6. Training and Education for Parents. DEP provides a revolving fund

through which parents can borrow money for small-scale income generation

schemes such as growing fruit and vegetables. This year, the program has

begun training parents in simple forms of income generation, such as

cooking food for sale at the market.

Distinguishing Features of DEP

The work of DEP is based on the following principles:

1. Information. In order to respond to child prostitution, it is essential to

gather detailed information regarding the patterns of sale and trafficking in

the area. This facilitates pinpointing particular communities where greater

risk exists. This research is conducted through formal and informal contact

with villagers.

2. Prevention. It is more effective to supply alternatives to girls before they

enter prostitution rather than providing rehabilitation afterwards.

3. Education. It is essential to provide young people with a variety of

educational alternatives so that they can develop skills and explore

alternative avenues of employment.
A Non-Governmental Organization Perspective

70

4. Personal Development. As well as attending school, youth need to

participate in activities that encourage them to learn about social problems

which affect them, think for themselves, develop their own values and make

decisions about their own future.

5. Participation. In order to deal with the problem of child prostitution, the

whole society must be targeted, not just the child at risk and her family. It

is essential to form alliances with government officials, teachers, and

community leaders such as village headmen, monks, and parents, to work

together in addressing the problems of children in the area.

6. Community Strengthening. Villagers also need help to improve their

financial well-being through training and assistance with local income

generation schemes.
Ladda Saikaew

71
72

3. THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA

Gilberto Dimenstein

My interest in child prostitution started in a city called Recife, in the

northeast part of Brazil, in January 1990. It was there where I collected

some of the most shocking reports of my journalistic life. Facts so shocking

that they sent me 50 years back in time and across the Atlantic Ocean,

bringing back images of the Jews slaughtered in World War II that occupied

my childhood education.

Supported by Folha de São Paulo, the largest and most influential

Brazilian newspaper, and UNICEF, I traveled throughout Brazil searching

for data that would confirm the systematic assassination of children by the

police and extermination groups. While investigating violence against girls,

I ended up learning about child prostitution.

A project called "Casa de Passegem" (Passage House) was created

to shelter child prostitutes in Recife. It is one of the few Brazilian

institutions to offer care for these children. This project recorded a very

common method of inducing miscarriages among the young prostitutes,

called "pesada" (stamp or big foot). This method was as simple as it was

cruel: a pregnant girl asked a friend to kick her violently in the stomach.

Deeply distressed by this discovery, the lawyer Ana Vasconcelos, who runs

Casa da Passagem, interviewed the girls in order to find out how and why

they were using this method to abort the fetus. Then she found out

something even more cruel: the girls had learned this method through

police brutality. Many of them had miscarriages after police officers kicked

them in the stomach.

The ongoing discussion when we talk about prostitution in Brazil

is, essentially, the role the press plays as human rights monitors, and how

what we Brazilians call social apartheid can be reduced. 
Gilberto Dimenstein

73

What we usually see, and not only in Brazil, is a deeper concern by

the press regarding the rights of those groups who are more powerful and

better organized, because, generally, they are the readers, consumers, and

advertisers.

To our generation of Brazilian journalists, who have lived under a

military regime, human rights were the rights to read books, create political

parties and write without censorship; never the rights of those who were

poor.

Child prostitution is the most fragile point in what I call the "law of

the social cowardice." Society is more perverse towards those whom it

should protect. The child prostitute synthesizes the dramas of being poor,

female, child, and most of the time, black.

Being among those children made me hear one of the deepest

thoughts I had ever heard during all my journalistic career. One of the girls,

who was eight years old, told me the story of her life -- a life punctuated by

rape, violence, outbreaks of depression and suicidal obsessions. At the end

of the interview, she asked me, "Is it possible to be born again?"

With the release of my book, Brazilian War on Children, I realized

that I was making the same mistakes as society, the press, and especially the

powerful individuals: I was paying little attention to the violence committed

against girls. One of the dimensions of this violence is prostitution.

I tried to interest some female journalists to get involved with the

subject. I did not consider this an ideal task for a man since I thought, and

still believe, that women could get closer to the girls and gain their

confidence more easily. For the girls, a man would tend to personify a

police officer, a father, an aggressive relative, or even a potential client.

I did not succeed until 1991, when the MacArthur Foundation

offered me a scholarship to travel around Brazil and investigate child

prostitution. I decided to follow the poorest prostitution route in the

country, located in the north -- the Amazon and northeast of Brazil. It is

there that the girls are traded and later kept as slaves. I realized that I would
The Role of the Media

74

betray my commitment to journalism if I refused the opportunity. My aim

was to publish a book before the Ecology Summit in Rio de Janeiro in order

to show that the Amazon region contained more than just exotic flora and

fauna.

To compensate for my lack of preparation, I invited a female

photographer to help me record the scenes that I hoped would help me get

closer to the girls I interviewed. I soon realized that I was facing the most

difficult task of my journalistic life. Besides having to walk in an area with

terribly difficult access, I had to learn a totally different language.

In Brazil, there is a huge lack of statistical data, particularly social

data. The government once declared that there were 500,000 child

prostitutes in the country. Nobody knows where this information was taken

from or if these numbers are overestimates.

When I first started this work, I soon realized the extent to which

there is a lack of academic studies and aid projects available for this type of

problem. The press files and data banks were no more informative,

reflecting society's general lack of interest in women, the poor, and children.

What I saw is that girls who lived on the streets were on the verge

of prostitution, and that many of them were forced into it by their own

parents, lovers, or even police officers who demand money. One can

frequently hear girls saying that if they do not provide money to police

officers, they are beaten up or arrested. Some of them say they pay the

police with sex.

I was facing the synthesis of three kinds of oppression; of women,

the poor, and children. The purpose of my journalistic mission was to

strengthen the idea that Brazil, in spite of having regained democracy, still

had a long way to go to move forward. Nothing could 
Gilberto Dimenstein

75

better represent how long this road was than the children's situation. This

was the best barometer of the social situation in Brazil.

I tried to learn the language tricks with the older prostitutes in order

to better communicate with them. They taught me, for example, that I

should never start an interview by asking the name of the interviewee as it

reminded them of the police station atmosphere. They also explained that

most of the time the children do not admit to being prostitutes. They,

instead, know a story about a girl they know who is a prostitute. Actually,

they are trying to find a means to tell us their own story.

As I began to get acquainted with the slavery routes and child

prostitution, I soon realized that not only did the police officers know the

routes, but they were beneficiaries of this trade. Members of the judiciary

were aware of this situation to the extent that a judge once told me,

justifying his lack of interest, that "Capitalism is slavery. What is the

difference between a slave girl and a Ford Company employee?" I also soon

realized that drugs and, of course, gold from Amazon followed the same

route as the girls.

When I interviewed the slave girls, I heard stories that, essentially,

remind us of the Asian drama. Born poor, they were frequently sold by their

families or deceived into false hopes of a good job. Unable to repay their

debts, they remained bound to their self-called "owners." They lived in

remote regions with little access to communication. They were beaten up

every time they disobeyed an order. There are some reports of torture and

even deaths.

Two stories were particularly remarkable during my investigation.

In Rondônia, one miner was refused by a girl. Totally drunk, he then cut off

her head. Afterwards, he went through the streets holding her head in his

hands and screaming, "I want to see who is going to say no to me again." In

Pará, a girl tried to flee many times. On one of these occasions, her socalled owner tied her up with a rope and dragged her around. Afterwards,

he placed her in a square and, out of his mind, rubbed lemon on her skin.

I could spend hours and hours here if I were to tell you all the
The Role of the Media

76

stories. There are some girls who lost their virginity in return for a doll.

There are others who came under the hammer, just like animals, and were

sold to farmers.

Two points stand out in this investigation. First, the victims did not

know that they have rights. Second, society, the press included, were not

sensitive to the principle that everybody has the right to have rights.

Basically, the situation has not changed very much. One of the

main reasons is that children are unable to vote, do not write articles to be

published in newspapers, and do not have friends in Congress. The

pervasive poverty, impunity, and lack of political will regarding vulnerable

groups are still obstacles.

But we can at least say that the situation is not exactly the same, as

my report did have some effect. Thanks to the personal commitment of my

editor-in-chief, Otavio Frias Filho, the story was published for several days

with unlimited space. Considering that the Folha de São Paulo is the most

influential Brazilian newspaper, we could influence the country, opinion

makers, and decision makers.

Raids were carried out on the slavery centers in Amazonia and

commissions were created in Congress to look into the situation at both state

and federal levels. The media got interested enough to produce some reports

on the subject. Thanks to several NGOs, some instructive campaigns are

being prepared.

My personal experience as an investigative journalist who published

articles on child prostitution in Brazil is one example of how the media can

provoke people into thinking that although it seems impossible, we can help

human beings be born again. This lesson is vital not only regarding the

distant brothels in the Amazonian jungle, but the former Yugoslavia or

Rwanda, and even a few blocks from here in Washington, D.C., plagued by

a war zone with murdered children.
77

4. THE CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF

THE CHILD AND THE WORLD CONGRESS

ON THE COMMERCIAL SEXUAL

EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN,

STOCKHOLM 1996

Bertil Lindblad

On behalf of UNICEF, I wish to thank the Department of Labor and

the Department of State for organizing this important symposium. It is very

timely as we are preparing for the World Congress Against Commercial

Sexual Exploitation of Children next year. 

I would like to take this opportunity to say a few words on the

Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was referred to by several of

my colleagues earlier this morning. It is a unique treaty in that it is nearly

universally ratified. To date, 179 countries have ratified the Convention.

In addition, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which

consists of ten experts who monitor compliance with the Convention, is a

very active committee and tries to work in non-traditional ways. I think this

is very important with particular regard to issues such as child prostitution

or other forms of exploitation and abuse of children. To give you an

example, tomorrow evening, nine of the ten Committee members will be

travelling to South Asia for a two-week field visit facilitated by UNICEF.

I myself will have the opportunity to be with members of the Committee in

Bangladesh and Nepal. Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka will also be visited.

These trips serve as opportunities for the Committee to get firsthand information and develop contacts and dialogue with governments,

NGOs and other bodies, in addition to the routine process of reporting that

is established under the Convention. The International Labor Organization

and key international NGOs will be present at one consultation with the

Committee in Nepal. In Bangladesh, where the program includes the issue

of prostitution, the Committee on the Rights of the Child and UNICEF will

meet with local NGOs who are addressing this issue in the Bangladesh
The Convention on the Rights of the Child and the World Congress

78

context.

I would also like to emphasize that the issues that we are discussing

today are very much part of the reports and the discussion that the

Committee holds with each government. There is, in fact, a separate

document on the issues related to child prostitution and child pornography,

which summarizes the discussions that the Committee has had to date with,

I believe, 38 governments.

UNICEF is increasingly using the Convention and the process of

reporting the work of the Committee as a basis for its country programming.

Let us return to the fact that we heard earlier this morning that in Latin

America there is a lack of government programs addressing the issue of

child prostitution. Here we have opportunities, using the reports and

recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, to plan

programs in the areas of development cooperation, social services, training,

and advocacy.

I would like to take this opportunity to say that UNICEF is

increasingly getting involved in the so-called child protection issues -- what

we normally refer to as children in especially difficult circumstances.

Thanks to the Convention, we have new ways to address these problems

with governments and other partners.

This leads me to UNICEF's role in the World Congress on the

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. The establishment of the

World Congress is largely thanks to the work of End Child Prostitution in

Asian Tourism (ECPAT) and its campaign, which in 1994 called for a global

meeting to take place among governments, NGOs, the United Nations, and

Interpol, to tackle the issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children.

At the ECPAT executive meeting in 1994 it was agreed that ECPAT would

approach a number of governments regarding the possibility of holding such

a congress. The government of Sweden, which has taken this issue very

seriously, responded and agreed to host the Congress in August of 1996 in

Stockholm. 

The Congress was formally announced at the Women's Conference
Bertil Lindblad

79

in Beijing by Mrs. Lisbeth Palnay, the chairperson of the host committee in

Sweden. It was also discussed at the NGO forum at the youth tent activities

as well as the panel on the girl child. It is very encouraging that the issues

of trafficking and prostitution became so prominent in Beijing.

 

A joint committee, of which Professor Muntarbhorn is a member,

has been set up to prepare the content of workshops and seminars at the

Congress. The joint committee consists of representatives of the Swedish

government, ECPAT, UNICEF, and the NGO group for the Convention on

the Rights of the Child, which represents 37 international NGOs, many of

which have been directly involved in advocacy and programs for children

who have been victimized by sexual exploitation and prostitution. This

Congress will, we hope, be unique in that there will not be separate NGO

forums and government meetings as is usually the case in United Nations

conferences.

We want the Congress to be a commitments conference, not just

another world meeting that stops at declarations and good intentions. We

want to develop strategies and get commitments from governments, the

United Nations family, NGOs, and Interpol on recommended strategies

which are in place. As we heard earlier today, many mechanisms already

exist, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the program

of action which has been approved, but now it is time to get a full

commitment for their implementation. 

The Congress will be a two-day meeting starting on the 27th of

August, 1996, followed by three days of workshops and seminars, all

addressing various aspects of the problem. These will include advocacy,

rehabilitation, underlying causes, tourism as a factor, and child prostitution

as a form of most hazardous exploitative child labor.

What is also very interesting, we feel, about the preparations for this

Congress is the fact that we have agreed to a process of consultation.

UNICEF, in collaboration with NGOs, has agreed to facilitate regional

consultations in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe. This is

not a UNICEF or United Nations conference -- it is a world congress against

commercial sexual exploitation, so it will be a joint effort. It is very
80

encouraging that many of the active and pioneering NGOs are now well

underway in reaching out to their partners and networks all over the world,

collecting information, developing new strategies, and writing up case

studies on successful programs. We have also heard in the course of today's

symposium about several successful initiatives, and they should be shared

with others in Stockholm. 

We are also trying to address issues such as the numbers and the

causes of commercial sexual exploitation of children, and the various sectors

which need to be involved. As Professor Muntarbhorn stated, the

participation of the private sector is key. We have had the opportunity to

collaborate with the World Tourism Organization and the United Federation

of Travel Agents. We are also working with the Hotel and Tourism Branch

of the International Labor Organization.

 

The International Labor Organization, World Health Organization

and the United Nations High Commission on Refugees will also have

important roles in the Congress. They have participated in some of the

planning meetings in Geneva, the next of which will take place three weeks

from today. We are now getting into detailed planning of the conference, its

program, and the various recommendations which will be presented.

 

At UNICEF, we have strengthened our capacity to provide as much

input as possible to facilitate the conference preparations. We are looking

at our own history of support to various NGOs and other partners. As I

mentioned earlier, the field trip of the Committee on the Rights of the Child

to South Asia will, to some extent, specifically focus on trafficking and

prostitution in that region. We will have the opportunity to spend some time

with Committee members and will be able to use what we learn as input to

the World Congress and future UNICEF, ILO, and NGO programs on child

prostitution and trafficking.

AFTERWORD

Secretary of Labor Reich recently described the crime of selling

children into prostitution as "simply intolerable." 
Andrew J. Samet

81

Indeed, most anybody who learns even the least bit about the tragic

circumstances of children forced into prostitution shares this sense of

intolerability and becomes an advocate for action. That is certainly true for

those of us at the Department of Labor who have researched this issue, and

it is our hope that it will be true for those who have read this volume.

There is simply no acceptable rationalization for the toleration of

the forced prostitution of children -- a practice which violates every basic

human right and is forced labor at its most depraved. Many of the

contributors to this volume, including Professor Vitit Muntharbhorn, are

amongst those heroes who have helped to bring clarity and focus to a

practice that flourishes in the haze and shadows. In his important keynote

address, Representative Joseph Kennedy emphasized that public exposure

is one of the most effective approaches to combatting this problem. We

hope this volume is one small contribution to this larger effort.

Since the September symposium, the Department of Labor has

continued its efforts to broaden the international dialogue on forced child

prostitution. We have emphasized the need for the ILO's child labor

program to devote resources to the child prostitution problem. In addition

to an ILO program in Thailand that is being supported by the Department of

Labor, the ILO is initiating a program in Nepal, and is considering

additional programs in Southeast Asia. These programs offer some hope to

a small fraction of the number of children at risk. They can, however, also

act as catalysts for broader governmental responses in the countries where

forced child prostitution flourishes.
Afterword

82

Moreover, the ILO is moving towards the adoption of a new

convention on child exploitation which provides an important opportunity

to further the international legal sanctions against governments that tolerate

this trade. Of course, a shortage of international instruments outlawing child

prostitution is not the cause of the growing tragedy. Rather, it is the lack of

political will to effectively enforce existing domestic and international laws.

However, a new ILO convention will permit us to put in place stronger

mechanisms to hold governments accountable for their failure to act

decisively against this form of exploitation.

There are also some encouraging signs that political leaders are

facing the need to deal with child labor exploitation generally, and child

prostitution specifically. In the last eighteen months, we have heard

important statements from the leaders of many countries, including

Thailand, the Philippines, Brazil and Vietnam, on the need for strong action

against child sexual exploitation. The commitment of resources for

adequate school opportunities and genuine law enforcement against the

criminals involved in this trade are still largely to come. But a first step to

solving a problem is recognizing that one exists.

A forthcoming conference in Sweden in August 1996 also offers an

opportunity to expand the international consensus for greater action. And

we are aware that the European Union is considering additional instruments

that would combat trafficking in women and children for sexual

exploitation. 

We are also encouraged that this issue has come to the attention of

insightful columnists such as Bob Herbert of The New York Times. Herbert

wrote a column in January 1996 called "Kids for Sale." 

Simple -- and tragic -- as that. "It is possible," writes Herbert, "but not easy

to imagine lives more hideous than those of generations of children who are

fed like cheap fuel into Thailand's flourishing sex industry." Herbert could

have also used the names of many other countries in that statement. 
Andrew J. Samet

83

Clearly, much remains to be done. We hope to continue our work,

and we hope that this volume will encourage others to join the effort.

 

Andrew James Samet 

Associate Deputy Under Secretary

for International Labor Affairs

U.S. Department of Labor

Washington, DC

February 1996 

APPENDICES

87

Appendix A: The International Law Enforcement

Response Against Child Sexual Exploitation

Submitted to the Department of Labor for the September 1995 Symposium

by the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL)

Stepping up the struggle against child exploitation was Interpol's

new challenge in 1989 when the French President inaugurated the new

Interpol Headquarters in Lyons, France. He drew the attention of Interpol

member countries to what he called an "area of unspeakable suffering," the

exploitation of children in various forms. This statement followed the

adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child at the 44th General

Assembly of the United Nations. The Interpol General Assembly in Dakar

in 1992 marked the subsequent progress made in Interpol's project on

offenses against minors. A report with a number of conclusions as well as

a resolution creating a Standing Working Party on Offenses Against Minors

was approved and adopted. Moreover, the General Assembly recommended

that "member countries review their legislation with a view to introducing,

where necessary, the measures recommended in the conclusions."

Since then, the Standing Working Party has met five times and a

number of objectives have been achieved. Furthermore, the General

Secretariat has given more and more priority to this sensitive field by

strengthening the links between the United Nations Ad Hoc Committees and

Interpol and by promoting shared views in favor of the "best interest of the

child" in various conferences throughout the world.

The international response against trafficking of children for sexual

exploitation was illustrated in 1994 with a tremendous impulse towards

better prosecution of child sex offenders. Campaigns denounced the

growing number of pedophiles, pretending to be tourists, who travel from

the western countries to the developing countries, also known as "victim" or

"receiving" countries. Their aim is clearly to engage illicit sexual activity

with easily available and cheap young prostituted children, an activity that

would be forbidden in their home country. Sex tourism is closely connected

with the growing multi-million dollar a year industry of child prostitution
Appendix A

88

throughout the world. 

Sexual abuse of children takes place in most countries. The

incredible escalation of child prostitution over the last ten years is directly

caused by the tourism trade. Child prostitution is the newest tourist

attraction offered by developing countries. The parallel to this phenomenon

in the Western countries is the explosion of a huge underground trade in

child pornography in videos and magazines. Since laws against child

prostitution are stringently enforced in most affluent countries, pornographic

films and photographs often have their origin in countries where child

prostitution has become a temporary escape from poverty for struggling

rural people.

Since the adoption of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the

Child, the international community has paid increasing attention to the

problem of child sexual exploitation. In this framework, as the only

international law enforcement organization, Interpol has highly promoted

all actions that would allow for better prosecution of child sex offenders.

This was illustrated through the Interpol Standing Working Party on

Offenses Against Minors which brings together law enforcement delegates

from the major Western and Asian countries and aims at finding a law

enforcement response to this particularly sensitive field of criminality.

Since its creation, the Standing Working Party is successfully complying

with the objectives it has set out, i.e., to implement the Interpol conclusions

with respect to general and law enforcement measures.

Moreover, the Interpol General Secretariat is promoting and

sponsoring a number of international conferences aimed at finding solutions

to end the sexual exploitation of children.

Interpol is involved, in an expert capacity, in the first World

Congress on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, which will be

hosted by the Swedish Government in August 1996 and will bring 
INTERPOL Submission

89

together high-level government officials in order to obtain declared

international involvement.

Furthermore, and bearing in mind that training for police officers is

a main issue for the Standing Working Party, a "Pilot Training Programme

for Law Enforcement Officials: juveniles, human rights and the

administration of juvenile justice" was drafted by the United Nations Center

for Human Rights in Geneva with the active collaboration of Interpol's

General Secretariat and the delegates of the Standing Working Party. Law

enforcement officials in selected "victim" countries will receive this pilot

training programme (Sri Lanka, Hungary), after which it will be evaluated

and modified if necessary. After the test period, this training program will

be available for all the developing countries in order to improve the law

enforcement response to child sexual abuse.

There are hundreds of thousands of prostituted children in the

developing countries. It is our responsibility to give priority to this "area of

unspeakable suffering," as it is our duty to act in favor of the eradication of

all kinds of offenses against children. The progress which has been made

so far depends to a large extent on the cooperation of and between the

Interpol member countries. We have to bear in mind that children's rights

require special protection and must call for continuous improvement of the

situation of the children all over the world.

Interpol General Secretariat

14th September 1995
90

Appendix B: About the Symposium Speakers

Dorianne Beyer is Executive Director of Defense for Children

International-USA, the autonomous national section of Defense for Children

International (DCI). DCI, since its inception in 1986, has been the leading

agency supporting and advocating the implementation of children's rights

as contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. DCI-USA is a

prime resource for information and public education efforts on child

prostitution, most recently through its landmark investigation entitled "Sex

Tourism and Children in the Dominican Republic." Ms. Beyer has been a

leading child labor lawyer for almost 20 years and has served as a consultant

to governments, corporations, youth service agencies and the NGO

community on many issues relating to the laws and policies affecting

working children and their relationship to youth employment and

development.

Pannuda Boonpala is a Programme Officer at the International Labor

Organization's International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor

(IPEC) in Geneva. Prior to joining the ILO's Geneva staff, Ms. Pannuda

served as an IPEC coordinator in Thailand and coordinated child labor

awareness campaigns and activities for non-governmental organizations in

Asia. During her two years at IPEC-Thailand, she participated in the design

of all Thai IPEC partners' projects and supervised the implementation of

IPEC support activities, including the program on children in prostitution

implemented by the Daughters' Education Program. Ms. Pannuda completed

her post graduate studies in Labor Welfare and Development at Thammasat

University in Bangkok. 

Gilberto Dimenstein is an award-winning journalist and author of several

books and reports on child prostitution, street children, and children's and

human rights in Brazil. He has been a reporter for several news magazines

and newspapers and is a syndicated columnist for the daily Folha de S.

Paulo. Mr. Dimenstein is author of Little Girls of the Night (1992), an

investigative report sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation on juvenile

prostitution and the enslavement of girls. The book, which has been

translated into French, Italian, and German, was the basis for a segment of

the ABC network TV program Turning Point in August 1994. Mr.
About the Symposium Speakers

91

Dimenstein is a recipient of the first Brazilian national human rights award

(1995). He has also received several awards for his reporting, including the

Esso Award of Journalism in 1988, the UNICEF Child and Peace

Information award in 1993, and Columbia University's Maria Moors Cabot

Special Citation in 1990 for his stories on street children in Brazil. He

studied journalism at Cásper Líbero College in São Paulo, Brazil. 

J. Robert Flores is the Acting Deputy Chief with the Child Exploitation and

Obscenity Section of the Department of Justice, Criminal Division, and has

been a federal prosecutor for 5 years. Before coming to the Justice

Department, he served as an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, where

he successfully prosecuted several highly publicized child sexual abuse

cases, including a major child prostitution network. Mr. Flores has

prosecuted hundreds of criminal cases in his career and teaches regularly at

conferences and seminars throughout the United States on criminal

procedure, criminal law, investigative procedures and computer crime.

Currently, he is overseeing the Customs Service's "Operation Long Arm,"

a national computer child pornography investigation which is expected to

make new law in the area of child sexual exploitation and computer crime.

Mr. Flores prosecuted the first federal computer child pornography case to

go to trial in the United States.

Joseph P. Kennedy II, first elected in 1986, is currently serving his fifth

Congressional term from the 8th Congressional District in Massachusetts.

Representative Kennedy is the eldest son of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and

Ethel Kennedy. Before beginning his service in Congress, Representative

Kennedy headed Citizens Energy Corporation, a non-profit energy

assistance company founded in 1979 to provide cut-rate heating oil for lowincome residents. Committed to looking out for the working people of his

district and the nation as a whole, he has worked hard to improve health care

for veterans and older Americans, create affordable housing and stimulate

job growth. Representative Kennedy is a member of the House Banking and

Financial Services Committee and serves as the ranking minority member

of the Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee. In 1994,

Representative Kennedy co-sponsored legislation which became law in 1994

that makes it a crime for a U.S. citizen to travel abroad for the purposes of

having sex with a minor. 
Appendix B

92

Bertil Lindblad has served as Senior Advisor/Children in Especially

Difficult Circumstances (CEDC) at the United Nations Children's Fund

(UNICEF) in New York since 1994. As Chief of the CEDC Section of the

Program Division, Mr. Lindblad provides advisory support and technical

assistance to UNICEF regional and country offices in the area of child

protection as well as program aspects of child rights and policy issues.

Before joining UNICEF, Mr. Lindblad, a Swedish national, worked for 10

years at Swedish Save the Children in various capacities, including Asia

Coordinator and Resident Representative in Vietnam from 1991-94. Prior

to Save the Children, he served in the NGO Section of the Swedish

International Development Authority (SIDA) and at the Swedish Embassy

in Moscow. Mr. Lindblad is a graduate of Pomona College in Claremont,

California, where he received a degree in international relations. He did

graduate work at Claremont Graduate School (1980) and studied at the

Sorbonne and Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. 

Vitit Muntarbhorn is a Professor at the Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn

University, Bangkok, Thailand. He served as the United Nations Special

Rapporteur on the Sale and Trafficking of Women and Children from 1990-

1994. In this capacity, Mr. Muntarbhorn produced four comprehensive

reports on national and international developments in the areas of the sale

of children, child prostitution and child pornography. He is currently

executive director of Child Rights ASIANET. 

Karen Nussbaum is Director of the Department of Labor's Women's

Bureau, which was created in 1920 to formulate standards and policies to

promote the welfare of working women. She has a long record as a leader,

policy expert and spokesperson for women in the workforce. Prior to

becoming the 13th director of the Women's Bureau, Ms. Nussbaum led 9to5,

the National Association of Working Women, which she co-founded in

1973. In 1981, she also become president of District 925 of the Service

Employees International Union. District 925 is a national union of office

and professional employees. A native of Chicago, Nussbaum currently lives

in Washington, D.C. with her husband and three children.

Joaquin F. Otero has served as Deputy Under Secretary for International
About the Symposium Speakers

93

Labor Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor and as the U.S. Government

Representative to the United Nations' International Labor Organization since

1993. In these functions, Mr. Otero is the head of the Bureau of

International Labor Affairs (ILAB), the agency responsible for policy,

program development and implementation of all Department of Labor

matters that impact on U.S. foreign policy. He serves on the U.S. Board of

the Foreign Service and represents the Secretary of Labor on the President's

Export Council and on several inter-agency boards. Mr. Otero began his

career as a trade unionist with the Transportation Communications

International Union, for which he served as an elected International Vice

President from 1971-1993. At the time of his Department of Labor

appointment, he was also an elected Vice-President of the AFL-CIO. Mr.

Otero, a Cuban-American, is known as a national Hispanic leader through

his involvement in organized labor and grassroot politics.

Ladda Saikaew is Coordinator of the Vocational Training Program of the

Daughter's Education Program (DEP), a non-governmental organization

based in the northern Thai province of Chiang Rai. DEP receives financial

support from numerous international agencies and donors, including

UNICEF and the International Labor Organization. Prior to her work at the

DEP, Ms. Ladda was a Field Officer at the Thai Department of Community

Development. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Community Development

at the Chiang Rai Teachers College. Ms. Ladda grew up in the Mae Suai

district of Chiang Rai Province, an area with many poor hill tribe and Thai

communities and a high prevalence of drug abuse. In the year she

completed primary school, 35 percent of the girls in Ms. Ladda's class went

to work in the commercial sex industry. 

Andrew J. Samet was appointed Associate Deputy Under Secretary for

International Labor Affairs by Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich in

September 1993. He supervises international economic and labor policy

operations for the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor

Affairs. Previously, he served as legislative director to Senator Daniel P.

Moynihan of New York and as an associate in the Washington, DC office of

the law firm of Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander & Ferdon. Mr. Samet

received his B.A. degree from Yale College, a M.A. degree from Carleton

University (Canada), and a J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law
Appendix B

94

Center.

Gare A. Smith is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Labor and External Affairs

in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S.

Department of State. His responsibilities include working with foreign

governments, multilateral organizations, the Congress, and domestic

industries regarding the promotion of international labor standards, workers'

rights, and human rights. He is the State Department delegate to the

International Labor Organization. Prior to joining the State Department, Mr.

Smith served for five years as senior foreign policy advisor and counsel to

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. From 1985-89, Mr. Smith

practiced in the Washington, DC law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer

and Feld. Mr. Smith received his B.A. degree in English from Johns

Hopkins University and his law degree from the University of Michigan

Law School. Mr. Smith has written syndicated commentaries on

international conflicts and has published law review articles on multilateral

organizations and criminal law.
95

Appendix C: ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor

The General Conference of the International Labour Organization,

Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the

International Labour Office, and having met in its Fourteenth Session on 10

June 1930, and

Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard

to forced or compulsory labour, which is included in the first item on the

agenda of the Session, and

Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of an

international Convention,

adopts this twenty-eighth day of June of the ear one thousand nine hundred

and thirty the following Convention, which may be cited as the Forced

Labour Convention, 1930, for ratification by the Members of the

International Labour Organization in accordance with the provisions of the

Constitution of the International Labour Organization:

Article 1

1. Each Member of the International Labour Organization which

ratifies this Convention undertakes to suppress the use of forced or

compulsory labour in all its forms within the shortest possible period.

2. With a view to this complete suppression, recourse to forced or

compulsory labour may be had, during the transitional period, for public

purposes only and as an exceptional measure, subject to the conditions and

guarantees hereinafter provided.

3. At the expiration of a period of five years after the coming into force

of this Convention, and when the Governing Body of the International

Labour Office prepares the report provided for in Article 31 below, the said

Governing Body shall consider the possibility of the suppression of forced

or compulsory labour in all its forms without a further transitional period
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96

and desirability of placing this question on the agenda of the Conference.

Article 2

1. For the purposes of this Convention the term "forced or compulsory

labour" shall mean all work or service which is exacted from any person

under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not

offered himself voluntarily.

2. Nevertheless, for the purposes of this Convention, the term "forced

or compulsory labour" shall not include;

(a) any work or service exacted in virtue of compulsory military service

laws for work of a purely military character;

(b) any work or service which forms part of the normal civic obligations

of the citizens of a fully self-governing country;

(c) any work or service exacted from any person as a consequence of

a conviction in a court of law, provided that the said work or service is

carried out under the supervision and control of a public authority and that

the said person is not hired to or placed at the disposal of private

individuals, companies or associations;

(d) any work or service exacted in cases of emergency, that is to say, in

the event of war or of a calamity or threatened calamity, such as fire, flood,

famine, earthquake, violent epidemic or epizootic diseases, invasion by

animal, insect or vegetable pests, and in general any circumstance that

would endanger the existence or the well-being of the whole or part of the

population:

(e) minor communal services of a kind which, being performed by the

members of the community in the direct interest of the said community, can

therefore be considered as normal civic obligations incumbent upon the

members of the community, provided that the members of the community

or their direct representatives shall have the right to be consulted in regard

to the need for such services.
ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor

97

Article 3

For the purposes of this Convention the term "competent authority" shall

mean either an authority of the metropolitan country or the highest central

authority in the territory concerned.

Article 4

1. The competent authority shall not impose or permit the imposition

of forced or compulsory labour for the benefit of private individuals,

companies or associations.

2. Where such forced or compulsory labour for the benefit of private

individuals, companies or associations exists at the date on which a

Member's ratification of this Convention is registered by the DirectorGeneral of the International Labour Office, the Member shall completely

suppress such forced or compulsory labour from the date on which this

Convention comes into force for that Member.

Article 5

1. No concession granted to private individuals, companies or

associations shall involve any form of forced or compulsory labour for the

production or the collection of products which such private individuals,

companies or associations utilize or in which they trade.

2. Where concessions exist containing provisions involving such

forced or compulsory labour, such provisions shall be rescinded as soon as

possible, in order to comply with Article 1 of this Convention.

Article 6

Officials of the administration, even when they have the duty of encouraging

the populations under their charge to engage in some form of labour, shall

not put constraint upon the said populations or upon any individual

members thereof to work for private individuals, companies or associations.
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98

Article 7

1. Chiefs who do not exercise administrative functions shall not have

recourse to forced or compulsory labour.

2. Chiefs who exercise administrative functions may with the express

permission of the competent authority, have recourse to forced or

compulsory labour, subject to the provisions of Article 10 of this

Convention.

3. Chiefs who are duly recognized and who do not receive adequate

remuneration in other forms may have the enjoyment of personal services,

subject to due regulation and provided that all necessary measures are taken

to prevent abuses.

Article 8

1. The responsibility for every decision to have recourse to forced or

compulsory labor shall rest with the highest civil authority in the territory

concerned.

2. Nevertheless, that authority may delegate powers to the highest

local authorities to exact forced or compulsory labour which does not

involve the removal of the workers from their place of habitual residence.

That authority may also delegate, for such periods and subject to such

conditions as may be laid down in the regulations provided for in Article 23

of this Convention, powers to the highest local authorities to exact forced or

compulsory labour which involves the removal of the workers from their

place of habitual residence for the purpose of facilitating the movement of

officials of the administration, when on duty, and for the transport of

government stores.
ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor

99

Article 9

Except as otherwise provided for in Article 10 of this Convention, any

authority competent to exact forced or compulsory labour shall, before

deciding to have recourse to such labour, satisfy itself:

(a) that the work to be done or the service to be rendered is of important

direct interest for the community called upon to do the work or render the

service;

(b) that the work or service is of present or imminent necessity;

(c) that it has been impossible to obtain voluntary labour for carrying

out the work or rendering the service by the offer of rates of wages and

conditions of labour not less favorably than those prevailing in the area

concerned for similar work or service; and

(d) that the work or service will not lay too heavy a burden upon the

present population, having regard to the labour available and its capacity to

undertake the work.

Article 10

1. Forced or compulsory labour exacted as a tax and forced or

compulsory labour to which recourse is had for the execution of public

works by chiefs who ascaris administrative functions shall be progressively

abolished.

2. Meanwhile, where forced or compulsory labour is exacted as a tax,

and where recourse is had to forced or compulsory labour for the execution

of public works by chiefs who exercise administrative functions, the

authority concerned shall first satisfy itself:

(a) that the work to be done or the service to be rendered is of

important direct interest for the community called upon to do the work or

render the service;
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100

(b) that the work or the service is of present or imminent necessity;

(c) that the work or service will not lay too heavy a burden upon the

present population, having regard to the labour available and its capacity to

undertake the work;

(d) that the work or service will not entail the removal of the workers

from their place of habitual residence;

(e) that the execution of the work or the rendering of the service will be

directed in accordance with the exigencies of religion, social life and

agriculture.

Article 11

1. Only adult able-bodied males who are of an apparent age of not less

than 18 and not more than 45 years may be called upon for forced or

compulsory labour. Except in respect of the kinds of labour provided for in

Article 10 of this Convention, the following limitations and conditions shall

apply;

(a) whenever possible prior determination by a medical officer

appointed by the administration that the persons concerned are not suffering

from any infectious or contagious disease and that they are physically fit for

the work required and for the conditions under which it is to be carried out;

(b) exemption of school teachers and pupils and of officials of the

administration in general;

(c) the maintenance in each community of the number of adult ablebodied me indispensable for family and social life;

(d) respect for conjugal and family ties.

2. For the purposes of subparagraph (c) of the preceding paragraph, the

regulations provided for in Article 23 of this Convention shall fix the

proportion of the resident adult able-bodied males who may be taken at any
ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor

101

one time for forced or compulsory labour, provided always that this

proportion shall in no case exceed 25 per cent. In fixing this proportion the

competent authority shall take account of the density of the population, of

its social and physical development, of the seasons, and of the work which

must be done by the persons concerned on their own behalf in their locality,

and, generally, shall have regard to the economic and social necessities of

the normal life of the community concerned.

Article 12

1. The maximum period for which any person may be taken for forced

or compulsory labour of all kinds in any one period of 12 months shall not

exceed 60 days, including the time spent in going to and from the place of

work.

2. Every person from whom forced or compulsory labour is exacted

shall be furnished with a certificate indicating the periods of such labour

which he has completed.

Article 13

1. The normal working hours of any person from whom forced or

compulsory labour is exacted shall be the same as those prevailing in the

case of voluntary labour, and the hours worked in excess of the normal

working hours shall be remunerated at the rates prevailing in the case of

overtime for voluntary labour.

2. A weekly day of rest shall be granted to all persons from whom

forced or compulsory labour of any kind is exacted and this day shall

coincide as far as possible with the day fixed by tradition or custom in the

territories or regions concerned.

Article 14

1. With the exception of the forced or compulsory labour provided for

in Article 10 of this Convention, forced or compulsory labour of all kinds

shall be remunerated in cash at rates not less than those prevailing for
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102

similar kinds of work either in the district in which the labour is employed

or in the district from which the labour is recruited, whichever may be the

higher.

2. In the case of labour to which recourse is had by chiefs in the ascaris

of their administrative functions, payment of wages in accordance with the

provisions of the preceding paragraph shall be introduced as soon as

possible.

3. The wages shall be paid to each worker individually and not to his

tribal chief or to any other authority.

4. For the purpose of payment of wages the days spent in travelling to

and from the place of work shall be counted as working days.

5. Nothing in this Article shall prevent ordinary rations being given as

a part of wages, such rations to be at least equivalent in value to the money

payment they are taken to represent, but deductions from wages shall not be

made either for the payment of taxes or for special food, clothing or

accommodation supplied to a worker for the purpose of maintaining him in

a fit condition to carry on his work under the special conditions of any

employment, or for the supply of tools.

Article 15

1. Any laws or regulations relating to workmen's compensation for

accidents or sickness arising out of the employment of the worker and any

laws or regulations providing compensation for the dependents of deceased

or incapacitated workers which are or shall be in force in the territory

concerned shall be equally applicable to persons from whom forced or

compulsory labour is exacted and to voluntary workers.

2. In any case it shall be an obligation on any authority employing any

worker on forced or compulsory labour to ensure the subsistence of any such

worker who, by accident or sickness arising out of his employment, is

rendered wholly or partially incapable of providing for himself, and to take

measures to ensure the maintenance of any persons actually dependent upon
ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor

103

such a worker in the event of his incapacity or decease arising out of his

employment.

Article 16

1. Except in cases of special necessity, persons from whom forced or

compulsory labour is exacted shall not be transferred to districts where the

food and climate differ so considerably from those to which they have been

accustomed as to endanger their health.

2. In no case shall the transfer of such workers be permitted unless all

measures relating to hygiene and accommodate which are necessary to adapt

such workers to the conditions and to safeguard their health can be strictly

applied.

3. When such transfer cannot be avoided, measures of gradual

habituation to the new conditions of diet and of climate shall be adopted on

competent medical advice.

4. In cases where such workers are required to perform regular work

to which they are not accustomed, measures shall be taken to ensure their

habituation to it, especially as regards progressive training, the hours of

work and the provision of rest intervals, and any increase or amelioration of

diet which may be necessary.

Article 17

Before permitting recourse to forced or compulsory labour for works of

construction or maintenance which entail the workers remaining at the

workplace for considerable periods, the competent authority shall satisfy

itself;

(1) that all necessary measures are taken to safeguard the health of the

workers and to guarantee the necessary medical care, and, in particular, (a)

that the workers are medically examined before commencing the work and

at fixed intervals during the period of service, (b) that there is an adequate

medical staff, provided with the dispensaries, infirmaries, hospitals and
Appendix C

104

equipment necessary to meet all requirements, and (c) that the sanitary

conditions of the workplaces, the supply of drinking water, food, fuel, and

cooking utensils, and, where necessary, of housing and clothing, are

satisfactory;

(2) that definite arrangements are made to ensure the subsistence of the

families of the workers, in particular by facilitating the remittance, by a safe

method, of part of the wages to the family, at the request or with the consent

of the workers;

(3) that the journeys of the workers to and from the workplaces are

made at the expense and under the responsibility of the administration,

which shall facilitate such journeys by making the fullest use of all available

means of transport;

(4) that, in case of illness or accident causing incapacity to work of a

certain duration, the worker is repatriated at the expense of the

administration;

(5) that any worker who may wish to remain as a voluntary worker at

the end of his period of forced or compulsory labour is permitted to do so

without, for a period of two years, losing his right to repatriation free of

expense to himself.

Article 18

1. Forced or compulsory labour for the transport of persons or goods,

such as the labour of porters or boatmen, shall be abolished within the

shortest possible period. Meanwhile the competent authority shall

promulgate regulations determining, inter alia, (a) that such labour shall

only be employed for the purpose of facilitating the movement of officials

of the administration, when on duty, or for the transport of government

stores, or, in cases of very urgent necessity, the transport of persons other

than officials, (b) that the workers so employed shall be medically certified

to be physically fit, where medical examination is possible, and that where

such medical examination is not practicable the person employing such

workers shall be held responsible for ensuring that they are physically fit
ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor

105

and not suffering from any infectious or contagious disease, (c) the

maximum load which these workers may carry, (d) the maximum distance

from their homes to which they may be taken, (e) the maximum number of

days per month or other period for which they may be taken, including the

days spent in returning to their homes, and (f) the persons entitled to

demand this form of forced or compulsory labour and the extent to which

they are entitled to demand it.

2. In fixing the maxima referred to under (c), (d) and (e) in the

foregoing paragraph, the competent authority shall have regard to all

relevant factors, including the physical development of the population from

which the workers are recruited, the nature of the country through which

they must travel and the climatic conditions.

3. The competent authority shall further provide that the normal daily

journey of such workers shall not exceed a distance corresponding to an

average working day of eight hours, it being understood that account shall

be taken not only of the weight to be carried and the distance to be covered,

but also of the nature of the road, the season and all other relevant factors,

and that, where hours of journey in excess of the normal daily journey are

exacted, they shall be remunerated at rates higher than the normal rates.

Article 19

1. The competent authority shall only authorize recourse to

compulsory cultivation ad a method of precaution against famine or a

deficiency of food supplies and always under the condition that the food or

produce shall remain the property of the individuals or the community

producing it.

2. Nothing in this Article shall be construed as abrogating the

obligation on members of a community, where production is organized on

a communal basis by virtue of law or custom and where the produce or any

profit accruing from the sale thereof remain the property of the community,

to perform the work demanded by the community by virtue of law or

custom.
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106

Article 20

Collective punishment laws under which a community may be punished for

crimes committed by any of its members shall not contain provisions for

forced or compulsory labour by the community as one of the methods of

punishment.

Article 21

Forced or compulsory labour shall not be used for work underground in

mines.

Article 22

The annual reports that Members which ratify this Convention agree to

make to the International Labour Office, pursuant to the provisions of

Article 22 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization, on

the measures they have taken to give effect to possible, in respect of each

territory concerned, regarding the extent to which recourse has been had to

force or compulsory labour in that territory, the purposes for which it has

been employed, the sickness and death rates, hours of work, methods of

payment of wages and rates of wages, and any other relevant information.

Article 23

1. To give effect to the provisions of this Convention the competent

authority shall issue complete and precise regulations governing the use of

forced or compulsory labour.

2. These regulations shall contain, inter alia, rules permitting any

person from whom forced or compulsory labour is exacted to forward all

complaints relative to the conditions of labour to the authorities and 
ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor

107

ensuring that such complaints will be examined and taken into

consideration.

Article 24

Adequate measures shall in all cases be taken to ensure that the regulations

governing the employment of forced or compulsory labour are strictly

applied, either by extending the duties of any existing labour inspectorate

which has been established for the inspection of voluntary labour to cover

the inspection of forced or compulsory labour or in some other appropriate

manner. Measures shall also be taken to ensure that the regulations are

brought to the knowledge of persons from whom such labour is exacted.

Article 25

The illegal exaction of forced or compulsory labour shall be punishable as

a penal offence, and it shall be an obligation on any Member ratifying this

Convention to ensure that the penalties imposed by law are really adequate

and are strictly enforced.

Article 26

1. Each Member of the International Labour Organization which

ratifies this Convention undertakes to apply it to the territories placed under

its sovereignty, jurisdiction, protection, suzerainty, tutelage or authority, so

far as it has the right to accept obligations affecting matters of internal

jurisdiction; provided that, if such Member may desire to take advantage of

the provisions of Article 35 of the Constitution of the International Labour

Organization, it shall append to its ratification a declaration stating-

(1) the territories to which it intends to apply the provisions of this

Convention without modification;
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108

(2) the territories to which it intends to apply the provisions of this

Convention with modifications, together with details of the said

modifications;

(3) the territories in respect of which it reserves its decision.

2. The aforesaid declaration shall be deemed to be an integral part of

the ratification and shall have the force of ratification. It shall be open to

any Member, by a subsequent declaration, to cancel in whole or in part the

reservations made, in pursuance of the provisions of subparagraphs (2) and

(3) of this Article, in the original declaration.

Article 27

The formal ratifications of this Convention under the conditions set forth in

the Constitution of the International Labour Organization shall be

communicated to the Director-General of the International Labour Office for

registration.

Article 28

1. This Convention shall be binding only upon those Members whose

ratifications have been registered with the International Labour Office.

2. It shall come into force twelve months after the date on which the

ratifications of two Members of the International Labour Organization have

been registered with the Director-General.

3. Thereafter, this Convention shall come into force for any Member

twelve months after the date on which the ratification has been registered.
ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor

109

Article 29

As soon as the ratifications of two Members of the International Labour

Organization have been registered with the International Labour Office, the

Director-General of the International Labour Office shall so notify all the

Members of the International Labour Organization. He shall likewise notify

them of the registration of ratifications which may be communicated

subsequently by other Members of the Organization.

Article 30

1. A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after

the expiration of ten years from the date on which the Convention first

comes into force, by an act communicated to the Director-General of the

International Labour Office for registration. Such denunciation shall not

take effect until one year after the date on which it is registered with the

International Labour Office.

2. Each Member which has ratified this Convention and which does

not, within the year following the expiration of the period of ten years

mentioned in the preceding paragraph, exercise the right of denunciation

provided for in this Article, will be bound for another period of five years

and, thereafter, may denounce this Convention at the expiration of each

period of five years under the terms provided for in this Article.

Article 31

At the expiration of each period of five years after the coming into force of

this Convention, the Governing Body of the International Labour Office

shall present to the General Conference a report on the working of this

Convention and shall consider the desirability of placing on the agenda of

the Conference the question of its revision in whole or in part.
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110

Article 32

1. Should the Conference adopt a new Convention revising this

Convention in whole or in part, the ratification by a Member of the new

revising Convention shall ipso jure involve denunciation of this Convention

without any requirement of delay, notwithstanding the provisions of Article

30 above, if and when the new revising Convention shall have come into

force.

2. As from the date of coming into force of the new revising

Convention, the present Convention shall cease to be open to ratification by

the Members.

3. Nevertheless, this Convention shall remain in force in its actual

form and content for those Members which have ratified it but have not

ratified the revising Convention.

Article 33

The French and English texts of this Convention shall both be authentic.
111

Appendix D: Convention on the Suppression of Traffic in

Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others

Whereas prostitution and the accompanying evil of the traffic in persons for

the purpose of prostitution are incompatible with the dignity and worth of

the human person and endanger the welfare of the individual, the family and

the community,

Whereas, with respect to the suppression of the traffic in women and

children, the following international instruments are in force:

1. International Agreement of 18 May 1904 for the Suppression of the White

Slave Traffic, as amended by the Protocol approved by the General

Assembly of the United Nations on 3 December 1948,

2. International Convention of 4 May 1910 for the Suppression of the White

Slave Traffic, as amended by the above-mentioned Protocol,

3. International Convention of 30 September 1921 for the Suppression of the

Traffic in Women and Children, as amended by the Protocol approved by

the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20 October 1947,

4. International Convention of 11 October 1933 for the Suppression of the

Traffic in Women of Full Age, as amended by the aforesaid Protocol,

Whereas the League of Nations in 1937 prepared a draft Convention

extending the scope of the above-mentioned instruments, and

Whereas developments since 1937 make feasible the conclusion of a

convention consolidating the above-mentioned instruments and embodying

the substance of the 1937 draft Convention as well as desirable alterations

therein;
Appendix D

112

Now therefore The Contracting Parties Hereby agree as hereinafter provided:

 Article 1

The Parties to the present Convention agree to punish any person who, to

gratify the passions of another:

1. Procures, entices or leads away, for purposes of prostitution, another

person, even with the consent of that person;

2. Exploits the prostitution of another person, even with the consent of that

person.

 Article 2

The Parties to the present Convention further agree to punish any person

who:

1. Keeps or manages, or knowingly finances or takes part in the financing

of a brothel;

2. Knowingly lets or rents a building or other place or any part thereof for

the purpose of the prostitution of others.

 Article 3

To the extent permitted by domestic law, attempts to commit any of the

offences referred to in articles 1 and 2, and acts preparatory to the

commission thereof, shall also be punished.

 Article 4

To the extent permitted by domestic law, intentional participation in the acts

referred to in articles 1 and 2 above shall also be punishable.
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To the extent permitted by domestic law, acts of participation shall be

treated as separate offences whenever this is necessary to prevent impunity.

 Article 5

In cases where injured persons are entitled under domestic law to be parties

to proceedings in respect of any of the offences referred to in the present

Convention, aliens shall be so entitled upon the same terms as nationals.

 Article 6

Each Party to the present Convention agrees to take all the necessary

measures to repeal or abolish any existing law, regulation or administrative

provision by virtue of which persons who engage in or are suspected of

engaging in prostitution are subject either to special registration or to the

possession of a special document or to any exceptional requirements for

supervision or notification.

 Article 7

Previous convictions pronounced in foreign States for offences referred to

in the present Convention shall, to the extent permitted by domestic law, be

taken into account for the purpose of:

1. Establishing recidivism;

2. Disqualifying the offender from the exercise of civil rights.

 Article 8

The offences referred to in articles 1 and 2 of the present Convention shall

be regarded as extraditable offences in any extradition treaty which has been

or may hereafter be concluded between any of the Parties to this

Convention.

The Parties to the present Convention which do not make extradition

conditional on the existence of a treaty shall henceforward recognize the
Appendix D

114

offences referred to in articles 1 and 2 of the present Convention as cases for

extradition between themselves.

Extradition shall be granted in accordance with the law of the State to

which the request is made.

 Article 9

In States where the extradition of nationals is not permitted by law, nationals

who have returned to their own State after the commission abroad of any of

the offences referred to in articles 1 and 2 of the present Convention shall be

prosecuted in and punished by the courts of their own State.

This provision shall not apply if, in a similar case between the Parties to the

present Convention, the extradition of an alien cannot be granted.

 Article 10

The provisions of article 9 shall not apply when the person charged with the

offence has been tried in a foreign State and, if convicted, has served his

sentence or had it remitted or reduced in conformity with the laws of that

foreign State.

 Article 11

Nothing in the present Convention shall be interpreted as determining the

attitude of a Party towards the general question of the limits of criminal

jurisdiction under international law.

 Article 12

The present Convention does not affect the principle that the offences to

which it refers shall in each State be defined, prosecuted and punished in

conformity with its domestic law.

 Article 13
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The Parties to the present Convention shall be bound to execute letters of

request relating to offences referred to in the Convention in accordance with

their domestic law and practice.

The transmission of letters of request shall be effected:

1. By direct communication between the judicial authorities; or

2. By direct communication between the Ministers of Justice of the two

States, or by direct communication from another competent authority of the

State making the request to the Minister of Justice of the State to which the

request is made; or

3. Through the diplomatic or consular representative of the State making the

request in the State to which the request is made; this representative shall

send the letters of request direct to the competent judicial authority or to the

authority indicated by the Government of the State to which the request is

made, and shall receive direct from such authority the papers constituting

the execution of the letters of request.

In cases 1 and 3 a copy of the letters of request shall always be sent to the

superior authority of the State to which application is made.

Unless otherwise agreed, the letters of request shall be drawn up in the

language of the authority making the request, provided always that the State

to which the request is made may require a translation in its own language,

certified correct by the authority making the request.

Each Party to the present Convention shall notify to each of the other Parties

to the Convention the method or methods of transmission mentioned above

which it will recognize for the letters of request of the latter State. Until

such notification is made by a State, its existing procedure in regard to

letters of request shall remain in force.
Appendix D

116

Execution of letters of request shall not give rise to a claim for

reimbursement of charges or expenses of any nature whatever other than

expenses of experts.

Nothing in the present article shall be construed as an undertaking on the

part of the Parties to the present Convention to adopt in criminal matters any

form or methods of proof contrary to their own domestic laws.

 Article 14

Each Party to the present Convention shall establish or maintain a service

charged with the co-ordination and centralization of the results of the

investigation of offences referred to in the present Convention.

Such services should compile all information calculated to facilitate the

prevention and punishment of the offences referred to in the present

Convention and should be in close contact with the corresponding services

in other States.

 Article 15 

To the extent permitted by domestic law and to the extent to which the

authorities responsible for the services referred to in article 14 may judge

desirable, they shall furnish to the authorities responsible for the

corresponding services in other States the following information:

1. Particulars of any offence referred to in the present Convention or any

attempt to commit such offence;

2. Particulars of any search for and any prosecution, arrest, conviction,

refusal of admission or expulsion of persons guilty of any of the offences

referred to in the present Convention, the movements of such persons and

any other useful information with regard to them.

The information so furnished shall include descriptions of the offenders,

their fingerprints, photographs, methods of operation, police records and

records of conviction.
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 Article 16

The Parties to the present Convention agree to take or to encourage, through

their public and private educational, health, social, economic and other

related services, measures for the prevention of prostitution and for the

rehabilitation and social adjustment of the victims of prostitution and of the

offences referred to in the present Convention.

 Article 17

The Parties to the present Convention undertake, in connection with

immigration and emigration, to adopt or maintain such measures as are

required in terms of their obligations under the present Convention, to check

the traffic in persons of either sex for the purpose of prostitution.

In particular they undertake:

1. To make such regulations as are necessary for the protection of

immigrants or emigrants, and in particular, women and children, both at the

place of arrival and departure and while en route;

2. To arrange for appropriate publicity warning the public of the dangers of

the aforesaid traffic;

3. To take appropriate measures to ensure supervision of railway stations,

airports, seaports and en route, and of other public places, in order to prevent

international traffic in persons for the purpose of prostitution;

4. To take appropriate measures in order that the appropriate authorities be

informed of the arrival of persons who appear, prima facie, to be the

principals and accomplices in or victims of such traffic.

 Article 18

The Parties to the present Convention undertake, in accordance with the

conditions laid down by domestic law, to have declarations taken from

aliens who are prostitutes, in order to establish their identity and civil status
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and to discover who has caused them to leave their State. The information

obtained shall be communicated to the authorities of the State of origin of

the said persons with a view to their eventual repatriation.

 Article 19

The Parties to the present Convention undertake, in accordance with the

conditions laid down by domestic law and without prejudice to prosecution

or other action for violations thereunder and so far as possible:

1. Pending the completion of arrangements for the repatriation of destitute

victims of international traffic in persons for the purpose of prostitution, to

make suitable provisions for their temporary care and maintenance;

2. To repatriate persons referred to in article 18 who desire to be repatriated

or who may be claimed by persons exercising authority over them or whose

expulsion is ordered in conformity with the law. Repatriation shall take

place only after agreement is reached with the State of destination as to

identity and nationality as well as to the place and date of arrival at frontiers.

Each Party to the present Convention shall facilitate the passage of such

persons through its territory.

Where the persons referred to in the preceding paragraph cannot themselves

repay the cost of repatriation and have neither spouse, relatives nor guardian

to pay for them, the cost of repatriation as far as the nearest frontier or port

of embarkation or airport in the direction of the State of origin shall be borne

by the State where they are in residence, and the cost of the remainder of the

journey shall be borne by the State of origin.
Trafficking of Persons Convention

119

 Article 20

The Parties to the present Convention shall, if they have not already done so,

take the necessary measures for the supervision of employment agencies in

order to prevent persons seeking employment, in particular women and

children, from being exposed to the danger of prostitution.

 Article 21

The Parties to the present Convention shall communicate to the

Secretary-General of the United Nations such laws and regulations as have

already been promulgated in their States, and thereafter annually such laws

and regulations as may be promulgated, relating to the subjects of the

present Convention, as well as all measures taken by them concerning the

application of the Convention. The information received shall be published

periodically by the Secretary-General and sent to all Members of the United

Nations and to non-member States to which the present Convention is

officially communicated in accordance with article 23.

 Article 22

If any dispute shall arise between the Parties to the present Convention

relating to its interpretation or application and if such dispute cannot be

settled by other means, the dispute shall, at the request of any one of the

Parties to the dispute, be referred to the International Court of Justice.

 Article 23

The present Convention shall be open for signature on behalf of any

Member of the United Nations and also on behalf of any other State to

which an invitation has been addressed by the Economic and Social Council.

The present Convention shall be ratified and the instruments of ratification

shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The States mentioned in the first paragraph which have not signed the

Convention may accede to it.
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120

Accession shall be effected by deposit of an instrument of accession with the

Secretary-General of the United Nations. For the purpose of the present

Convention the word " State " shall include all the colonies and Trust

Territories of a State signatory or acceding to the Convention and all

territories for which such State is internationally responsible.

 Article 24

The present Convention shall come into force on the ninetieth day following

the date of deposit of the second instrument of ratification or accession.

For each State ratifying or acceding to the Convention after the deposit of

the second instrument of ratification or accession, the Convention shall enter

into force ninety days after the deposit by such State of its instrument of

ratification or accession.

 Article 25

After the expiration of five years from the entry into force of the present

Convention, any Party to the Convention may denounce it by a written

notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Such denunciation shall take effect for the Party making it one year from the

date upon which it is received by the Secretary-General of the United

Nations.

 Article 26

The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall inform all Members of the

United Nations and non-member States referred to in article 23:

 (a) Of signatures, ratifications and accessions received in accordance

 with article 23;

 (b) Of the date on which the present Convention will come into force in

 accordance with article 24;
121

 (c) Of denunciations received in accordance with article 25.

 Article 27

Each Party to the present Convention undertakes to adopt, in accordance

with its Constitution, the legislative or other measures necessary to ensure

the application of the Convention.

 Article 28

The provisions of the present Convention shall supersede in the relations

between the Parties thereto the provisions of the international instruments

referred to in sub-paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the second paragraph of the

Preamble, each of which shall be deemed to be terminated when all the

Parties thereto shall have become Parties to the present Convention.

IN FAITH WHEREOF the undersigned, being duly authorized thereto by

their respective Governments, have signed the present Convention, opened

for signature at Lake Success, New York, on the twenty-first day of March,

one thousand nine hundred and fifty, a certified true copy of which shall be

transmitted by the Secretary-General to all the Members of the United

Nations and to the non-member States referred to in article 23.

 FINAL PROTOCOL

Nothing in the present Convention shall be deemed to prejudice any

legislation which ensures, for the enforcement of the provisions for securing

the suppression of the traffic in persons and of the exploitation of others for

purposes of prostitution, stricter conditions than those provided by the

present Convention.

The provisions of articles 23 to 26 inclusive of the Convention shall apply

to the present Protocol.

Appendix E: U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All

Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 

Article 6
122

Article 6. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including 

legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of 

prostitution of women.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

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Appendix F: Convention on the Rights of the Child

The States Parties to the present Convention,

Considering that, in accordance with the principles proclaimed in the

Charter of the United Nations, recognition of the inherent dignity and of the

equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the

foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Bearing in mind that the peoples of the United Nations have, in the Charter,

reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights and in the dignity and

worth of the human person, and have determined to promote social progress

and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Recognizing that the United Nations has, in the Universal Declaration of

Human Rights and in the International Covenants on Human Rights,

proclaimed and agreed that everyone is entitled to all the rights and

freedoms set forth therein, without distinction of any kind, such as race,

color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social

origin, property, birth or other status,

Recalling that, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United

Nations has proclaimed that childhood is entitled to special care and

assistance,

Convinced that the family, as the fundamental group of society and the

natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members and

particularly children, should be afforded the necessary protection and

assistance so that it can fully assume its responsibilities within the

community,

Recognizing that the child, for the full and harmonious development of his

or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an

atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding,
Appendix F

124

Considering that the child should be fully prepared to live an individual life

in society, and brought up in the spirit of the ideals proclaimed in the

Charter of the United Nations, and in particular in the spirit of peace,

dignity, tolerance, freedom, equality and solidarity,

Bearing in mind that the need to extend particular care to the child has been

stated in the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 1924 and in

the Declaration of the Rights of the Child adopted by the United Nations on

20 November 1959 and recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights, in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (in

particular articles 23 and 24), in the International Covenant on Economic,

Social and Cultural Rights (in particular in article 10) and in the statutes and

relevant instruments of specialized agencies and intergovernmental

organizations concerned with the welfare of children,

Bearing in mind that, as indicated in the Declaration of the Rights of the

Child, "the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs

special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before

as well as after birth",

Recalling the provisions of the Declaration on Social and Legal Principles

relating to the Protection and Welfare of Children, with Special Reference

to Foster Placement and Adoption Nationally and Internationally; the United

Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice

("The Beijing Rules"); and the Declaration on the Protection of Women and

Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict,

Recognizing that, in all countries in the world, there are children living in

exceptionally difficult conditions, and that such children need special

consideration,

Taking due account of the importance of the traditions and cultural values

of each people for the protection and harmonious development of the child,

Recognizing the importance of international co-operation for improving the

living conditions of children in every country, in particular in the

developing countries,
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

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Have agreed as follows:

PART 1

Article 1

For the purposes of the present Convention, a child means every human

being below the age of 18 years unless, under the law applicable to child,

majority is attained earlier.

Article 2

1. States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present

Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of

any kind, irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's

race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national,

ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.

2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child

is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis

of status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child's parents,

legal guardians, or family members.

Article 3

1. In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or

private social welfare institutions, court of law, administrative authorities or

legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary

consideration.

2. States Parties undertake to ensure the child such protection and care as

is necessary for his or her well-being, taking into account the rights and

duties of his or her parents, legal guardians, or other individuals legally

responsible for him or her, and, to this end, hall take all appropriate

legislative and administrative measures.

3. States Parties shall ensure that the institutions, services and facilities

responsible for the care or protection of children shall conform with the
Appendix F

126

standards established by competent authorities, particularly in the areas of

safety, health, in the number and suitability of their staff, as well as

competent supervision.

Article 4

States Parties shall undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative, and

other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the

present Convention. With regard to economic, social and cultural rights,

States Parties shall undertake such measures to the maximum extent of their

available resources and, where needed, within the framework of

international co-operation.

Article 5

States Parties shall respect the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents

or, where applicable, the members of the extended family or community as

provided for by local custom, legal guardians or other persons legally

responsible for the child, to provide, in a manner consistent with the

evolving capacities of the child, appropriate direction and guidance in the

exercise by the child of the rights recognized in the present convention.

Article 6

1. States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life.

2. States Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival

and development of the child.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

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Article 7

1. The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the

right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as

possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.

2. States Parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights in

accordance with their national law and their obligations under the relevant

international instruments in this field, in particular where the child would

otherwise be stateless.

Article 8

1. States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or

her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized

by law without unlawful interference.

2. Where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his

or her identity, States Parties shall provide appropriate assistance and

protection, with a view to speedily re-establishing his or her identity.

Article 9

1. States Parties shall ensure that a child shall not be separated from his or

her parents against their will, except when competent authorities subject to

judicial review determine, in accordance with applicable law and

procedures, that such separation is necessary for the best interests of the

child. Such determination may be necessary in a particular case such as one

involving abuse or neglect of the child by the parents, or one where the

parents are living separately and a decision must be made as to the child's

place of residence.

2. In any proceedings pursuant to paragraph 1 of the present article, all

interested parties shall be given an opportunity to participate in the

proceedings and make their views known. 
Appendix F

128

3. States Parties shall respect the right of the child who is separated from

one or both parents to maintain personal relations and direct contact with

both parents on a regular basis, except if it is contrary to the child's best

interests.

4. Where such separation results from any action initiated by a State Party,

such as the detention, imprisonment, exile, deportation or death (including

death arising from any cause while the person is in the custody of the State)

of one or both parents or of the child, that State Party shall, upon request,

provide the parents, the child or, if appropriate, another member of the

family with the essential information concerning the whereabouts of the

absent member(s) of the family unless the provision of the information

would be detrimental to the well-being of the child. State Parties shall

further ensure that the submission of such a request of itself entail no

adverse consequences for the person(s) concerned.

Article 10

1. In accordance with the obligation of States Parties under article 9,

paragraph 1, applications by a child or his or her parents to enter or leave a

State Party for the purpose of family reunification shall be dealt with by

States Parties in a positive, humane and expeditious manner. States Parties

shall further ensure that the submission of such a request shall entail no

adverse consequences for the applicants and for the members of their family.

2. A child whose parents reside in different States shall have the right to

maintain on a regular basis, save in exceptional circumstances personal

relations and direct contacts with both parents. Towards that end and in

accordance with the obligation of States Parties under article 9, paragraph

1, States Parties shall respect the right of the child and his or her parents to

leave any country, including their own, and to enter their own country. The

right to leave any country shall be subject only to such restrictions as are

prescribed by law and which are necessary to protect the national security,

public order (ordre public), public health or morals 
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

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or the rights and freedoms of others and are consistent with the other rights

recognized in the present Convention.

Article 11

1. States Parties shall take measures to combat the illicit transfer and

non-return of children abroad.

2. To this end, States Parties shall promote the conclusion of bilateral or

multilateral agreements or accession to existing agreements.

Article 12

1. States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or

her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting

the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with

the age and maturity of the child.

2. For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity

to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the

child, either directly, or through a representative or an appropriate body, in

a manner consistent with the procedural rules of national law.

Article 13

1. The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; the right shall

include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all

kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form

of art, or through any other media of the child's choice.

2. The exercise of this right may be subject to certain restrictions, but these

shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:

(a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others; or
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130

(b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public),

or of public health or morals. 

Article 14

1. States Parties shall respect the right of the child to freedom of thought,

conscience and religion.

2. States Parties shall respect the rights and duties of the parents and, when

applicable, legal guardians, to provide direction to the child in the exercise

of his or her right in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the

child.

3. Freedom to manifest one's religion or beliefs may be subject only to such

limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public

safety, order, health or morals, or the fundamental rights and freedoms of

others.

Article 15

1. States Parties recognize the rights of the child to freedom of association

and to freedom of peaceful assembly.

2. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of these rights other than

those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a

democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety,

public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the

protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Article 16

1. No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his

or her privacy, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or

her honor and reputation.

2. The child has the right to protection of the law against such interference

or attacks.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

131

Article 17

States Parties recognize the important function performed by the mass media

and shall ensure that the child has access to information and material from

a diversity of national and international sources, especially those aimed at

the promotion of his or her social, spiritual and moral well-being and

physical and mental health. To this end, States Parties shall:

(a) Encourage the mass media to disseminate information and material of

social and cultural benefit to the child and in accordance with the spirit of

article 29;

(b) Encourage international co-operation in the production, exchange and

dissemination of such information and material from a diversity of cultural,

national and international sources;

(c) Encourage the production and dissemination of children's books;

(d) Encourage the mass media to have a particular regard to the linguistic

needs of the child who belongs to a minority group or who is indigenous;

(e) Encourage the development of appropriate guidelines for the protection

of the child from information and material injurious to his or her well-being,

bearing in mind the provisions of articles 13 and 18.

Article 18

1. States Parties shall use their best efforts to ensure recognition of the

principle that both parents have common responsibilities for the upbringing

and development of the child. Parents or, as the case may be, legal

guardians, have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and

development of the child. The best interests of the child will be their basic

concern.
Appendix F

132

2. For the purpose of guaranteeing and promoting the rights set forth in the

present Convention, States Parties shall render appropriate assistance to

parents and legal guardians in the performance of their child-rearing

responsibilities and shall ensure the development of institutions, facilities

and services for the care of children.

3. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that children

of working parents have the right to benefit from child-care services and

facilities for which they are eligible.

Article 19

1. States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social

and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or

mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment,

maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of

parent(s), legal guardian(s), or any other person who has the care of the

child.

2. Such protective measures should, as appropriate, include effective

procedures for the establishment of social program to provide necessary

support for the child and for those who have the care of the child, as well as

for other forms of prevention and identification, reporting, referral,

investigation, treatment and follow-up of instances of child maltreatment

described heretofore, and, as appropriate, for judicial involvement. 

Article 20

1. A 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, shall be entitled to special protection and assistance

provided by the State.

2. States Parties shall in accordance with their national laws ensure

alternative care for such a child. 

3. Such care could include, inter alia, foster placement, Kafala of Islamic
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

133

law, adoption, or if necessary placement in suitable institutions for the care

of children. When considering solutions, due regard shall be paid to the

desirability of continuity in a child's upbringing and to the child's ethnic,

religious, cultural and linguistic background.

Article 21

States Parties that recognize and/or permit the system of adoption shall

ensure that the best interests of the child shall be the paramount

consideration and they shall:

(a) Ensure that the adoption of a child is authorized only by competent

authorities who determine, in accordance with applicable law and

procedures and on the basis of all pertinent and reliable information, that the

adoption is permissible in the view of the child's status concerning parents,

relatives and legal guardians and that, if required, the persons concerned

have given their informed consent to the adoption on the basis of such

counseling as may be necessary;

(b) Recognize that inter-country adoption may be considered as an

alternative means of child's care, if the child cannot be placed in a foster or

an adoptive family or cannot in any suitable manner be care for in the child's

country of origin;

(c) Ensure that the child concerned by intercountry adoption enjoys

safeguards and standards equivalent to those existing in the case of national

adoption;

(d) Take all appropriate measures to ensure that, in intercountry adoption,

the placement does not result in improper financial gain for those involved

in it;

(e) Promote, where appropriate, the objectives of the present article by

concluding bilateral or multilateral arrangements or agreements, and

endeavor, within this framework, to ensure that the placement of the 
Appendix F

134

child in another country is carried out by competent authorities or organs.

Article 22

1. States Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure that a child who

is seeking refugee status or who is considered a refugee in accordance with

applicable international or domestic law and procedures shall, whether

unaccompanied or accompanied by his or her parents or by any other person,

receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance in the enjoyment

of applicable rights set forth in the present Convention and in other

international human rights or humanitarian instruments to which the said

States are Parties.

2. For this purpose, States Parties shall provide, as they consider

appropriate, co-operation in any efforts by the United Nations and other

competent intergovernmental organizations or non-governmental

organizations co-operating with the United Nations to protect and assist

such a child and to trace the parents or other members of the family of any

refugee child in order to obtain information necessary for reunification with

his or her family. In cases where no parents or other members of the family

can be found, the child shall be accorded the same protection as any other

child permanently or temporarily deprived of his or her family environment

for any reason, as set forth in the present Convention.

Article 23

1. States Parties recognize that a mentally or physically disabled child

should enjoy a full and decent life, in conditions which ensure dignity,

promote self-reliance, and facilitate the child's active participation in the

community.

2. States Parties recognize the right of the disabled child to special care and

shall encourage and ensure the extension, subject to available resources, to

the eligible child and those responsible for his or her care, of assistance for

which application is made and which is appropriate to the child's condition

and to the circumstances of the parents or others caring for the child. 
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

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3. Recognizing the special needs of a disabled child, assistance extended in

accordance with paragraph 2 of the present article shall be provided free of

charge, whenever possible, taking into account the financial resources of the

parents or others caring for the child, and shall be designed to ensure that the

disabled child has effective access to and receives education, training, health

care services, rehabilitation services, preparation for employment and

recreation opportunities in a manner conducive to the child's achieving the

fullest possible social integration and individual development, including his

or her cultural and spiritual development.

4. States Parties shall promote, in the spirit of international co-operation,

the exchange of appropriate information in the field of preventative health

care and of medical, psychological and functional treatment of disabled

children, including dissemination of and access to information concerning

methods of rehabilitation, education and vocational services, with the aim

of enabling States Parties to improve their capabilities and skills and to

widen their experience in these areas. In this regard, particular account shall

be taken of the needs of developing countries. 

Article 24

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the

highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of

illness and rehabilitation of health. States Parties shall strive to ensure that

no child is deprived of his or her right to such health care services.

2. States Parties shall pursue full implementation of this right and, in

particular, shall take appropriate measures:

a. To diminish infant and child mortality;

b. To ensure the provision of necessary medical assistance and

health care to all children with emphasis on the development of

primary health care;

c. To combat disease and malnutrition including within the

framework of primary health care, through inter alia the application
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of readily available technology and through the provision of

adequate nutritious foods and clean drinking water, taking into

consideration the dangers and risks of environmental pollution;

d. To ensure appropriate pre-natal and post-natal health care for

mothers;

e. To ensure that all segments of society, in particular parents and

children, are informed, have access to education and are supported

in the use of basic knowledge of child health and nutrition, the

advantage of breast-feeding, hygiene and environmental sanitation

and the prevention of accidents;

f. To develop preventative health care, guidance for parents and

family planning educations and services.

3. States Parties shall take all effective and appropriate measures with a

view to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children.

4. States Parties undertake to promote and encourage international

co-operation with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of

the right recognized in the present article. In this regard, particular account

shall be taken of the needs of developing countries. 

Article 25

States Parties recognize the right of a child who has been placed by the

competent authorities for the purposes of care, protection or treatment of his

or her physical or mental health, to a periodic review of the treatment 
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

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provided to the child and all other circumstances relevant to his or her

placement.

Article 26

1. States Parties shall recognize for every child the right to benefit from

social security, including social insurance, and shall take the necessary

measures to achieve the full realization of this right in accordance with their

national law.

2. The benefits should, where appropriate, be granted taking into account

the resources and the circumstances of the child and persons having

responsibility for the maintenance of the child, as well as any other

consideration relevant to an application for benefits made by or on behalf of

the child. 

Article 27

1. States Parties recognize the right of every child to a standard of living

adequate for the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social

development.

2. The parent(s) or others responsible for the child have the primary

responsibility to secure, within their abilities and financial capacities, the

conditions of living necessary for the child's development.

3. States Parties, in accordance with national conditions and within their

means, shall take appropriate measures to assist parents and others

responsible for the child to implement this right and shall in case of need

provide material assistance and support programs, particularly with regard

to nutrition, clothing and housing.

4. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to secure the recovery

of maintenance for the child from the parents or other persons having

financial responsibility for the child, both within the State Party and from

abroad. In particular, where the person having financial responsibility for the

child lives in a State different from that of the child, States Parties shall
Appendix F

138

promote the accession to international agreements or the conclusion of such

agreements, as well as the making of other appropriate arrangements.

Article 28

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a

view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal

opportunity, they shall, in particular:

(a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to all; 

(b) Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education,

including general and vocational education, make them available and

accessible to every child, and take appropriate measures such as the

introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of

need;

(c) Make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every

appropriate means;

(d) Make educational and vocational information and guidance available

and accessible to all children;

(e) Take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the

reduction of drop-out rates.

2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that school

discipline is administered in a manner consistent with the child's human

dignity and in conformity with the present Convention.

3. States Parties shall promote and encourage international co-operation in

matters relating to education, in particular with a view to contributing to the

elimination of ignorance and illiteracy throughout the world and facilitating

access to scientific and technical knowledge and modern teaching methods.

In this regard, particular account shall be taken of the needs of developing

countries.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

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Article 29

1. States Parties agree that the education of the child shall be directed to:

(a) The development of the child's personality, talents and mental and

physical abilities to their fullest potential;

(b) The development of respect for human rights and fundamental

freedoms, and for the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United

Nations; 

(c) The development of respect for the child's parents, his or her own

cultural identity, language and values, for the national values of the country

in which the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate,

and for civilizations different from his or her own;

(d) The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the

spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship

among all people, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of

indigenous origin;

(e) The development of respect for the natural environment.

2. No part of the present article or article 28 shall be construed so as to

interfere with the liberty of individuals and bodies to establish and direct

educational institutions, subject always to the observance of the principles

set forth in paragraph 1 of the present article and to the requirements that the

education given in such institutions shall conform to such minimum

standards as may be laid down by the State. 

Article 30

In those states in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or persons

of indigenous origin exist, a child belonging to such a minority or who is

indigenous shall not denied the right, in community with other members of

his or her group, to enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and practice his

own her own religion, or to use his or her own language.
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140

Article 31

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to

engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child

and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.

2. States Parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to

participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision

of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, recreational and leisure

activity.

Article 32

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from

economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be

hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the

child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.

2. States Parties shall take legislative, administrative, social and education

measures to ensure the implementation of the present article. To this end,

and having regard to the relevant provisions of other international

instruments, States Parties shall in particular:

(a) Provide for a minimum age or minimum ages for admission to

employment;

(b) Provide for appropriate regulation of the hours and conditions of

employment;

(c) Provide for appropriate penalties or other sanctions to ensure the

effective enforcement of the present article.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

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Article 33

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislative,

administrative, social and educational measures, to protect children from the

illicit use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances as defined in the

relevant international treaties, and to prevent the use of children in the illicit

production and trafficking of such substances.

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.

Article 35

States Parties shall take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral

measures to prevent the abduction of, the sale of or traffic in children for any

purpose or in any form.

Article 36

States Parties shall protect the child against all other forms of exploitation

prejudicial to any aspect of the child's welfare.
Appendix F

142

Article 37

States Parties shall ensure that:

(a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or

degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life

imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offenses

committed by persons below eighteen years of age;

(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily.

The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with

the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest

appropriate period of time;

(c) Every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and

respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which

takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age. In particular, every

child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is

considered in the child's best interest not to do so and shall have the right to

maintain contact with his or her family through correspondence and visits,

save in exceptional circumstances;

(d) Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt

access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to

challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court

or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt

decision on any such action.

Article 38

1. States Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for rules of

international humanitarian law applicable to them in armed conflicts which

are relevant to the child.

2. States Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons who

have not attained the age of fifteen years do not take a direct part in
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

143

hostilities.

3. States Parties shall refrain from recruiting any person who has not

attained the age of fifteen years into their armed forces. In recruiting among

those persons who have attained the age of fifteen years but who have not

attained the age of eighteen years, States Parties shall endeavor to give

priority to those who are oldest.

4. In accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law

to protect the civilian population in armed conflicts, States Parties shall take

all feasible measures to ensure protection and care of children who are

affected by an armed conflict.

Article 39

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and

psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of any form

of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel,

inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; or armed conflicts. Such

recovery and reintegration shall take place in an environment which fosters

the health, self-respect and dignity of the child.

Article 40

1. States Parties recognize the right of every child alleged as, accused of, or

recognized as having infringed the penal law to be treated in manner

consistent with the promotion of the child's sense of dignity and worth,

which reinforces the child's respect for the human rights and fundamental

freedoms of others and which takes into account the child's age and

desirability of promoting the child's reintegration and the child's assuming

a constructive role in society.

2. To this end, and having regard to the relevant provisions of international

instruments, States Parties shall, in particular, ensure that:

(a) No child shall be alleged as, be accused of, or recognized as having

infringed the penal law by reason of acts or omissions that were not
Appendix F

144

prohibited by national or international law at the time they were committed;

(b) Every child alleged as or accused of having infringed the penal law has

at least the following guarantees:

(i) To be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law;

(ii) To be informed promptly and directly of the charges against him or her,

and, if appropriate, through his or her parents or legal guardians, and to have

legal or other appropriate assistance in the preparation and presentation of

his or her defence;

(iii) To have the matter determined without delay by a competent,

independent and impartial authority or judicial body in a fair hearing

according to law, in the presence of legal or other appropriate assistance and,

unless it is considered not to be in the best interest of the child, in particular,

taking into account his or her age or situation, his or her parents or legal

guardians;

(iv) Not to be compelled to give testimony or to confess guilt; to examine

or have examined adverse witnesses and to obtain the participation and

examination of witnesses on his or her behalf under conditions of equality;

(v) If considered to have infringed the penal law, to have this decision and

any measures imposed in consequence thereof reviewed by a higher

competent, independent and impartial authority or judicial body according

to law;

(vi) To have the free assistance of an interpreter if the child cannot

understand or speak the language used;

(vii) To have his or her privacy fully respected at all stages of the

proceedings.

3. States Parties shall seek to promote the establishment of laws,

procedures, authorities and institutions specifically applicable to children

alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law, and,

in particular:

(a) The establishment of a minimum age below which children shall be

presumed not to have the capacity to infringe the penal law;

(b) Whenever appropriate and desirable, measures for dealing with such

children without resorting to judicial proceedings, providing that human

rights and legal safeguards are fully respected.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

145

4. A variety of dispositions, such as care, guidance and supervision orders;

counselling; probation; foster care; education and vocational training

programmer and other alternatives to institutional care shall be available to

ensure that children are dealt with in a manner appropriate to their wellbeing and proportionate both to their circumstances and the offence.

Article 41

Nothing in the present Convention shall affect any provisions which are

more conducive to the realization of the rights of the child and which may

be contained in:

(a) The law of a State Party; or 

(b) International law in force for that State.

PART II

Article 42

 

States Parties undertake to make the principles and provisions of the

Convention widely known, by appropriate and active means, to adults and

children alike.

Article 43

1. For the purpose of examining the progress made by States Parties in

achieving the realization of the obligations undertaken in the present

Convention, there shall be established a Committee on the Rights of the

Child, which shall carry out the functions hereinafter provided.
Appendix F

146

2. The Committee shall consist of ten experts of high moral standing and

recognized competence in the field covered by this Convention. The

members of the Committee shall be elected by States Parties from among

their nationals and shall serve in their personal capacity, consideration being

given to equitable geographical distribution, as well as to the principal legal

systems.

3. The members of the Committee shall be elected by secret ballot from a

list of persons nominated by States Parties. Each State Party may nominate

one person from among its own nationals.

4. The initial election to the Committee shall be held no later than six

months after the date of the entry into force of the present Convention and

thereafter every second year. At least four months before the date of each

election, the Secretary-General of the United Nations shall address a letter

to States Parties inviting them to submit their nominations within two

months. The Secretary-General shall subsequently prepare a list in

alphabetical order of all persons thus nominated, indicating States Parties

which have nominated them, and shall submit it to the States Parties to the

present Convention.

5. The elections shall be held at meetings of States Parties convened by the

Secretary-General at United Nations Headquarters. At those meetings, for

which two thirds of States Parties shall constitute a quorum, the persons

elected to the Committee shall be those who obtain the largest number of

votes and an absolute majority of the votes of the representatives of States

Parties present and voting.

6. The members of the Committee shall be elected for a term of four years.

They shall be eligible for re-election if renominated. The term of five of the

members elected at the first election shall expire at the end of two years;

immediately after the first election, the names of these five members shall

be chosen by lot by the Chairman of the meeting.

7. If a member of the Committee dies or resigns or declares that for any

other cause he or she can no longer perform the duties of the Committee, the

State Party which nominated the member shall appoint another expert from
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

147

among its nationals to serve for the remainder of the term, subject to the

approval of the Committee. 

8. The Committee shall establish its own rules of procedure.

9. The Committee shall elect its officers for a period of two years.

10. The meetings of the Committee shall normally be held at United Nations

Headquarters or at any other convenient place as determined by the

Committee. The Committee shall normally meet annually. The duration of

the meetings of the Committee shall be determined, and reviewed, if

necessary, by a meeting of the States Parties to the present Convention,

subject to the approval of the General Assembly.

11. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall provide the necessary

staff and facilities for the effective performance of the functions of the

Committee under the present Convention.

12. With the approval of the General Assembly, the members of the

Committee established under the present Convention shall receive

emoluments from United Nations resources on such terms and conditions as

the Assembly may decide.

Article 44

1. States Parties undertake to submit to the Committee, through the

Secretary-General of the United Nations, reports on the measures they have

adopted which give effect to the rights recognized herein and on the

progress made on the enjoyment of those rights:

(a) Within two years of the entry into force of the Convention for the State

Party concerned;

(b) Thereafter every five years.

2. Reports made under the present article shall indicate factors and

difficulties, if any, affecting the degree of fulfillment of the obligations

under the present Convention. Reports shall also contain sufficient
Appendix F

148

information to provide the Committee with a comprehensive understanding

of the implementation of the Convention in the country concerned.

3. A State Party which has submitted a comprehensive initial report to the

Committee need not, in its subsequent reports submitted in accordance with

paragraph 1 (b) of the present article, repeat basic information previously

provided.

4. The Committee may request from States Parties further information

relevant to the implementation of the Convention.

5. The Committee shall submit to the General Assembly, through the

Economic and Social Council, every two years, reports on its activities.

6. States Parties shall make their reports widely available to the public in

their own countries.

Article 45

In order to foster the effective implementation of the Convention and to

encourage international co-operation in the field covered by the Convention:

(a) The specialized agencies, the United Nations Children's Fund, and other

United Nations organs shall be entitled to be represented at the consideration

of the implementation of such provisions of the present Convention as fall

within the scope of their mandate. The Committee may invite the

specialized agencies, the United Nations Children's Fund, and other

competent bodies as it may consider appropriate to provide expert advice on

the implementation of the Convention in areas falling within the scope of

their respective mandates. The Committee may invite the specialized

agencies, the United Nations Children's Fund, and other United Nations

organs to submit reports on the implementation of the Convention in areas

falling within the scope of their activities;
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

149

(b) The Committee shall transmit, as it may consider appropriate, to the

specialized agencies, the United Nations Children's Fund and other

competent bodies, any reports from States Parties that contain a request, or

indicate a need, for technical advice or assistance, along with the

Committee's observations and suggestions, if any, on these requests or

indications;

(c) The Committee may recommend to the General Assembly to request the

Secretary-General to undertake on its behalf studies on specific issues

relating to the rights of the child;

(d) The Committee may make suggestions and general recommendations

based on information received pursuant to articles 44 and 45 of the present

Convention. Such suggestions and general recommendations shall be

transmitted to any State Party concerned and reported to the General

Assembly, together with comments, if any, from States Parties. 

PART III

Article 46

The present Convention shall be open for signature by all States.

Article 47

The present Convention is subject to ratification. Instruments of ratification

shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Article 48

The present Convention shall remain open for accession by any State. The

instruments of accession shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of

the United Nations.
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150

Article 49

1. The present Convention shall enter into force on the thirtieth day

following the date of deposit with Secretary-General of the United Nations

of the twentieth instrument of ratification or accession.

2. For each State ratifying or acceding to the Convention after the deposit

of the twentieth instrument of ratification or accession, the Convention shall

enter into force on the thirtieth day after the deposit by such State of its

instrument of ratification or accession.

Article 50

1. Any State Party may purpose an amendment and file it with the

Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Secretary-General shall

thereupon communicate the proposed amendment to States Parties, with a

request that they indicate whether they favor a conference of States Parties

for the purpose of considering and voting upon the proposals. In the event

that, within four months from the date of such communication, at least one

third of the States Parties favor such a conference, the Secretary-General

shall convene the conference under the auspices of the United Nations. Any

amendment adopted by majority of States Parties present and voting at the

conference shall be submitted to the General Assembly for approval.

2. An amendment adopted in accordance with paragraph 1 of the present

article shall enter into force when it has been approved by the General

Assembly of the United Nations and accepted by a two-thirds majority of

States Parties.

3. When an amendment enters into force, it shall be binding on those States

Parties which have accepted it, other States Parties still being bound by the

provisions of the present Convention and any earlier amendments which

they have accepted.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

151

Article 51

1. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall receive and circulate

to all States the text of reservations made by States at the time of ratification

or accession.

2. A reservation incompatible with the object and purpose of the present

Convention shall not be permitted.

3. Reservations may be withdrawn at any time by notification to that effect

addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who shall then

inform all states. Such notification shall take effect on the date on which it

is received by the Secretary-General.

Article 52

A State Party may denounce the present Convention by written notification

to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Denunciation becomes

effective one year after the date of receipt of the notification by the

Secretary-General.

Article 53

The Secretary-General of the United Nations is designed as the depositary

of the present Convention.

Article 54

The original of the present Convention, of which the Arabic, Chinese,

English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall be

deposited with the Secretary-General of the Nations.
152

Appendix G: 1994 Child Sex Abuse Prevention Act

SECTION 160001 of the VIOLENT CRIME CONTROL AND LAW ENFORCEMENT

ACT OF 1994, PUBLIC LAW 103-322 [H.R. 3355], September 13, 1994 reads

as follows:

(g) TRANSPORTATION OF MINORS.-Section 2423 of title 18, United

States Code, is amended-

(1) by striking "(a)Whoever" and inserting "(a)TRANSPORTATION

WITH INTENT TO ENGAGE IN SEXUAL ACT WITH A JUVENILE.-A

person who"; and

(2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:

"(b) TRAVEL WITH INTENT TO ENGAGE IN SEXUAL ACT WITH A

JUVENILE.-

A person who travels in interstate commerce, or conspires to do so,

or a United States citizen or an alien admitted for permanent residence in the

United States who travels in foreign commerce, or conspires to do so, for the

purpose of engaging in any sexual act (as defined in section 2245) with a

person under 18 years of age that would be in violation of chapter 109A if

the sexual act occurred in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of

the United States shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 10

years, or both."