Resources

Resources

The Issues

Child Trafficking

What is human trafficking ?

Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

Trafficking is quite often equated with sexual exploitation, but it is important to acknowledge that not all trafficking results in the sexual exploitation of women and children. Indeed trafficking takes place for a range of exploitative purposes, including labor or fraudulent adoption.

What are the Laws, Policy efforts and perspectives in South East Asia ?

Several recent legal and policy initiatives have been under- taken by different states in the region, in order to address this phenomenon. In September 2004, governments from the South Asia region organized in Colombo, Sri Lanka, a Mid-Term Review of the Implementation of the Yokohama Commitments in which a significant stock taking exercise of these important measures was promoted, and areas of priority concern were identified. Claims that ‘millions of children’ are trafficked each year, and the desire to immediately address the problem through stringent laws, and law enforcement, are repeatedly made by governments and all over the world, including in South Asia. At the same time, however, several of the initiatives are based on impoverished data, conflating trafficking with prostitution, and failing to distinguish between child trafficking and the situation of adults.

What are some of the problem with Child Trafficking ?

1. Unreliable data:

There is a lack of accurate statistics on how children are trafficked within South Asia, or for that matter, worldwide. Estimates at a global level mention that about 1.2 million children are trafficked for the purposes of labor or sexual exploitation globally. Even the limited information that is available in the context of South Asia focuses on trafficking in children for the purposes of sexual exploitation. The extent to which children are trafficked into sites of exploitation through labor remains largely unavailable.

The criminal and clandestine nature of child trafficking makes it difficult to gather reliable data, but there is also a great deal of confusion in the region as to what constitutes trafficking, and how to acquire accurate information when trafficking is combined with other activities.

2. A problem with definition:

Trafficking is often equated with sexual exploitation, with the result that trafficking for other purposes receives little or no attention.

Trafficking is also often conflated with prostitution and the assumption that all prostitutes have been trafficked. This often results in misidentification and overestimation of the number of trafficked individuals.

Trafficking can also be equated with clandestine migration, such as smuggling or illegal movement. As a result migrants may be misidentified as victims of trafficking or trafficked individuals being viewed solely as undocumented immigrants.

3. Not everyone has recognized the issues:

Not all countries have subscribed to the international definition of trafficking in the Palermo factors. The consequences for its victims can include forced prostitution, slavery-like working conditions in factories or private residences, forced participation in smuggling of drugs or other illegal activities, and other inhumane conditions. Efforts to identify, analyze and combat human trafficking are complicated by the clandestine nature of the phenomenon and the resourcefulness of traffickers, who constantly shift their routes and practices to avoid detection, including by law enforcement officials and NGOs.

Is human trafficking related to other social issues ?

A survey of available data indicates that the legal responses reflect one or more of the following conceptual approaches to trafficking, envisaging this reality as:

A Moral issue
A Law And Order or Organized Crime issue
A Human Rights issue
A Migration issue
A Labor issue
A Poverty and Development issue
A Gender issue
A Public Health issue

What are challenges that compromise the effective protection of trafficking ?

As a result of the complexity of the issue, a number of important challenges are encountered:

In South Asian countries, national legislation on trafficking is primarily focused on the criminalization of trafficking or related activities such as kidnapping, wrongful confinement, slavery or forced labor, rape and sexual assault.

Laws are primarily linked with combating trafficking for the purposes of prostitution, including the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation Convention on the Trafficking of Women and Girls for the Purposes of Prostitution (‘SAARC Convention’)

Anti-trafficking initiatives in South Asia at the regional and national levels tend to focus more onthe process of trafficking, rather than the harm to the victim that occurs during the course of trafficking. As a result, most of the initiatives concern strengthening law enforcement and border interception rather than victims protection.

Prevention mechanisms tend to be restricted to information and awareness about trafficking, while the broader issues of safeguarding socioeconomic rights, women’s rights and children’s rights are rarely considered.

Protection mechanisms tend to be short-term focused and, with respect to children, insufficient attention is given to their particular needs, vulnerabilities and to the protection of their rights – including in the context of their reintegration and repatriation.

Relevant Links

1. Human Trafficking:

IOM SOUTH EAST ASIA

www.iom.int

This website has a digital library containing studies and reports on trafficking, legal issues, source and destination issues, repatriation, care and support, reintegration, migration, sex work, and HIV/AIDS issues from multiple organizations in PDF format.

GLOBAL ALLIANCE AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN

www.gaatw.org

This coalition against trafficking in women is a feminist human rights non-governmental organization that works internationally to oppose all forms of sexual exploitations.

ECPAT

www.ecpat.net

ECPAT is a network of organizations and individuals working together to eliminate the commercial sexual exploitation of children. It seeks to encourage the world community to ensure that children everywhere enjoy their fundamental rights free from all forms of commercial sexual exploitation. This website contains a database of research, studies and newsletter on the subject of child sexual exploitation.

STOP DEMAND

www.stopdemand.com

Action to stop demand in child sex trafficking, child pornography, child sex tourism, child prostitution, incest, and child rape.

UNIAP

www.no-trafficking.org

The UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (UNIAP) was established in June 2000 to facilitate a stronger and more coordinated response to human trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam). At a regional level, UNIAP brings together six governments, thirteen UN agencies and eight international NGOs. It contains a lot of good information pertaining to the policy and governmental levels of change’s relating to trafficking and migration issues including the COMMIT process

INTERANTIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION

www.ilo.org

This link includes international standards and principles of work and outlines the right of workers. Also contains the declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work, and the international programme on the elimination of child labor.

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION

www.iom.int

It contains useful information regarding low, policy and research, as well as information on the complex issues surrounding migration such as trafficking and the repatriation of trafficking victims.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

www.humantrafficking.org

This link provides recent updates on human trafficking news and events from around the world, along with country specific information, such as relevant government agencies and laws, action plans and initiatives and best practices. An overview of the human trafficking situation in given for each country, including government efforts, NGOs/ IO efforts, and areas for improvement. The “Combat Trafficking” tab provide links information on best practices in prevention, protection, prosecution, and reintegration.

OFFICE TO MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAFFICKING PERSON

www.state.gov

UNESCO TRAFFICKING PROJECT

www.unescobkk.org

UNESCO Bangkok’s Trafficking Project includes Prevention Programmes in minority language, the trafficking statistics projects, the Highland citizenship and birth registration project, and a project to link information related to trafficking, HIV/AIDS incidence, intervention, and at risk population distribution in order to discover related trends.

2. Trafficking documents, reports, articles:

COMBATING HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN ASIA:

This is a Resource Guide to International and Regional Legal Instruments, Political Commitments and Recommended Practices. The main objectives of this Resource Guide are:

To explain the multidimensional nature of trafficking and the need for a multifaceted response utilizing the full range of legal and other instruments applicable to trafficking in persons, and...

To raise awareness of the complete range of legal and other instruments available to combat trafficking and to set forth their obligations and recommendations.

3. Child Abuse:

CHILD ABUSE DEFINITIONS:

www.nspcc.org.uk

CHILD LABOR

www.comminit.com

“The Project for Eradicating the Worst Forms of Child Labour – Turkey this 2-year advocacy initiative draws upon awareness-raising and the creation of a spirit of ownership at the national and local level to spark change related to child labour practices in Turkey. Partnership is the core

strategy shaping this effort to develop a context of openness and dialogue between the parties concerned that - it is hoped - will lead to concrete strategies and real change to protect children's rights”

4. Child Protection and Development:

CHILD RIGHTS INFORAMTION NETWORK

www.crin.org

In this website you will find a list of NGO alternative reports submitted to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, alongside a list of initial and second periodic reports considered by the Committee. They provide links to the NGO alternative reports -- all existing and public reports submitted to the Committee on the Convention of the Rights of the Child by NGOs and NGO Coalitions.

5. Child and Mother Health:

www.comminit.com

“Reducing Maternal, Newborn and Child Deaths in the Asia Pacific: Strategies that Work. This report explores strategies that have been proven to be effective in reducing maternal, newborn and child deaths as part of the effort to meet MDGs 4 and 5 by 2015. The first portion of the document presents evidence that low-income countries could indeed substantially reduce the number of maternal, newborn, and child deaths by implementing a limited number of Cost-effective interventions at specific points in time”.

Self Learning Materials

These self-learning materials are highly recommended. They are user-friendly, and it can be adapted to your audience. Let us know if you would like support in using and adapting them to your context.

1. Child Development:

Child development study pack:

The pack developed by Tear Found UK, provides a tool for learning and reflection suitable for people who are in the formative stages of setting up a program and identifying good practice that will help to create a balanced program. It can also be used by those who are already involved in a child-related program, from small, local projects and to large national programs.

Children in residential care and alternative:

This manual looks at children in residential care and some of the alternatives available for residential care and the role of the family for children in residential care. It is recommended that you use this framework in conjunction with the Tearfund Child Development Study Pack.

Community Child Health:

This manual provides a tool for people working in the community and who wants to understand the health of the child in this context. It tells you about, what is community child health, about children’s rights and psycho-social needs, how can a program be community-based and child-focused, what about the spiritual aspects of health and what does Scripture say about the principles of community child health.

Children with disabilities:

This manual explains what is disability, how many children have disabilities, what the Bible says about disability and what is the best way to work with children with disabilities.

2. Reproductive Health, HIV AIDS:

HIV Counseling and Testing for Youth:

This is a training guideline about how to go and counsel youth about HIV testing. It was developed by Family Health International (FHI). If you are directly working with youth who are at risk of acquiring the virus we highly recommend this training manual.

Understanding and challenging HIV stigma Toolkit for action: Young people and stigma

: This training manual first is entitled "Young People and Stigma" and provides exercises to help young people identify the particular stigma issues that they face; analyzes the causes and consequences of stigma; addresses the link between stigma, gender and sexuality; and empowers young people with skills to cope with stigma and build strategies for change.

Understanding and challenging HIV stigma Toolkit for action: Children and stigma:

The second training module in this series, focusing on children of various ages, aims to help explore and understand the different ways in which children are stigmatized and to look at strategies to begin to change attitudes and experiences. Exercises are designed for both children and adults.

My Changing Body, fertility awareness for youth:

My Changing Body provides accurate, factual information about puberty in objective and reassuring terms for young people. What youth learn from My Changing Body will help them to become more self-confident, practice good health habits, and gain a positive self-image. My Changing Body is a fun and engaging manual. Each session includes interactive activities, role-plays, games, and craft-making that not only promote the mastery of new knowledge, but also stimulate participants to share feelings and emotions. By engaging the “heart,” in addition to the “head,” participants hear, learn, and absorb very important messages about their changing bodies.

Training for trainer’s reproductive health: The Training of Trainers Manual provides a comprehensive training program that can be used by ‘master’ level peer educators and trainers. The manual uses participatory techniques based on a variety of theoretical frameworks to ensure that future trainers of peer educators are skilled and confident in their abilities to train peer educators and serve as informed resources for their peers. It also explains how the work of peer educators fits within a systematic approach to behavior change on individual and societal levels. Special attention is given to gender and cultural sensitivity and to youth participation in health education. This training curriculum focuses on sexual and reproductive health and the prevention and management of HIV, other STIs, and substance abuse.

3. Child Protection and Development:

The Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC):

This is a Power Point presentation that contains a summary of the CRC and very useful if you want to train your staff or government officials about the rights of the child. Very important to have in mind if your organizations aims to protect and care for children.

4. Safe Migration, HIV, Trafficking Prevention:

HIV/AIDS and children’s Migration. A training manual for community workers:

This manual is aimed at service providers who are interested in empowering and equipping communities to deal with the impacts of HIV/AIDS. The particular focus here is to train community workers to help families and communities to make informed decisions regarding children’s migration and to provide support.“This manual does not intend to be rigidly prescriptive, but should be adapted to the conditions that prevail in different social and geographical contexts.”It is divided into 8 modules:

Module 1: Raising awareness of the links between AIDS and migration

Module 2: Preparing children

Module 3: Decision-making

Module 4: Adapting to new situation

Module 5: Education

Module 6: Poverty

5. Organizational development tools:

Building Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Systems for HIV/AIDS Program:

This publication is an easy-to-use manual designed to assist NGOs/FBOs/CBOs in developing a monitoring, evaluation and reporting (MER) framework for HIV programming with “how-to” sections on adopting this framework. The document includes chapters on the basic principles of MER, results-based MER, and indicators as well as providing worksheets that serve as a useful guide. The manual additionally provides practical data protocol sheets that guide NGOs/FBOs/CBOs on adapting their MER systems.

The PISA action guide:

COMMUNITY-DRIVEN TOOLS for Data Collection and Decision Making: Participatory Information Systems Appraisal (PISA) represents a shift in our predominant way of thinking about information for economic and social development.,PISA adapts a well developed family of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools for today's information–intensive economy. The PISA Action Guide systematically introduces and explains the concepts and strategies needed to make well informed, data–based decisions while empowering key stakeholders in the process.

CORE COSTS AND NGO SUSTAINABILITY:

A study and report to assist the NGO community to attain financial stability through good business practices and understand indirect cost rates in order to compete for donor funding.

Resource Center

Welcome to the San Jai Resource Center. San Jai is committed to sharing with its network community training materials, handbooks, tools and guides that help to increase the knowledge and skills of our members. This session will continue developing as our members get involved and share with us their learning needs and resources available in their organizations.