Illegal Trade, Children

Background

Policy interest in the illegal trade in children emerged in the context of two broader sets of concerns. First, throughout the 1990s, what was termed commercial sexual exploitation of children became a focal point for the activities of a wide range of child rights agencies and nongovernmental organizations. Following the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child definition of a child as a person below the age of 18, they [Page 868]drew attention to the presence of children in prostitution in virtually all regions of the world. Very often, children working in prostitution (like their adult counterparts) had migrated to do so, either internally or across international borders, and campaigners against the commercial sexual exploitation of children highlighted the involvement of third parties in recruiting children and organizing their movement into prostitution, often by means of deception or coercion. This was frequently described as an illegal trade in children, or as child sex trafficking.

Second, the 1990s witnessed growing concern about international migration and its implications for questions of national sovereignty and security. Such concern culminated in the United Nations Convention on Transnational Crime (2000) and its two associated protocols, one on smuggling (deemed to be a crime against the state) and one on trafficking (deemed to be a crime against the person). Whereas smuggling refers to situations in which the migrant gives full and informed consent to movement, trafficking is defined as

the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring 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 labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organ. (United Nations, 2000, Article 3a, p. 2)

As far as adults are concerned, the consent of a victim of trafficking (VoT) to the intended exploitation is deemed irrelevant where any of the means set out in Article 3a have been used. However, where children (defined as persons under the age of 18) are concerned, the Trafficking Protocol makes consent irrelevant and further provides that children's movement need not have been effected by means of coercion, deception, or any form of illicit influence, in order to be considered trafficking. In other words, if a person under the age of 18 has been moved for purposes of exploitation, he or she is a VoT, even if he or she moved entirely willingly.

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