Action to Prevent Child Trafficking in South Eastern Europe – a Preliminary Assessment
- Document number
- 1186
- Date
- 2006
- Title
- Action to Prevent Child Trafficking in South Eastern Europe – a Preliminary Assessment
- Author/publisher
- United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), Terre des Hommes
- Availability
- View/save PDF version of this document
- Document type(s)
- Research/Study/Analysis,
- Keywords
- Best Interests Principle, Child Victims of Trafficking, Separated Migrant Children, Unaccompanied minors, Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Child protection systems, Child Trafficking, Child Prostitution, Child Pornography,
- Summary
- The report criticises that piecemeal prevention efforts in South Eastern Europe (SEE) are failing to protect children from falling prey to traffickers and have relied too much on general awareness-raising. It examines different strategies and initiatives to prevent child trafficking in SEE and includes the voices of child victims from Albania, Moldova, Romania and the UN Administered Province of Kosovo where the research was carried out. The report finds that awareness-raising campaigns are often way off the mark, unfocused and not systematic. Some carry stereotypical images of men lurking in the shadows when traffickers are often family or friends; others ignore trafficking for purposes other than sexual exploitation, for example, domestic work, begging or stealing; that most messages are tailored to adults instead of children and therefore provide little or no information on how children might protect themselves, who to turn to, or where to go for help. The authors conclude that child trafficking can only be combated by addressing the root causes of the problem and the patterns of supply and demand that govern the cycle. They call for the establishment of harmonised, synchronised and seamless systems and services – both internal and cross-border – to protect children. The report stresses the obligation in this regard on States and on parents, guardians and professionals who interface with children (customs officers, border guards, police, teachers, social and health workers etc) under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other relevant instruments. In addition, standardised, comparable indicators and data must be gathered and shared broadly across international boundaries. UNICEF and Terre des Hommes are calling for an urgent focus on prevention through: * Addressing root causes * Rights-based (as opposed to law enforcement and security) approaches * Seamless coordinated systems and information-flows among all actors * Standardised data gathering * Consulting children themselves on these issues * Training professionals who interface with children in their obligations * Tailoring messages that clearly point to avenues of help for children i.e. hotlines, social service numbers, contacts of ombudspersons for children… * Support to families in stress to keep the family together * Creative schools programmes to prevent children dropping out * Life skills education to give children the means – knowledge and skills - to protect themselves.
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