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Sexual exploitation and abuse
• Sexual abuse is defined in the implementation handbook of
the Convention on the Rights of the Child to include not only violent
sexual assaults but also other sexual activity, consensual or not,
with children regarded as immature or below a certain age of sexual
consent. It is further defined in the Convention as “the inducement
or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful sexual activity.”
• Sexual exploitation is defined in the CRC and its Optional Protocol as
involvement of children in prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices; involvement
of children in pornography (performances and materials); sale, trafficking and
abduction of children. Sexual exploitation is also defined as one of the worst
forms of child labour.
There is a paucity of data on trafficking of children. However, available information
from across the region suggests that a growing number of children under age
18, especially adolescent girls, are being trafficked for the purposes of sexual
exploitation and forced labour.
NGOs working with trafficked persons and sex workers estimate that underage
prostitutes comprise 10%-30% of all sex workers. Growing poverty in the CEE/CIS
Region is one of the main reasons children have become vulnerable to trafficking.
The underlying socio-economic causes of migration and other factors that increase
vulnerability to trafficking are the same for teenage girls as for women. These
include poverty, gender-based discrimination, violence, lack of jobs and the
desperate hope of bypassing legal migration requirements. Children, especially
from dysfunctional families and institutions, are particularly at risk of becoming
victims of trafficking. Lack of opportunities and low status make girls and
women even more vulnerable to abuse.
Resources
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