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.
-UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Overview of Article 35
Protection from certain forms commercial exploitation of children are covered under CRC, such as inter-country parental abduction, adoption for profit, forced labour, sexual exploitation, military recruitment. While adding an extra layer of protection, Articles 35 reinforces States Parties’ obligation to put in place prevention measures against certain acts of abduction of, sale of or traffic in children and introduces an obligation to prevent on States Parties, not only cross border but also within their jurisdiction. It recognises that States Parties have wide-ranging national, bilateral and multilateral obligations of prevention of all acts that render the child into some form a commodity. Therefore, it is a supplementary layer of protection for children from commercial exploitation.
Travaux préparatoires of the Convention reveal that it was first suggested to have one composite article combining Article 34 (commercial sexual exploitation of children) and 35 and 36 (all other forms of exploitation) to cover sexual and other related forms of exploitation. However, drafting delegates opted for separate articles to provide wider and a fail-safe protection for children as the sale or traffic of children was wider in scope than that of sexual exploitation [1].
Neither travaux préparatoires nor Article 35 provide definitions for abduction of, sale of or trafficking in children. Therefore, although linked yet distinct phenomena, States Parties concentrate mostly on trafficking in children to deal with these three different forms of commercial exploitation. This creates a gap in collection of data and subsequent knowledge for States Parties to introduce relevant and targeted measures of prevention [2].
Core attributes of Article 35
The core attributes of Article 35 are:
- National, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent abduction, sale and trafficking
- Establishing preventive and protective legal and policy framework
- Protection of survivors/victims of abduction, sale and trafficking
Each of these attributes can be measured in terms of structural or process implementation or in terms of outcomes achieved through implementation as outlined in the table below. Some indicators, for instance the structural ones, may be common to all attributes. Others are common to two or more attributes, while some indicators may be relevant to one attribute only. An attempt has been made to balance the use of objective and subjective data indicators as well as qualitative and quantitative ones.
What did children say?
These are some ideas that children from around the world shared with us during the Global Child Rights Dialogue (GCRD) project:
Relevant provisions within the SDGs
- Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
- Target 5.2 Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.
- Goal 16 Peace, justice and strong institutions.
- Target 16.2 End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children.
Potential sources of data for users of the indicators sets
- Court case statistics
- ECPAT International reports
- Household surveys
- Human rights violations reports of CSOs
- Interior ministries
- INTERPOL data
- Migration departments
- National Statistics
- National vital registration systems
- Primary research by National Human Rights Institutions for Children
- TIP reports
References used for the overview
- Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). (2007). Legislative History of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. (Vol. 2, pp. 723-737). New York and Geneva: United Nations. Retrieved from https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/node/8015/pdf/legislativehistorycrc1en_1.pdf
- United Nations General Assembly. (2017). Joint report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material and the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children (A/72/164), (para. 16). Retrieved from https://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/72/164
References used to create indicators
- United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). (2007). Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Fully Revised 3rd Ed.). Geneva, Switzerland: UNICEF.
- UNICEF. (n.d.). Mapping the Global Goals for Sustainable Development and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/media/60231/file
- United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR). (n.d.). The Universal Human Rights Index (UHRI). Retrieved from https://uhri.ohchr.org/en
Glossary/key words
Abduction of children
“States Parties are required to take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent abduction of children for any purpose or in any form. The abduction of children within one country or across frontiers for the purposes of, for example, economic exploitation, sexual exploitation, sale, trafficking or adoption is a form of exploitation. The abduction of children is to be distinguished from the illicit transfer and non-return of children abroad (see Article 11 of the CRC). The illicit transfer and non-return of children abroad refers to the problem of the abduction of children across frontiers by one of their parents” (UNICEF Office of Research Innocenti, n.d.).
Sale and trafficking
The organized illegal movement of persons [children] for profit. The critical additional factor that distinguishes trafficking from migrant smuggling is the presence of force, coercion and/or deception throughout or at some stage in the process — such deception, force or coercion being used for the purpose of exploitation. While the additional elements that distinguish trafficking from migrant smuggling may sometimes be obvious, in many cases they are difficult to prove without active investigation (UNHCR, 2005).
“According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, (intercountry) adoption, forced labour and sexual exploitation are the three main practices in relation to which the sale and trafficking of children occur” (UNICEF Office of Research Innocenti, 2000).
© GlobalChild (2020)