UN urges an end to sexual exploitation of children

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday called for a coordinated global effort to stamp out the trafficking, sale and commercial sexual exploitation of children.

"Millions of children throughout the world are being bought and sold like chattel and used as sex slaves," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said in a statement to launch a new report on the problem.

That report, Profiting from Abuse, details the scope and toll of the commercial sexual exploitation of children and includes testimonials from abused and exploited women and children.

One such testimonial comes from 16-year-old Caroline, who found herself lured into commercial sex work in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, after travelling 800 km from her home in Nakuru, central Kenya.

"Some of the men would beat me, especially when I refused to take drugs or if I insisted on using a condom," she said.

Caroline was eventually able to begin moving away from the world of commercial sexual exploitation with the help of local nongovernmental organisation Solidarity with Women in Distress (SOLWODI).

The NGO uses peer educators to reach women and girls at risk of being drawn into the sex trade, and offers them counselling, home visits and education on issues such as HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, women's rights, and vocational skills.

After training as a hairdresser with SOLWODI's assistance, Caroline said, she hopes to support herself as well as pay for schooling for her two younger sisters.

"Now there is a life for me," she added.

According to Lorna Rupia, manager of SOLWODI, many Kenyan girls are forced to drop out of school because they cannot pay their school fees, and become involved in commercial sex because they need money to buy clothes or food, supplement family income or escape forced early marriages.

"A majority do not like what they have to do but they feel they have no choice," she said.

The UNICEF report, Profiting from Abuse, was released to complement the Second World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, which will take place from 17 to 20 December in Yokohama, Japan.

According to it, worsening economic conditions in Kenya have left many families struggling to pay for even the most basic necessities.

The further weakening of family structures as a result of HIV/AIDS and a culture that has always treated women as second-class citizens was fuelling the sexual exploitation of girls in Kenya, it stated.

Victims of commercial sexual exploitation were at "high risk" of unwanted pregnancies and of contracting HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, according to UNICEF. The minority of children who do manage to escape the sex trade face social stigma, family rejection, shame, fear of retribution and the loss of future economic prospects, it said.

The absence of any social safety net to protect children when parents die - the joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimated that there were some 730,000 Kenyan orphans left to fend for themselves in 1999 - had raised fears that more and more children would be forced into commercial sexual exploitation, Rupia told UNICEF.

"The government and the community must work harder to keep children out of commercial sex," she said.

The Kenyan parliament passed the Children Bill 2001, the first comprehensive child law in the country and an attempt to bring national law in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, on Thursday 29 November.

The Convention, which has been ratified by 191 nations, states, among other things, that a child has the right to be free from abuse and to receive an education.

Humanitarian sources told IRIN on Thursday that the Children Bill contained strong provisions to combat the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Section 12 of the Bill draws heavily on the UN Convention to outlaw the sale, trafficking and sexual exploitation of children, and was now expected to be integrated into the main body of Kenyan law, they said.

The Bill also contains measures to prohibit the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). In a speech marking Jampuri (Independence) Day on Wednesday, President Daniel arap Moi said the circumcising of girls under the age of 17 was now a crime punishable by at least a year in jail.

"Anyone found circumcising a girl of 16 will go straight to jail but for girls above the age of 16 years, it is their choice to be circumcised or not," the BBC quoted him as saying.

"Should they not want to be circumcised, they shall also be protected by the new law," he added.

Kenya's 1998 demographic survey, cited by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), has estimated that 38 percent of Kenyan women aged between 15 and 49 years have undergone FGM - also known by the euphemistic term female circumcision. Among Kisii women in western Kenya, FGM prevalence reached 97 percent, the survey estimated.

UNICEF said on Wednesday that there was still a need for many countries to enact laws to promote children's well-being and protect them from sexual abuse and exploitation, and that such laws should be enforced with tough criminal penalties for abusers.

"Zero tolerance means ending trafficking of children, their sale and barter and imprisonment and torture," Bellamy stated. "It means stamping out every horrible facet of the commercial sexual exploitation of children."