‘Leave No Child Behind in the Fight against Human Trafficking’ is the theme of the global camping in 2024. The persons who are below the age of 18 are identified as ‘children’ in accordance of law, domestically and internationally. As per the Report of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC’s Global Report) there is a considerable acceleration in child trafficking globally. As the report further emphasises, very pathetically one in three victims of human trafficking is a child; therefore, time has come for us to eradicate this heinous crime against children from the world.
Selling juvenile members of the human family by matured members of the same human family unethically and illegally has been taking place in human trafficking. Going by the Preamble of the United Nations’ Convention of the Rights of the Child, for the full and harmonious development of a child, he or she should be grown up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding. Further, Article 9 of the said Convention declares that a child shall not be separated from his or her parents against the child’s will. However, the rights described above are barbarously violated in child trafficking.
It is gloomily observed that children are trafficked by racketeers for sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery, forced prostitution, forced marriage, forced begging, forced military affairs, terrorist activities, organ removals or any other criminal activities irrespective of their age and sex. Child trafficking is mostly committed by force, fraud, inducement and culprits may misuse the vulnerability of children and their parents in order to traffic them deceitfully. Children are taken from their parents in the guise of adopting their children to provide them a better future and parents are lured by promises very pathetically. It is also noted that some parents voluntarily sell their children due to economic crisis faced by them in their family lives. Moreover, in parallel to the advancement of modern technology, child trafficking has also been identified as a cybercrime too. Irregular usage of cyberspace by children provides considerable space for traffickers to hoodwink and traffic children in a very organized manner.
Child trafficking is recognized as a fast growing crime in the world and there are considerable reasons for it:
First, loss of social protection for everyone. Parents, teachers, adults, public officials, religious monks, journalists and all members of our society have a responsibility in this regard. If we try to safeguard each other with proper awareness, we could be safe from Human Trafficking.
Secondly, poverty is at the bottom of vulnerability. The classical example for that is selling children by parents.-Thirdly, people are used to tolerate anything illegal where their trust and confidence on law enforcement authorities are collapsed.
Irregular usage of social media paves the way for racketeers to induce innocent children whilst there is no sound regulatory and monitoring mechanism for social media and cyberspace.
The other one is addiction to drugs. Drug addicted persons may do any immoral, illegal or sinful job for making money.
Prevailing trend and demand of finding overseas employments due to economic crisis provide enough space for traffickers to hoodwink vulnerable persons and their children easily.
Corruption plays a significant role in facilitating and fostering the crime of trafficking in persons.
“Prevention is better than cure”, creating awareness is the key weapon, as it builds the capacity of children to avoid possible threats and to take all precautionary actions; all adults including parents, teachers, and religious monks have a huge responsibility in creating awareness among the children. Additionally, any child trafficking issue should be informed to the Child Protection Authority or Children and Women Bureau of the Police to take legal action against the traffickers and to provide safeguards for innocent children.
As per the Section 360(C) of the Penal Code child human trafficking is recognized as severe offence and on conviction perpetrators shall be punished with a fine in addition to an imprisonment which may be extended to 20 years. In this backdrop, as the members of human family, we all should join hands together to fight against child trafficking for the purpose of liberating innocent children from the clutches of human traffickers to make a better future for the entire world.
The writer has an LL.B (University of Colombo) LL.M (KDU), is an Attorney at Law, member of National Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force of Sri Lanka, and legal officer in Ministry of Defence.
