CHILD TRAFFICKING

CHILD TRAFFICKING Geronimo, Cherry P.; Geronimo, Maria Angelica M.; Geronimo, Ralph Ernesto U.; Go, Camille-Marie A; Go, Crystal Karen O. January 26, 2011

Introduction • What is child trafficking? • recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation (UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime) • Child: anyone under the age of 18 years (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child)

Introduction • Exploitation is driven by: • poverty • uneven development • official corruption • gender discrimination • harmful traditional and cultural practices • civil unrest • natural disasters • lack of political will to end it

Global Sex Trafficking • Human trafficking • complex phenomenon fueled by the tremendous growth in the global sex market

Global Sex Trafficking • The number of child victims annually: 1.2 million • third largest international crime • 79% of all trafficking: sexual exploitation

Child Trafficking in the Philippines • NGO’s: 60,000 to 100,000 children are trafficked • Girls • between 14 and 17 years old • from the more impoverished parts of the country • Philippines Social Welfare Department: the annual increase of prostituted children 3266 • Philippines ranks fourth highest number of prostituted children

Child Prostitution • Child trafficking in the Philippines is the highest incidence of child prostitution in a tourist area (UNICEF) • Mindanao • Children are trafficked to major cities and neighboring countries, particularly Malaysia • 60,000 to 100,000 children in the Philippines are involved in prostitution rings

Common Causes • Poverty • Low economic development • Gender inequalities • Limited employment and opportunities • Large family sizes • Inadequate awareness among families • Sex tourism • Advanced Technology

Pedophiles • Well connected and have positions in industry and politics • Live video streaming • Usually meet the mothers/grandmothers of possible victims online and make them their girlfriends • MarcelinoLibanan Philippine Daily Inquirer

“Any representation, by whatever means, of a child engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a child, the dominant characteristic of which is depiction for a sexual purpose.”

Cases of Victims of Child Pornography as compared to Victims. Survivors of Child Prostitution Arnie C Trinidad, Child Pornography in the Philippines (2005), UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies and UNICEF Manila

Child Organ Trafficking • NBI (2008) alerted the public over the rampant smuggling og human organs • Children are kidnapped and taken abroad where their organs are sold to foreign nationals • WHO - Philippines as one of the five organ trafficking hotpots • China, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Brazil, Philippines, Moldova, and Romania are among the world's leading providers of trafficked organs (Organ trafficking: a fast-expanding black market : IHS Jane's, 05 March 2008)

Child Organ Trafficking • Usual buyers are Middle Eastern nationals, allegedly abduct children and house them somewhere in Mindanao • Victims are provided with vitamin supplements to keep their internal organs healthy and will then be transported outside the country to undergo surgery for organ transplants (Atty. Ferdinand Lavin of the NBI's Human Trafficking Division) • NBI raises alarm on child-organ trafficking ABS-CBN News Online, 24 Aug 2008

Legality

Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003R.A. No. 9208 • Unlawful for any person, natural or juridical, to commit any of the following acts: • a) To recruit, transport, transfer, harbor, provide, or receive a person by any means, including those done under the pretext of domestic or overseas employment or training or apprenticeship, for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage; • (b) To introduce or match for money, profit, or material, economic or other consideration, any person or, as provided for under Republic Act No. 6955, any Filipino women to a foreign national, for marriage for the purpose of acquiring, buying, offering, selling or trading him/her to engage in prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;

(c) To offer or contract marriage, real or simulated, for the purpose of acquiring, buying, offering, selling, or trading them to engage in prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor or slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage; • (d) To undertake or organize tours and travel plans consisting of tourism packages or activities for the purpose of utilizing and offering persons for prostitution, pornography or sexual exploitation;

Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003R.A. No. 9208 - (e) To maintain or hire a person to engage in prostitution or pornography; • (f) To adopt or facilitate the adoption of persons for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;

(g) To recruit, hire, adopt, transport or abduct a person, by means of threat or use of force, fraud deceit, violence, coercion, or intimidation for the purpose of removal or sale of organs of said person; and • (h) To recruit, transport or adopt a child to engage in armed activities in the Philippines or abroad

Republic Act 7610 - Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act • Sec. 5. Child Prostitution and Other Sexual Abuse. - Children, whether male or female, who for money, profit, or any other consideration or due to the coercion or influence of any adult, syndicate or group, indulge in sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct, are deemed to be children exploited in prostitution and other sexual abuse.

The penalty of reclusion temporal in its medium period to reclusion perpetua shall be imposed upon the following: • (a) Those who engage in or promote, facilitate or induce child prostitution which include, but are not limited to, the following: • (1) Acting as a procurer of a child prostitute; • (2) Inducing a person to be a client of a child prostitute by means of written or oral advertisements or other similar means; • (3) Taking advantage of influence or relationship to procure a child as prostitute; • (4) Threatening or using violence towards a child to engage him as a prostitute; or • (5) Giving monetary consideration goods or other pecuniary benefit to a child with intent to engage such child in prostitution

Republic Act 7610 - Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act • (b) Those who commit the act of sexual intercourse of lascivious conduct with a child exploited in prostitution or subject to other sexual abuse; Provided, That when the victims is under twelve (12) years of age, the perpetrators shall be prosecuted under Article 335, paragraph 3, for rape and Article 336 of Act No. 3815, as amended, the Revised Penal Code, for rape or lascivious conduct, as the case may be: Provided, That the penalty for lascivious conduct when the victim is under twelve (12) years of age shall be reclusion temporal in its medium period; and (c) Those who derive profit or advantage therefrom, whether as manager or owner of the establishment where the prostitution takes place, or of the sauna, disco, bar, resort, place of entertainment or establishment serving as a cover or which engages in prostitution in addition to the activity for which the license has been issued to said establishment.

Republic Act 7610 - Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act • Sec. 6. Attempt To Commit Child Prostitution. - There is an attempt to commit child prostitution under Section 5, paragraph (a) hereof when any person who, not being a relative of a child, is found alone with the said child inside the room or cubicle of a house, an inn, hotel, motel, pension house, apartelle or other similar establishments, vessel, vehicle or any other hidden or secluded area under circumstances which would lead a reasonable person to believe that the child is about to be exploited in prostitution and other sexual abuse.There is also an attempt to commit child prostitution, under paragraph (b) of Section 5 hereof when any person is receiving services from a child in a sauna parlor or bath, massage clinic, health club and other similar establishments. A penalty lower by two (2) degrees than that prescribed for the consummated felony under Section 5 hereof shall be imposed upon the principals of the attempt to commit the crime of child prostitution under this Act, or, in the proper case, under the Revised Penal Code

International Legislation

Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children • Convention against Transnational Organised Crime • United Nations in Palermo, Italy in 2000 • prevent and combat trafficking in persons, protecting and assisting victims of trafficking and promoting cooperation among states in order to meet those objectives

Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children • defining the crime of trafficking in human beings; essentially, trafficking is the transport of persons, by means of coercion, deception, or consent for the purpose of exploitation such as forced or consensual labor or prostitution: • "Trafficking in persons" shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs... The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth [above] shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth [above] have been used. facilitating the return and acceptance of children who have been victims of cross-border trafficking, with due regard to their safety;

prohibiting the trafficking of children (which is defined as being a person under 18 years of age) for purposes of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), exploitative labour practices or the removal of body parts; • suspending parental rights of parents, caregivers or any other persons who have parental rights in respect of a child should they be found to have trafficked a child;

Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children • ensuring that definitions of trafficking reflect the need for special safeguards and care for children, including appropriate legal protection; • ensuring that trafficked persons are not punished for any offences or activities related to their having been trafficked, such as prostitution and immigration violations; • ensuring that victims of trafficking are protected from deportation or return where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that such return would represent a significant security risk to the trafficked person or their family;

considering temporary or permanent residence in countries of transit or destination for trafficking victims in exchange for testimony against alleged traffickers, or on humanitarian and compassionate grounds; • providing for proportional criminal penalties to be applied to persons found guilty of trafficking in aggravating circumstances, including offences involving trafficking in children or offences committed or involving complicity by state officials; • and, providing for the confiscation of the instruments and proceeds of trafficking and related offences to be used for the benefit of trafficked persons.

Thank you!!!

CHILD TRAFFICKING