Child Trafficking

Article 3(a) defines trafficking in persons as: “…the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, or 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 labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs”. Article 3(b) explains that ‘consent’ – for example to take up work in prostitution – is irrelevant where any of the means set forth in 3(a) have been used; Article 3(c) explains that “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation” is considered to be trafficking even if none of the means set forth in 3(a) have been used. So, in short, the broadly agreed, concise definition of CHILD trafficking is the: recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation. (International labor organization, 2012)