Training manual to fight child trafficking

16 July 2008 - Under the auspices of UN.GIFT, an Expert Group Initiative to Fight Child Trafficking led by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is working to develop a training manual that addresses the fight against child trafficking.

Children, like women, are trafficked for commercial sex trade. Children are also frequently exploited for labour in the sectors of agriculture, manufacturing industry, mining or fisheries. Girls in particular are trafficked for domestic labour. Many children are moved away from their homes and exploited in the informal economy where they are harder to trace and at high risk of violence. Criminal networks and individuals exploit children for begging, street hawking and car window cleaning. Some are exploited as drug couriers, dealers or in petty crime or burglary.

While extensive anti-child trafficking literature exists, few resources take a training approach aimed at building the capacity of those involved in eradicating the crime. The manual will be different in that it will combine a systematic training tool and a stand-alone resource for those who wish to strengthen their skills.

Among its features is a set of exercises aimed at familiarising end-users with the complexities of child-trafficking. The manual is targeted at governments, workers' and employers' organizations, and non-governmental organizations, and includes a facilitators' guide for trainers/facilitators. Above all it seeks to demonstrate how different groups can work together to address the issue.

Representatives from ILO, UNICEF, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Office for the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), Save the Children UK, Terre des Hommes, the Council of the Baltic Sea States and the Union Générale des Travailleurs came together last week to review and validate work done so far.

"The feedback will allow us to finalize a draft for further testing in a training setting," says Hans van de Glind from ILO and one of the workshop coordinators.

"We hope to jointly launch the training manual at the World Congress against Sexual Exploitation of Children in Rio, Brazil in November 2008, where a wide range of government representatives and other professionals who are in a position to utilise this manual widely will gather," says Amaya Gillespie from UNICEF.

The manual will initially be translated into French, Spanish and Russian.