Human Rights Council: Briefing by Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography

[21 March 2007] - Juan Miguel Petit, the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography today warned NGOs against becoming entangled in State bureaucratic values.

He said NGOs are more up to date on developments and must remain open to new interventions and new ways of working. The challenge, he believes, is to create flexible programs to compensate for “moving children”, such as those forced into prostitution.

“You can fill a country with schools,” he said, “but that doesn’t help the moving children. If we are not on the move [with them], they will not count.”

Mr Petit focused on two topics for his report: 1) the trafficking of organs and 2) disappeared children.

Regarding the first topic, he noted the huge concern regarding the real market for trafficking of organs and children. The organs are used in rituals in South Africa and other African countries.

Speaking on the subject of disappeared children, he said when cases of children who had disappeared are brought to the attention of the authorities, a task in itself, officials often disregard the issue, or merely conclude the child has “run away”.

He said instruments are needed to prevent and combat such disappearances so that “we will have the security to know that everything that could be done was done”. He added such mechanisms should include local and national police, media, communities, and voluntary groups in order to create an invisible network of security. 

On the same day, Juan Miguel Petit presented his report to the Council. During the interactive dialogue that followed, Tetiana Semeniuta from the Ukraine criticised his methodology and handling of statistics. She said that, of the 3,000 victims of trafficking since 2000 listed in the report, he omitted that there were only 150 children.

Read the report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (Mr. Juan Miguel Petit)

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