World appl. programming, Vol(4), No (10), October, 2014. pp.

210-212

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World Applied Programming

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United Nations Victim-Centered Prevention of Child Trafficking

Fatemeh Shiri *
Student of Department of Penal and Criminology, College of Law, Khuzestan Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran.

Abdolkarim Shaheidar
Department of Law, Payame-Noor University, Tehran, Iran

Mohammad Vafa Darvishpoor

Department of Law, Islamic Azad University, Izeh, Iran
*Corresponding author: Shiri.elham@ymail.com

Keywords

Abstract

Child trafficking
Traumatic factors
United Nation
Vulnerability
social prevention

Child trafficking commits by transnational organized criminal groups for the purpose of financial gain. This
dread full in humanity crime by violation of the basic humanity rights of the victims will enter irreparable
damage to the body, soul and spirit of the social life of victims, therefore the implementation of the(United
Nations Child Right Convention)UNs CRC to combat this crime, to defense children's Rights has adopted
various measures; Among these solutions, Measures to fight against the children's vulnerable factors is
fighting against the trafficking,which is a type of social preventing crime through the view of victim
centered. In this study, which is a descriptive- analytic study, the researcher tries to investigate this type of
social prevention predicted by the UNs to combat child trafficking.

1.

Introduction

Undoubtedly child trafficking is a creepy, uninterrupted, calm, organized, profitable and silent activity which in the present century has led to
growing concern of the global community[1]. Human trafficking with annual interest of5 to7 billion dollars, after drugs and arms trafficking, is
the most illicit and profitable trade in the world; and it is counted as the largest and most criminal activity. Four million people are trafficked
domestically or internationally each year[10]. due to the characteristics of children according to; age, physical and mental specification; they are
the suitable case for human traffickers that according to the UNs statistics one third of the human trafficking is children[5].
This inhumanity crime not only violates the substantial and fundamental rights of children but also it caused the disrupting of national security
and international order; child trafficking also cause irreparable damage to the body, spirit, soul and the social life of the victims. So, this is
necessary more than ever to combat with the crime of the international community. Risks and impacts of this crime caused that the United
Nations as the most universal and having the most members among the world organizations, which has always been an adherent and advocator
of people; on this basis, three strategies have been considered for this purpose, including prosecution, prevention and protection of victims
According the report of the UNs Office on Drugs and Crime in the field of trafficking in persons in 2006more than 21thousandsvictims of
human trafficking were identifiedin111countries. However, the size and scale of this problem is unknown, and also Human trafficking is a crime
that is rarely prosecuted and less than half of the countries where data were available during there porting period were at least at real and
conviction[17]. According to this, the prevention strategy(which is expected..) is the best and most effective strategy to Eradicate child
trafficking. Social prevention of child trafficking by combating the risk factors is the other prevention mechanism of the UNs.
2. Research Methodology:
In doing this research which is a descriptive- analytic study, the documentary and library method was used as the procedure of data collecting;
though in this study the international documents, as well as reports and research which has been done by international organizations in this field
has been used.
3. Childrens Vulnerability factor against trafficking:
Some factors in the child'ssurrounding environment play important role in making him a victim to trafficking, these factors have the economic,
social and cultural feature in whichthe most common factors are as follows:
3.1. Poverty:
Many scientific studies show that the roots of much social harm are poverty[9]. One of the factors that makes children vulnerable to trafficking is
economic poverty. Economic weakness and vulnerability to child trafficking is controversial in several aspects, Firstly the economic weakness
causes the person is ready to do humiliating acts and perpetrators of trafficking are usually followed them, Secondly, the economic weakness
causes that people are easily persuaded to accept the deceptive words of traffickers; Thirdly economic weakness followed by deprivation of
social support, traffickers a real so looking for people who do not have the social support of family or relatives[11].
Traffickers don't look for their victims in the rich neighborhood, they look in the poorest shanty towns or the most underprivileged rural areas,
where grinding poverty can heighten childrens vulnerability to protection abuses[14]. families that are in extreme poverty may send their
children away to work out of the country[16].
In the secircumstances, families hoping to escape from poverty easily give their children to strangers; however, when social and economic
problems and unemployment increases, employment opportunities limits, and the legal path clogged, many people accept such assistance. This
condition is caused the traffickers get benefits from lack of organizing and clarity to create a variety of conditions to trap their victims[4].
3.2. Lack of educational opportunities:

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World Applied Programming Vol(4), No (10), October, 2014.

School enrollment is a critical factor in the fight against trafficking. Uneducated children have few opportunities for their future, and are
therefore more vulnerable to traffickers promises of money and a better life[16].
According to the survey, two-thirds of girls who have been caught trafficking gangs are less educated or illiterate. Many of them cannot speak
the language, so they have little control over their situation[2]. this weakness also makes them more vulnerable in the destination country,
because these people have little knowledge an dare not aware of their rights, this causes the perpetrators utilize and exploit their victims easier
and more controllable and encounter less resistance.
3.3.Gender discrimination:
The lack of gender-based in the patriarchal and traditional societies in developing countries, has created a favorable environment for human
trafficking networks. These communities with the damage caused by the economic crisis, the collapse of the old structure and social
organization, failure patriarchal production system, male unemployment and immigration abroad, encountered entering marginalized women
community to labor market, nationally and internationally. Socially isolated women who are potential victims of discriminate on due to sexual
behavior, lack of education, in equality of rights and economic opportunity with men, limited knowledge of the outside world, and capability of
the housework and child care does not exceed more[6]. Therefore, following the low social and economic support of men, the only way to
preserve the lives of women using their experiences inside the house in the labor market, the same as the traffickers pose[3].
Legal and social in equalities underlying the spread of trafficking, especially when females are seen as commodities can be bought and sold in
the such space; in most cases, girls are denied the opportunity to go to school, and are forced to do housework; in this situation seems to arise
prey for traffickers in which for escaping the abuse, home violence, culture and traditions discrimination and receive the individual freedom they
are beings educed against the promises of traffickers.
3.4. Violence against children:
Domestic violence and inhuman treatment to children is another important factor to increase child trafficking. Numbers of victims of human
trafficking is being trapped when they have been forced to flee their homes because of violence and beatings. The situation in communities
where suffer from poverty and population pressure is very serious[11].
Martha Snotuzpayz Special Representative of the UNs Secretary General on Violence against Children at a news conference warned that
millions of children suffers from violence, abuse and exploitation each day; while most of them do not count in statistics and are excluded in the
public discussion. This situation has caused them to become victims without a voice[5].
Violence against children by parents can be caused by factors such as characteristics and personality, psychological factors and personality,
ignorance, moral weakness, addiction and drug abuse and parents' education and intelligence. Violence against children in the family make a
situation for children to escape from their families and seeker fuge and trust strangers that try to deceive and trafficked them.
3.5. Orphanage or Irresponsible against children:
Orphans are strongly vulnerable against trafficking and exploitation. Orphans or children who have been in child care institutions are appropriate
target for traffickers. Children raised in institutions have less opportunity to connect with the community and therefore more vulnerable to falling
into the trap of traffickers. Labor of Orphans is one of the factors that make them vulnerable to trafficking specially activities that will increase
their chances of misuse of them. Assessments by the International Labor Organization have found that orphaned children are much more likely
than non-orphans to be working in domestic service, commercial sex, and commercial agriculture or as street vendors[15].
In the situation that the head of the family is ill or the family force the children to work they should have income for the family and it causes
them to be vulnerable to traffickers. Sometimes because of poverty, and sometimes with the promise of marriage, young women are sold to
traffickers by parents or other relatives to the family[2].
In some cases, children whom accepted as an adopted are at risk of being trafficked. Reuter's reports and revealed that many families who have
adopted children and they did not want them by placing an advertisement on Yahoo or Facebook have found purchaser and-but with a change in
the custody law, and in some cases breaking the lawselling children.70 percent of the children, have purchasers from outside America's borders.
Many of these children are not given actual custody but such children are used in criminal matters like pornography[5].
Many victims of child trafficking are also from disintegrating and divorced families. According to the speaker of the International supportive
Child Rights Institute: "Today the children of divorced families are more at risk of involvement in the trap of traffickers"[8].
3.6. Lack of birth registration(no legal identity):
Children who are not registered are more susceptible to trafficking[12].
In such circumstances the children have no legal identity and it is easier for traffickers to hide them. This is more visible in underdeveloped
countries. Lack of recording information related to the children has doubled the complexity of the problems related to trafficking, because
children conversion easy targets for traffickers and when they transferred they are missing forever[12].Trying to find these children are too hard
and track them for security troops are more difficult than other children. Another problem that occurs in the process of judicial review is to
establish the age of the child and make the perpetrators responsible due to lack of legal identity papers.
3.7. Armed conflicts, wars and humanitarian disasters:
Armed conflict and natural disasters caused Insecurity and disruption to the normal life of children.
Cataclysmic events that disrupt livelihoods or result in the death of one or both parents make children vulnerable to trafficking. These crises
create chaos and a breakdown of law enforcement, which decreases the likelihood of traffickers facing legal consequences[16].
This situation in many countries in which they are in civil war or hostility, is also visible. These ravages make the children away from safe
environment for living and studying and force them to work in any job which is make the fertile ground for criminal network of child trafficking.
On the other the insecurity created in wars which is caused the permeable borders that it increases the ability of traffickers to transport children
abroad. This situation is observable in Iraq and Syria. Some human rights organizations have reported that millions of Iraqi orphans whom most
of them are compelled to work to meet their needs. According to these organizations the numbers of children is increasing due to the ravages of
Iraqi security. Economic dilemma of orphans and Iraqi families are terribly bad that many children gathering the garbage from the waste baskets
sell them to meet their daily lives of the family[5].
United Nations Children's Fund(UNICEF) also announced Syrian refugee children who have been displaced by the war are subjected to various
kinds of abuse, including early marriage, violence at homes and forced to work in different centers. According to this organization, more than
one million children have been sent to Syria from the Syrian border to neighboring countries. Some of them are even deprived of their close
relatives because the parent or siblings have died. Jordani an secretary of state announced the identifying and combating trafficking in Syrian

Fatemeh Shiri *, Abdolkarim Shaheidar, Mohammad Vafa Darvishpoor

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World Applied Programming Vol(4), No (10), October, 2014.

refugee camp (Alzatary) on the border of Syria and Jordan."Hussein al-Majali" said the security agencies identified security risk in the camp of
the Syrians (Alzatary) and combating human trafficking especially women and immature girls[5].
4. Social prevention of child trafficking:
Social prevention is the collection of preventive events in which dominate the entire environment surrounding the person involved in the process
of socialization and influences social functioning. This method of prevention of crime with the uses of educational, cultural, economic, and
social measurestries to make a healthy and safe environment in order to reduce or eliminate Social Factors in doing crime.
The most important crisis of child trafficking, study and scrutiny over the causes and roots of this phenomenon, it is with the understanding of
the causes that can try to eradicate them and the appropriate way will be presented.Thus, by adopting strategies for large-scale social to eliminate
the background that led to the growth and empowerment of child trafficking are a type of social prevention. UNs Palermo Protocol on Article 9
like the Convention in 1949 advice countries to adopt policies and social measures and economic developments to reduce vulnerability of
children against trafficking. Human trafficking Protocol, including provisions contained in Article 31 of the Palermo Convention in requiring
states to adopt preventive pandemic policies till through recourse to social preventive measures that including monitoring and control of social
and economic bad conditions, causing the elimination of child vulnerability against this crime and through thisway do a great activity to
eradicate child trafficking.Through this policy, the United Nations these days, most preventive measures in countries that are potential sources of
trafficking, have been focused on reduction the vulnerability of individuals, as well as documents and initiatives at the regional level-such as the
SARS contract Ravand Baliaroused that in all, their purpose is promoting and developing the practical cooperation's of regional countries to
prevent trafficking in countries of origin in which The social prevention through fighting against the children's vulnerable factors against
trafficking, is their most obvious strategies.
This policy of the UNs seems to berun by country members and non-governmental human rights organizations working are very effective and
satisfactory in reducing crime and will be accountable more than penal policy.

5. Conclusion
In recent decades, by the influence of the globalization process, not only it has encompassed new opportunities for criminals, but the methods
and processes of crime have also transformed. One of the developments is the advent of transnational organized child trafficking. Thousands of
innocent children transfer across international borders for sexual exploitation and economic purposes each year. Child Trafficking as
transnational organized crime violates the fundamental rights of children who are often from poor and under developed countries. These children
due to some factors such as culture and economic poverty, social problems, unstable political atmosphere and etc. are the victims of these
inhumanity crimes. Hence, the priority is to identify and combat the basic causes of this crime.
Effective measures to prevent child trafficking, requires a comprehensive international approach includingbilateral or multilateral cooperation
between countries to tackle the root reasons, These reasons are the complex external factors in the surrounding in which influence children and
driving his behavior and actions with which he is regarded as the economic, social, cultural and family are such belonging to these factors. These
factors are not only involved in child's crime, but it also effect on victimization. Combating effective factors in children victimization in child
trafficking is a social measures which aims to eradicate crime-causing in organizations and human society based on the Achievements of the
Criminology Research. Efforts to prevent this type of community prevention helps to reduce the mass of potential victims of child trafficking,
and that is a politic that puts purpose to huge profits of traffickers.

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