Background

Pursuant to the Human Rights CouncilHuman Rights Council Resolution 43/22, the UN Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse materialhas initiated the preparation of her next thematic report to the 49th session of the Human Rights Council, to be presented in March 2022. The Special Rapporteur has decided to dedicate her report to a practical approach to addressing the sale and sexual exploitation of children.

Within the scope of this topic, the Special Rapporteur aims to gather best practices in the protection of children from sale, sexual exploitation, and sexual abuse of children, and to develop a user-friendly child protection checklist that may support States and other stakeholders to contribute to the prevention, protection, as well as the care, recovery and rehabilitation of children victims of sexual abuse and exploitation.

The scope of the report will cover, inter alia, the sale of children for the purposes of child marriage as well as sexual exploitation and abuse of children through i. online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA); ii. child trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation; iii. sexual exploitation of children in the context of travel and tourism (SECTT).

Contributions :

In order to inform the preparation of her report, the Special Rapporteur would like to seek contributions from States, National Human Rights Institutions, civil society organizations, United Nations agencies, academia, international and regional organizations, corporate entities, individuals, related to what they consider to represent the best practices in the following areas:

• Prevention through for example:
  • Education
  • Awareness raising within communities and with targeted groups such as parents, teachers, children, community leaders etc.
  • The provision of specialized training of law enforcement, service providers etc.
  • The promotion of child participation and empowerment
• Protection through for example:
  • Developing and strengthening legal and policy frameworks
  • Strengthening and equipping legal and justice system to ensure a child friendly system,  including specialized training in detection and investigation of crimes against children, as well as specialized treatment, care and interview of child victims
  • Providing specialized training for social and case workers, prosecutors and adjudicators
• Care, Recovery, and Rehabilitation of child sexual abuse victims through for example
  • Providing psychological and emotional support to child victims of exploitation and abuse
  • Providing shelter, rehabilitation, and counselling services to child victims

Examples of best practices are kindly requested to be as concrete as possible and preferably include a description of practical outcomes or results. The word limit should not exceed 3,000 words. Responses may be addressed to the Special Rapporteur at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights by email to OHCHR-srsaleofchildren@un.org before 10 November 2021, indicating in the subject line: contribution to HRC report 2022. Reports, academic studies and other types of background materials can be attached as an annex to the submission. If not stated otherwise in your submission, the responses received will be published on the website of the Special Rapporteur.