Rationale, scope and objectives

Pursuant to the Human 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 material has initiated the preparations of her next thematic report to the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council, to be presented in March 2023. The Special Rapporteur has decided to dedicate her report to the issue of reparation for child victims and survivors of sale and sexual exploitation.

Under the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography the States Parties are obliged to take all feasible measures with the aim of ensuring all appropriate assistance to victims of such offences, including their full social reintegration and their full physical and psychological recovery.¹ States Parties are also under the obligation to ensure that all child victims of the offences described in the Protocol have access to adequate procedures to seek, without discrimination, compensation for damages from those legally responsible.² General Comment 13 of CRC on the right of the children to freedom from all forms of violence outlines that States parties that have not yet done so must ensure the protection of child victims and witnesses and effective access to redress and reparation.³

Despite the significant work done in the area of transitional justice on victim-centred approaches to the reparation, child victims and survivors of sale and sexual exploitation are hardly featured in these discussions as right holders entitled to the right to access to meaningful reparation as enshrined in international and regional human rights instruments.

Child victims of sale and sexual exploitation continue to be left with limited options to receive justice and meaningful reparation in a widespread disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law.

Reparative justice matters on many levels and yet in majority of countries it needs to be fully operationalized, including through the adoption of legislation. Victims and survivors of sale and sexual exploitation do not have access to reparation and duty-bearers are unwilling or unable to take responsibility to redress the harms done.^₄

Scope, definitions and objectives

The Special Rapporteur seeks to explore the notion of reparation for child victims and survivors of sale and sexual exploitation in both conflict and non-conflict settings.

Reparation comprise a crucial component for a meaningful restoration and recovery of lives for the child victims and survivors of sale and sexual exploitation. The conceptual basis and the provisions on reparation for child victims and survivors vary across the countries despite the commitments under international norms, legal framework and standards. Studies point that victims seeking reparation on cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation face significant setbacks in their access and implementation⁵.

Reparation for child victims and survivors can encompass different issues such as, punishing offenders, holding institutions to account, acknowledging abuse and providing apologies, explanations and assurances of non-recurrence, redress including financial compensation and support for rehabilitation.⁶ A crucial question worth enquiring into is how can the current provisions in national and international  framework be effective so as to better respond to the needs of reparation for victims and survivors.

The Special Rapporteur will look into instances of reparation in relation of sale of children such as child marriage, abductions and kidnappings of children, as well as child soldiers, and the commercial sexual exploitation of the child. The Special Rapporteur will also look into reparation for child victims of conflict-related sexual violence such as rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, enforced sterilization, forced marriage, and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity perpetrated against girls or boys that is directly or indirectly linked to a conflict. This will also include trafficking in children for the purpose of sexual violence and/or exploitation, when committed in situations of conflict.⁷

The study will embark on exploring the measures to be adopted in line with the international standards, including the imperative to safeguard reparation⁸ that are effective, adequate, and prompt to ensure redress and meaningful reparation for child victims and survivors. It will advocate for national and international policy agenda to prioritise reparation and take responsibility to act; identify good practices, provide guidance to governments and other stakeholders to develop and implement reparation programmes.

This report will expand on the Special Rapporteur’s previous report to the HRC on a practical approach to addressing the sale and sexual exploitation of children (A/HRC/49/51), which highlighted the fundamental principle for all States and relevant stakeholders that every child, independent of where they come from and what has happened to them, is entitled to access and benefit from existing services. In light of the two essential aspects underlined in the previous report related to access to justice and rehabilitation measures, the study will further analyse and elaborate the ideas from a more extensive angle of enhancing the effectiveness of reparation.

The Special Rapporteur believes that rehabilitation cannot be achieved without meaningful and victim-centred reparation. There is a strong linkage evidenced by various cases that reparation allow the narrowing of the gaps within communities formed by conflict, and holds the potential to be an effective policy tool to promote recovery and development⁹ especially given the growth trajectory of children with lives ahead of them to rebuild.

In this report, the Special Rapporteur aims to explore and raise international awareness of States’ legal responsibility to provide meaningful reparation to child-victims and survivors of sale and sexual exploitation both in conflict and non-conflict settings.

The report will make recommendations aimed at guiding States and civil society in developing gender and age-sensitive, adequately budgeted reparation measures, which can include collective and symbolic measures, rehabilitation and guarantees of non-repetition, and address pre-existing gender-based inequalities, including through the participation of survivors and women’s civil society organizations.

Objectives

The Special Rapporteur aims to: (i) explore the legal responsibilities, the scope and existing forms of meaningful reparation for child victims and survivors of sale and sexual exploitation in conflict and non-conflict,  national and international, judicial and quasi-judicial as well as non-judicial settings; (ii) highlight pressing challenges and shortcomings of providing adequate, effective and prompt reparation to child victims (iii) take stock of the existing measures, means and mechanisms for survivor-centric reparation measures in line with the international standards, with a view to identifying good practices and recommending measures for duty bearers to take responsibility to provide meaningful reparation. 

Call for contributions: In order to inform the preparations 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 good practices in the following areas:

• What are the current needs of the child victims and survivors to redress and reparation both in conflict and non-conflict settings?
• What are the gaps and challenges within the ambit of the international human rights and humanitarian law, in terms of both the existing framework and the implementation status to address to the needs of the child victims and survivors? What measures can be taken to overcome these gaps?
• Who are the duty bearers to define, implement and provide the reparation to child victims and survivors? In what forms should the reparation be provided, how should they be assessed?
• How do we identify and delineate the roles of state, non-state and individual actors to ensure that reparation reach the child victims and survivors?
• What measures are put in place to hear and understand how child victims and survivors would perceive meaningful reparation?
• What role do civil society organisations and victims’ groups play in devising, consulting and developing various reparation measures and programmes?
• What are the good practices initiated by the stakeholders, and what remaining areas of intervention need to be introduced and/or improved?
• How can States and other stakeholders deliver more effectively with respect to amplifying the effective implementation of meaningful reparation to child victims and survivors? Within the purview of international cooperation, what specific measures should be taken based on the existing structures. What is needed for a more coordinated response by the States/other international actors to provide reparation to child victims and survivors?