Summary

The key recommendations from the report are as follows:

Adopt and implement clear and comprehensive legislation that criminalizes the sexual exploitation and related sale and trafficking of children, recognizes their legal status as victims to access rights and services for their care, recovery and reintegration, and ensures child-friendly judicial proceedings and remedies, including compensation.

Establish comprehensive, rights-based and child-centred care, recovery and reintegration programmes, with a gender perspective, through a full range of laws, policies and services that will:

• Enable rapid identification of victims and coordinated referral mechanisms;
• Provide specialized training to personnel involved in the identification process;
• Provide for awareness-raising and outreach to victims and children in vulnerable situations;
• Establish centralized databases for case management to ensure that child victims are identified, linked to services and followed up on a long-term basis;
• Ensure that child victims have access to safe and secure housing, medical and psychological care, legal assistance, education, vocational training, life skills and socioeconomic support, sports and leisure activities, religion and cultural practices by means of an individualized plan that is adapted to the child’s needs, as part of his or her life project;
• Empower child victims through child-sensitive procedures and accessible avenues for participation that foster a sense of agency in their care, recovery and reintegration programme, keep them informed and allow them to be consulted on decisions affecting them;
• Whenever possible, involve the family in the care, recovery and reintegration process;
• Allocate consistent funding and adequate resources to provide continuous, comprehensive, high-quality assistance and ensure the sustainability of support services to child victims in the short, medium and long term;
• Promote partnerships and cooperation in the development of programmes, including awareness-raising and education programmes targeted at families, communities and society at large, to change negative attitudes and address stigma and discrimination against child victims, with the involvement of civil society, the private sector, academic institutions and children.

Provide, through the United Nations and other stakeholders, technical assistance andsupport to States for the elaboration and implementation of comprehensive, rights-based and child-centred care, recoveryand reintegration programmes, as part of effective national child protection systems.