Ensuring the provision of comprehensive care, recovery and rehabilitation for child victims of sale and sexual exploitation.
Due to the abhorrent nature of the crimes suffered by children victims of sale and sexual exploitation, the care they receive when they escape or are rescued is of the utmost importance. The successive Special Rapporteurs have throughout their work emphasised the obligation of States to provide care, recovery and rehabilitation services to child victims of sale and sexual exploitation. The initial programmes that were advocated included counselling programmes, organised support for families in order to prevent the victim’s placement in an institution, and awareness-raising on the subject to prevent the stigmatisation of the survivor. It was observed that in the majority of national scenarios there was no programme specifically addressing child victims of sale and sexual exploitation. Furthermore, the risk of system-induced trauma and re-victimisation were very high due to these inappropriate services.
Successive mandate holders thus sought to provide practical guidelines to States and other actors. An urgent priority was to provide separate care for child victims of sale and sexual exploitation and differentiate this care from existing programmes dealing with child victims of domestic abuse and violence or dealing with adults. The third Special Rapporteur, Mr Juan Miguel Petit, detailed the services that needed to be provided by shelters and the importance of long term therapies. The report of the current Special Rapporteur, Ms Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, built on collected good practices to present concise and concrete guidelines. From this study, it was concluded that comprehensive care, recovery and reintegration programmes needed to include:
Rapid victim identification and coordinated referral mechanisms;
Specialised training for personnel involved in the detection process;
Awareness-raising and outreach to victims and children in vulnerable situations; Centralised databases for case management to ensure that child victims are identified, linked to services and followed-up on a long-term basis;
Access of child victims to safe and secure housing, medical and psychological care, legal assistance, education, vocational training, life skills and socio-economic support, sports and leisure activities, religion and cultural practices;
Accessible avenues for participation, supporting a sense of agency in the care, recovery and reintegration programme of children, keeping them informed and consulting them on decisions affecting them;
The involvement of the family in the care, recovery and reintegration process;
Providing assistance, including psychosocial support and livelihoods, to the family;
Inter-disciplinary agencies for the coordination of integrated care, recovery and reintegration programmes, with clear roles and responsibilities in the delivery of support services;
Independent monitoring and assessment mechanisms to inform, evaluate and guide care, recovery and reintegration programmes;
Consistent funding and adequate resources to provide continuous comprehensive quality assistance and ensure the sustainability of support services to child victims in the short, medium and long term.
These guidelines constitute a perfect example of the technical assistance and advice the Special Rapporteur can give to States, and fulfils a basic responsibility of the United Nations to support concrete reforms at the national level.