Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Abolishing Slavery and its Contemporary Forms

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Abolishing Slavery
address such trafficking. The “sale of children” is defined as “any act or transaction whereby a
child is transferred by any person or group of persons to another for remuneration or any other
consideration”.
168
States are required to ensure that “offering, delivering or accepting, by what-
ever means, a child for the purpose of: (a) sexual exploitation of the child; (b) transfer of organs of
the child for profit; (c) engagement of the child in forced labour;” and “offering, obtaining, procur-
ing or providing a child for child prostitution” are made criminal offences whether they are
“committed domestically or transnationally or on an individual or organized basis”.
169
The scope
of the Optional Protocol is therefore wider than that of the Trafficking Protocol, since it covers the
trafficking of children within domestic borders and by individuals. In terms of providing protection
for children who have been trafficked or otherwise abused, the provisions of the Optional Protocol
go significantly further than those of the Trafficking Protocol, since it recognizes “the vulnerability
of child victims” and requires States parties to adopt “procedures to recognize their special needs,
including their special needs as witnesses”
170
and to provide “in appropriate cases, for the safety
of child victims, as well as that of their families and witnesses on their behalf, from intimidation
and retaliation”.
171
However, these comprehensive protection provisions are applicable only if
the child is participating in the criminal justice process as a witness.
172
For example, article 8(d)
only requires appropriate support services to be provided to child victims “throughout the legal
process”. 
F. Prostitution
93. Prostitution takes various forms and involves women, children and also men. As noted in the
previous section, it is very closely related to trafficking. The Suppression of Traffic Convention
requires States to punish “any person who, to gratify the passions of another . . . procures, entices
or leads away, for purposes of prostitution, another person . . . [or] otherwise exploits the prosti-
tution of another person” (art. 1 (1) and (2)). The prohibition refers both to cases in which the pros-
titute is subjected to some form of coercion and to acts carried out “with the consent of that per-
son” (art. 1(2)).
173
94. International instruments do not contain a definition of prostitution, though it is most com-
monly interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, that is “any sexual act offered for reward or
profit”. The Suppression of Traffic Convention makes it clear that the reference to prostitution
includes men practising prostitution, as well as women and children under the age of 18. The act
167
See, for example, Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development,
chapter I, resolution I, annex, principle 11, United Nations document A/CONF.171/13 (1994) (stating that “all States . . .
should give the highest possible priority to children” and that “[t]he child has the right to standards of living adequate
for its well-being . . . and to be protected . . . from all forms of physical or mental violence . . . maltreatment or exploi-
tation, including sale, trafficking, sexual abuse and trafficking in its organs”); Final Report of the World Congress against
Commercial Exploitation of Children (1997) (considering the scope of the problem of child trafficking and measures that
could be adopted to combat the problem); see also Report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child pros-
titution and child pornography, United Nations document E/CN.4/1997/95 (1997) (following the World Congress, pro-
posing that “consultation and information services . . . be established in countries of origin as a preventative measure
for children likely to fall victim to trafficking”); General Assembly resolution 51/66 of 31 January 1997, Traffic in Women
and Girls.
168
Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, supra note 150, art. 2.
169
Ibid., art. 3. In addition, article 3(a)(ii) includes “Improperly inducing consent, as an intermediary, for the
adoption of a child in violation of applicable international legal instruments on adoption” as another act in the context
of the sale of children that should be made criminal under the Optional Protocol.
170
 Ibid., art. 8(1)(a).
171
Ibid., art. 8(1)(f).
172 
Ibid., art. 8.
173
See also International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic of Women of Full Age, League of Nations
Treaty Series, vol. 150, p. 431; entered into force on 24 August 1934, art. 1 (similarly banning traffic in women “even
with [their] own consent”).

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