The trafficking of children for purposes of sexual exploitation

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Mpumalanga 7 3 18 12 North West Province 11 9 3 2 Northern Cape 0 0 4 3 Northern Province 0 0 18 3 Western Cape 19 1 10 10 Totals for South Africa 192 95 173 164 The low incidence indicated by these figures could be indicative of the fact that the SAPS less often arrest street sex workers than in previous years. This is in part due to a greater tolerance for sex work, and in part due to the fact that there is a lobby for the decriminalisation of adult commercial sex work. Given the great disparity in these figures it is clear that to create an agreed upon composite on the number of children in prostitution would be impossible. 3. Reasons for sexual exploitation The causes of the sexual exploitation of children are diverse. The underlying causes include economic inequalities, migration and resultant urbanisation and family disintegration. These causes include attitudes about girls as providers of sex to adult men. The most often cited reasons by nongovernmental organisations and community workers and the media include: 55 • poverty, coupled with high unemployment, and school drop-out rates • lack of effective social welfare support for children and families • lack of effective safety and protection services for children • sexual abuse of children • high levels of domestic violence • increased urbanisation • parental nvolvement, and an • increased demand from sex exploiters, local and foreign. 3.1. Poverty and school dropout rates Poverty is regarded as a major contributing factor to school dropout rates as parents do not have sufficient money to send children to school. With regard to school dropout rates in particularly primary school, the dropout rates are reflected in reports by both South African and international bodies. According to South Africa's country report to the United Nation's Fourth Conference on Women in 1995, the school dropout rate for male and female children in both primary and secondary schooling was approximately 50%, at both levels. The consequence is that children are forced to either contribute to their family's income or ensure their own survival. These dropout rates were reflected as follows: Table 3: School dropout rates by gender in formal schooling 56 Gender Primary School Secondary School Female 44 53 Male 53 46 UNICEF indicates that only 65 percent of school children enrolled between 1990 and 1995 reached grade 5. This represents a dropout rate of 35 percent. 57 Compulsory education to Grade 9 or 15 years of age has only been a relatively recent phenomenon in South Africa with the passing of the South African Schools Act. 58 55 From interviews with members of organisations listed in Section 2 under 2.3.3.Data Collection, of this report and media survey mentioned in Section 3 56 Beijing Conference Report quoted in Women in Development Southern African Awareness: Beyond Inequalities: Women in South Africa, Table 23, p.36 57 UNICEF: The State of the World's Children 1998: Focus on Nutrition, Table 4 Education p.108 58 Section 3(1) of the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996, as amended by the Education Laws Amendment Act 100 27
3.2. Lack of effective safety and protection services for children Child protection services in South Africa have always been severely under resourced. Overstretched government and NGO structures are expected to respond to this problem, however the increase in cases has not resulted in a corresponding increase in service provision to the extent that welfare agencies can adequately cope with the demand placed on their human and financial resources. Typically child protection organisations, as part of the historically marginalised social service sector, lack basic resources and programme components, which are required to deal effectively with child abuse. From the late 1980s onward there was an upsurge in public concern about child sexual abuse. This resulted in a situation where welfare organisations were flooded with new referrals, which they were ill equipped to respond to. This has heightened the dangers, already rife within the child protection system, of ineffective interventions and of secondary abuse of traumatised children. 59 3.3. Sexual abuse of children The sexual abuse of children by family members and others, such as teachers has been identified as a contributing factor by interviewees. 60 A participant in the NASEC Conference expressed the causal relationship between child sexual abuse and child prostitution thus: "By sexually abusing our children we are creating a generation of prostitutes. Whenever a person sexually abuses a child, he will either give her candy, food or money. This causes the child to put value to her body. When she becomes a runaway, and/or gets hungry, she will turn to prostitution." 61 The sexual abuse of children by parents might be an indicator that parents regard children as sexually mature and therefore the effects of exchanging money for the children's sexual exploitation might not be regarded as harmful by parents. Other forms of violence and physical abuse often accompany the high incidence of child sexual abuse by family members and others. According to one report the Child Protection Unit provides alarming evidence that a significant percentage of violence committed against children consist of sexual abuse. Between January and May 1996, 8 038 cases of sexual abuse of girls were reported to the police, of which 5 390 were recorded as rape. 62 This paper also notes that "while boys are more likely to suffer physical assault, girls are more likely to be sexually abused, with street children being the most vulnerable to rape and prostitution." 63 3.4. High levels of domestic violence South Africa has high levels of domestic violence. The SAPS reports that a National Victim Survey conducted in 1998 found that most assaults (54 percent) and sexual assaults (68 percent) occur in and around the home of the victim. 64 This indicates that children are subjected to high levels of violence. The effects of this violence on children are often the precipitating factor that causes children to leave home. of 1997. 59 Interviews with representatives of organisations 60 Interviews with Annette Cockburn of the Homestead, Glynis van Halter of Zizane, representatives of The House and see also S. Farrell Ibid and Schurink et al Ibid 61 T. Msezana: Ibid p. 60 62 L. Jackson: 'Recent Initiatives in Addressing Gender Violence in South Africa' Occasional Paper No 14 January 1997, Institute for Security Studies p. 12 63 Ibid p.12 64 'Domestic Violence: The New Approach' www.saps.org 28
Page 2 and 3: The Trafficking of Children for Pur
Page 4 and 5: Acknowledgments This report was res
Page 6 and 7: Contents Page About Molo Songololo
Page 8 and 9: 5.4 Punishment and resistance 59 5.
Page 10 and 11: Executive summary This research rep
Page 12 and 13: Moçambique and Angola involves bot
Page 14 and 15: Children. The Norwegian Justice Min
Page 16 and 17: Chapter 1 Motivations of the resear
Page 18 and 19: 2. Ensure a reduction in the incide
Page 20 and 21: Box 1: Glossary of terms Trafficker
Page 22 and 23: 3. Terminology The terms, "the chil
Page 24 and 25: 4. Design and Method 4.1. Aims and
Page 26 and 27: m) A review of the following releva
Page 28 and 29: to emphasise the immediate need for
Page 30 and 31: countries to ensure that measures a
Page 32 and 33: Actors/dancers/singers wanted. Expe
Page 34 and 35: Chapter 4 Factors and trends with r
Page 38 and 39: According to a sex worker the effec
Page 40 and 41: Here individual traits and problems
Page 42 and 43: • Men from the Northern Suburbs o
Page 44 and 45: Alleged police involvement and corr
Page 46 and 47: Map 2: Some indications of local tr
Page 48 and 49: • An increase in unemployment •
Page 50 and 51: Johannesburg. Needless to say, once
Page 52 and 53: Map 3: Cross-border trafficking of
Page 54 and 55: Chapter 6 The role of gangs in the
Page 56 and 57: gangs in their own right. 135 These
Page 58 and 59: Little is known about the gang lead
Page 60 and 61: • All had been physically and sex
Page 62 and 63: Original transcripts of selected te
Page 64 and 65: Abduction 3: Alicia's story Origina
Page 66 and 67: Any act seen as resistance or a cha
Page 68 and 69: Referred to as " besagheid" or "wer
Page 70 and 71: Lucia gets away: as told by Jenny T
Page 72 and 73: Table 6: Girls in the gang intervie
Page 74 and 75: During the course of the twentieth
Page 76 and 77: States Parties undertake to protect
Page 78 and 79: Article 3 states that: State Partie
Page 80 and 81: Article 7 places an obligation on s
Page 82 and 83: constitutive elements related to of
Page 84 and 85: the appropriate authorities, like t
Page 86 and 87:
whoa) permits, procures or attempts
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foreign nationals to come to this c
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This Act provides for a broad defin
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• Films and Publication Act, No 6
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2) The Children's Court may order t
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espect to restorative justice this
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process to manage the problem in So
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Legal Instruments South African Leg
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"Zunaid". Ek het, was die enigste e
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Ons gee vir hulle pak. - Belinda 5.
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man sê toe nou vir my ek moet eers
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For these purposes, State Parties s
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States Parties to the present Chart
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9. The commercial sexual exploitati
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esponsible sexual attitudes and beh
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The trafficking of children for purposes of sexual exploitation

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