"Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children" Report Calls for Public Education

Coerced or lured into the world's sex market--a multi-billion dollar industry--children are denied their rights, their dignity and their childhood. They are forced into prostitution, sold for sexual purposes or used in child pornography. In the eyes of the industry, they are just a commodity. Pino Arlacch, director of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention called trafficking in people "the biggest violation of human rights in the world."

In a publication and presentation for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in December 2001, staff members Susan Zucker and Kathy Hatfield described this atrocity in order to provide the international order with resources and information needed to bear public witness against the systems that allow such exploitation.

The problem of human trafficking has received growing media attention. Broadly put, trafficking is selling human beings for profit. Some are sold into domestic servitude, some into industrial servitude (child and sweatshop labor) and some into sexual servitude. The report includes startling facts: 2,000,000 children are forced into prostitution every year, half of them living in Asia. Asian women are sold to North American brothels for $16,000 each. Children from Mexico are sold to U.S. brothels. Almost 200,000 Nepali women and girls from Burma have been forced into prostitution in Thailand. An estimated 50,000 women and girls mainly from the former Soviet Union are trafficked to the United States each year.

International Congress cites sexual trafficking as $9 billion yearly business
Also in December, the Second World Congress on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children met in Yokohama, Japan. Timely information about the issues discussed is available at the Congress web site (www.focalpointngo.org/yokohama) or at the United Nations site (www.unicef.org/events/yokohama).

The Coalition became involved in this project through its long-standing relationship with CSJ, most recently as co-sponsors of "Kids Can Free the Children" chapters.