Human Trafficking in [Costa Rica] [other countries]Street Children in [Costa Rica] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Costa Rica |
Child Prostitution The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children In
the early years of the 21st Century
- 2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/childprostitution/CostaRica.htm
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CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Innocence for Tamar Hahn, Mother Jones, Oct. 10, 2000 motherjones.com/politics/2000/10/innocence-sale [accessed 5 May 2011] Every evening at 6 p.m. she walks
out into the streets of ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms
of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/costa-rica.htm [accessed 30 January 2011] INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - The commercial sexual
exploitation of children is a continuing problem in Human Rights Reports » 2005 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61722.htm [accessed 30 January 2011] CHILDREN - The government, security
officials, and child advocacy organizations acknowledged that the commercial
sexual exploitation of children remained serious problems. PANI estimated
that three thousand children suffered from commercial sexual exploitation and
street children in the urban areas of Human Rights Reports » 2004
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41755.htm [accessed 27 February 2011] CHILDREN - The Government, security
officials, and child advocacy organizations acknowledged that the commercial
sexual exploitation of children remained a serious problem. In 2003, the NGO Casa Alianza
estimated that of the approximately 1,500 children living on the street, 76
percent were addicted to drugs and 29 percent survived by prostitution. Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 3 June 2005 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/costarica2005.html [accessed 30 January 2011] [49] The Committee welcomes the
ratification by the State Party of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on
the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child
pornography, as well as the measures taken by the State Party to prevent and
combat sexual abuse and exploitation of children. The Committee further
welcomes the inclusive participation of Non-Governmental organizations in
this process and the development of a National Plan against Sexual
Exploitation of Children and Adolescents (2001). The Committee also welcomes
the direct initiatives in cooperation with hotels and the travel industry to
combat sex tourism. However, the Committee remains concerned at the low level
of coordination among institutions, the lack of assistance available for
victims of sexual exploitation, as well as information received by the
Committee whereby the number of children victims of sexual exploitation might
be increasing, in particular among street children. Reuters, July 19, 2007 tiquicia-cr.blogspot.com/2007/07/costa-rica-toughens-sexual-exploitation.html [accessed 5 May 2011] The reformed laws ban possession
of child pornography for the first time and make sex with children under 13
punishable by up to 16 years in prison. Police say efforts to crack down
on child prostitution has driven it underground into the control of criminal
organizations. Five Years After ECPAT: Fifth Report on
implementation of the Agenda for Action ECPAT International, November 2001 www.no-trafficking.org/content/web/05reading_rooms/five_years_after_stockholm.pdf [accessed 13 September 2011] [B] COUNTRY UPDATES – Innocence for Tamar Hahn, Mother Jones, Oct. 10, 2000 motherjones.com/politics/2000/10/innocence-sale [accessed 5 May 2011] Every evening at 6 p.m. she walks
out into the streets of Sordid Child Sex Trade Booms in Glenn Garvin, www.libertadlatina.org/Lat_SORDID_CHILD_SEX_TRADE_BOOMS_IN_COSTA_RICA_04-29-2000.HTM [accessed 5 May 2011] Both kids dissolved in giggles.
Then the older one looks up, her face solemn. ''Thirty dollars for my little
sister, 15 for me," she says.
Meet Stephanie, 12, and Ivette, 13, two
members of a fast-growing Costa Rican work force: child prostitutes. The girls say they've been working as
prostitutes for a year, since they were 11 and 12. Even then, they weren't the youngest on the
corner. That would be 9-year-old Iliana, who left
home after being repeatedly sexually molested by an uncle. Country Report - iAbolish, The American Anti-Slavery Group At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 5 May 2011] A VICTIM’S STORY - In 1999, several underage Costa
Rican girls testified to being lured to a party by The girls abused by Baker and Kanev are certainly not alone. Costa Rica hosts the
fastest-growing network of sexual exploitation and trafficking of children
and the largest number of child prostitutes in Central America. UNICEF Works To Eradicate Child Sexual Exploitation The At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 5 May 2011] The studies revealed that there
are three types of factors that cause children to become involved in sexual commercial
exploitation: the environment of sexual commerce; the family context; and
their life histories, which make the children vulnerable to mistreatment and
victimization. In regards to the environment, the
presence of domestic abusers as well as foreign tourists leads to three major
types of intermediaries: bar and hotels owners, taxi drivers, and pimps. It
is important to educate people so as not to judge girls too quickly, based on
their appearance, as prostitutes. According to Ms. Alfaro, this attitude and
its side effects are important aspects in the process. In regards to family life, the
primary factors in making children vulnerable to sexual exploitation were
poverty and family violence. Various risk factors come into play, including:
a record of previous sexual abuse, running away, staying on the street,
paternal neglect, abused mothers, and the consumption of drugs and alcohol. According to UNICEF-Costa Rica,
child sexual commercial exploitation is considered to be a severe violation
of children and adolescents, and it is recognized as a national problem that
manifests itself through the sex trade, trafficking, and child and adolescent
pornography. Moreover, it must be remembered
that the boys, girls and adolescents engaged in prostitution are always the
victims and the fault lies with the adults who exploit children. Child Prostitution: A Growing Scourge W. E. Gutman, The www.thepanamanews.com/pn/v_10/issue_07/travel_01.html [accessed 5 May 2011] A REGION OUT OF CONTROL - Child Prostitution a Growing
Problem Nefer Munoz, Inter Press Service News
Agency IPS, www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/47/333.html [accessed 5 May 2011] "Because in Prostitution Is 'Dark Side of
Tourism' Serge F. Kovaleski, The www.latinamericanstudies.org/costarica/prostitution.htm [accessed 5 May 2011] David, a stocky, unkempt man who
insisted that only his first name be used, boasted of how he had arranged for
one of the many taxi drivers connected with the sex trade to bring a
13-year-old girl from her parents' home in a poor Casa Alianza / Covenant House,
10-13-2003 www.libertadlatina.org/Lat_Costa_Ricas_Principal_Madame_Arrested_10132003.htm [accessed 5 May 2011] Sinai Monge
Munoz, 41, was arrested on Thursday evening after a successful sting
operation in the Hatillo 3 suburb of the capital of
Deaths Force www.latinamericanstudies.org/costarica/badilla.htm [accessed 5 May 2011] But finally, because hers was the
second set of teen-prostitute body parts to appear along Protection Project - The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/costa.doc [accessed 2009] FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE
TRAFFICKING INFRASTRUCTURE - Sex tourism: Lessons learned in Philip Wright, Producer, Child Rescuers, BBC News, 18
June, 2004 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/3818871.stm [accessed 5 May 2011] Ordinary Costa Ricans, from taxi
drivers to hoteliers, are taking official tourism classes as part of the
country's latest attempt to stop the abuse of children by international sex
tourists. The Central American holiday
destination is sending thousands of tourism workers, from hotel receptionists
to tour guides, on training courses to get the message across that it is not
a good idea to help tourists find under-age girls for sex. It is part of the Code of Conduct drawn up
by the industry and children's rights campaigners. Sex Tourism Plagues Paul Jeffrey, United Methodist Women UMW, Response gbgm-umc.org/response/articles/sextourism.html [accessed 5 May 2011] Street children who used to sniff
relatively inexpensive glue are now turning to crack, readily available in
the region as Central American military officials, no longer living high on
the hog from Child rights advocate speaks at U.N. meeting on
contemporary slavery www.marrder.com/htw/jun99/central.htm [accessed 5 May 2011] [article on the right] . "If you are an enterprising
foreigner in Honduras, you can set up a bar and offer little Honduran girls
for sex to the other visiting tourists. Or in Costa Rica, if you are a
tourist, you can buy sex from little girls, but often only in the morning as
they have to go to primary school in the afternoon," he added. In his presentation, Harris
described the worrisome boom of child sex tourism in Costa Rica and Honduras,
where more and more visitors are coming each year exclusively to have sex
with minors. Attacked by a complex network that involves Internet sites,
local hotels and bars, taxi drivers, and "professional" pimps,
numerous poor girls and boys -- as young as 10 years old -- are falling
victims to those sex predators, as they find in prostitution their only means
of survival. Commercial Sexual Exploitation Of Children (CSEC) James Varney, The Times Picayune ( www.dol.gov/ILAB/media/reports/iclp/bulletin/Sept2002.htm [accessed 3 July 2011] [scroll down] "As they say in this dingy
border junction with All material used herein
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Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Child Prostitution – |
Human Trafficking in [Costa Rica] [other countries]Street Children in [Costa Rica] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Costa Rica