C S E C The Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/childprostitution/Haiti.htm
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Scope and Magnitude: Haitian labor laws
require employers to pay domestic workers over the age of 15, so many host
families dismiss restaveks before they reach that
age. Dismissed and runaway restaveks make up a significant
proportion of the large population of street children, who frequently are
forced to work in prostitution or street crime by violent criminal
gangs. - CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in Haiti. Some of these links
may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated,
misleading or even false. No attempt
has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking for
material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of child prostitution are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring how children got started, how they survive, and how
some succeed in leaving. Perhaps your
paper could focus on runaways and the abuse that led to their leaving. Other factors of interest might be poverty,
rejection, drug dependence, coercion, violence, addiction, hunger, neglect,
etc. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the manipulative and dangerous adults who control this
activity. There is a lot to the
subject of Child Prostitution. Scan
other countries as well as this one.
Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or
regions. Meanwhile, check out some of
the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** 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 – HAITI
– It has been reported that child sex tourism continues to be a problem in Port
au Prince with boys being the main victims of American and European
‘clients’. Street children are also sexually exploited by members of the
Haitian elite. Psst! Buy Yourself A
Haitian Slave-Child For A Hundred Bucks Gary Younge, the Guardian, reporting from the Dominican
Republic, 2005-09-28 www.theguardian.com/world/2005/sep/22/garyyounge.mainsection [accessed 25 January
2016] On market day in Dajabón, a bustling Dominican town on the Haitian border, you can pick up many bargains if you know where to look. You can haggle the price of a live chicken down to 40 pesos (72p); wrestle 10lb of macaroni from 60 to 50 pesos; and, with some discreet inquiries, buy a Haitian child for the equivalent of £54.22. There is a thriving trade in Haitian children in the Dominican Republic, where they are mostly used for domestic service, agricultural work or prostitution. - htcp ***
ARCHIVES *** Human
Rights Reports » 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 10, 2020 www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/haiti/ [accessed 30 August
2020] SEXUAL
EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN - The minimum age for consensual sex is 18 years, and
the law has special provisions for rape of persons who are 16 years of age or
younger. The law prohibits the corruption of youth younger than age 21,
including prostitution, with penalties ranging from six months to three years
of imprisonment for offenders. The law for human trafficking prescribes
prison sentences of seven to 15 years’ imprisonment and a fine ranging from
200,000 to 1.5 million Haitian Gourdes (HTG) ($2,070 to
$15,500). The penalty for human trafficking with aggravating
circumstances, which includes cases involving the exploitation of children,
is up to life imprisonment. MINUJUSTH reported
the HNP investigated 136 cases of sexual and gender-based violence between
January and June. Of the 140 victims in those cases, 57 were minor girls and
eight were minor boys. Several civil society groups reported impoverished children
were often subjected to sexual exploitation and abuse. According to these
groups, children were often forced into prostitution or transactional sex to
fund basic needs such as school-related expenses. Recruitment of children for
sexual exploitation and pornography is illegal, but the United Nations
reported criminal gangs recruited children as young as 10 years of age. 2018 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor Office of Child
Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor
Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2019 www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2018/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 30 August
2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 596] Children are trafficked
both internally and externally, primarily to the Dominican Republic, other
Caribbean countries, South America, and the United States. NGOs have reported
that children illegally crossing the Haiti-Dominican Republic border are
often accompanied by adults paid to act as the children’s parents or
guardians until they reach the Dominican Republic. (5,6,10,26) Some of these
children are reunited with relatives in the Dominican Republic, while others
engage in commercial sexual exploitation, domestic work, agriculture, street
vending, and begging. (5,6,10,27) Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 31 January 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/haiti2003.html [accessed 8 February
2011] [42] The Committee
is concerned at the high incidence of violence against and abuse of children
within the family environment, including sexual abuse and neglect of
children, and that insufficient efforts have been made to protect children.
The Committee is particularly concerned at the very high rate of sexual abuse
of girls (more than one third of women were sexually abused before the age of
15 years). In addition, the Committee is concerned at the lack of statistical
data and a comprehensive plan of action, and the insufficient
infrastructures. [65] The Committee
notes that the State party has signed but not ratified the two Optional
Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of
children, child prostitution and child pornography, and on the involvement of
children in armed conflict. 32nd Session of the
Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) 2003 Report [RTF] UN Convention on the Rights of the Child -- Report: 13 January – 7 February 2003 www.ibfan.org/art/329-3.rtf [accessed 22 May
2011] II.
COUNTRY REVIEWS - [3] 30,000
Haitian children smuggled annually english.peopledaily.com.cn/200511/08/eng20051108_219788.html [accessed 8 February
2011] Around 30,000
Haitian children are illegally smuggled into the Relationship
Between Child Domestic Servitude & The Sexual Exploitation Of Children Anti-Slavery
International, 2002 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 22 May
2011] LINKS
BETWEEN CHILD DOMESTIC WORK AND SEXUAL EXPLOITATION - In Conflict Profile: Canadian Consortium
on Human Security CCHS At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 22 May
2011] [5]
ANALYSIS
- A Human Rights Report on Trafficking of Persons, Especially Women and
Children by the Protection Project of the John Hopkins School of Advanced
International Studies notes that #666:
restavek : Russell comments Anne Russell, 8 Oct
1999 www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti-archive/msg00780.html [accessed 22 May
2011] The video focused
on child prostitution and the growth of AIDS in this population, but the
links between how restaveks are treated, why they
run away from their "adopted families", why they end up on the
streets, why they take on prostitution, and why they catch AIDS is
clear. And very, very sad. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/haiti.htm [accessed 8 February
2011] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - An estimated 2,500 to 3,000 Haitian children are trafficked
annually to the Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61731.htm [accessed 9 February
2020] SECTION
6 WORKER RIGHTS
– [d] According to the NGO Haitian Coalition for the Defense of the Rights of
the Child, children worked primarily as restaveks;
however, some worked on the street as vendors or beggars, and some were
involved in prostitution. All material
used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for
noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Child Prostitution - |
