Human Trafficking in [Pakistan] [other countries]Street Children in [Pakistan] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Pakistan |
Child Prostitution The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children Islamic The Islamic Republic of Pakistan [map] is located in S Asia
and is bordered by India (E), the Arabian Sea (S), Iran (SW), and |
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in ***
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teenage prostitutes were victims of abuse: Survey Ninety-five per cent of the
teenage prostitutes in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and
Lahore were sexually abused by their close relatives, friends and teachers
before they adopted the profession of granting sexual favours
for payment, a new study has found. ***
ARCHIVES *** U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Further, the exploitation of children in the sex and drug trades
continues to be a problem. Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 CHILDREN - Child abuse was widespread.
According to child rights NGOs, abuse was most common within families. In
rural areas, poor parents sold children as bonded laborers and at times sold
daughters to be raped by landlords. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2003 [74] In view of the fact that
child sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children are reported to be
serious problems in the State party, the Committee is concerned that the
State party has not addressed them effectively. The Committee is particularly concerned at:
(a) The absence of legislation clearly prohibiting child sexual abuse and
sexual exploitation and the lack of a clear definition of the term in the
State party, as well as the lack of legislation that clearly defines sexual
consent; (b) The absence of measures to prosecute the perpetrators; (c) The
absence of statistics and data on the issue of child sexual abuse; (d)
Traditional attitudes regarding the subject (e.g. concepts like “family
honor”), which imply that a majority of abuse cases go unreported; (e)
Reports that child sexual abuse is prevalent, and increasing, in prisons. The rise in incidents of street
crime in Karachi and other cities of Pakistan has been the subject of a
report released this week by a local NGO. What the report highlights is the
growing number of street children involved in this activity. This is cause
for alarm. There has been a significant rise in the number of street children,
particularly in Karachi says the report adding that the reasons for children
running away from their homes include domestic violence, sexual abuse and
corporal punishment at schools, especially madressahs.
This is an issue that has to be dealt in a proactive manner. It may be noted
that street children end up joining gangs which offer them protection in
return for working on the streets. The gangs force the children into
prostitution and crime. There has been a rise in child prostitution in the cities
as a consequence of this. Also,
incidents of petty crime have also risen as children are forced to beg, steal
and borrow to retain their gang membership. Many of the children also turn to
drugs and other substance abuse which only complicates the problem. -sccp Pakistan:
poverty forces trafficking of children on the rise While boys in impoverished parts
of rural Pakistan, particularly towns in the southern Punjab, are more likely
to be trafficked overseas, girls are trafficked more often within the
country, and sometimes sold into what amounts to little more than sexual
slavery, says the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). HRCP has reported that in most cases,
they are given away for amounts of money ranging from US$1,300 to $5,000 by
impoverished parents, sometimes in "marriage"; and sometimes to
agents who promise lucrative jobs as domestic servants in large cities. Many of these girls, according to
child rights groups, end up as sex workers. Some are no older than 10 at the
time of the "sale". "Hundreds of girls are
trafficked within the country each year. There are markets in the North West
Frontier Province where these victims are sold like cattle," I.A. Rehman, director of the
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said. - htcp 9,000
sexually-abused street-children in City UNICEF Programme
Officer Shamshad Qureshi announced
the results of a UNICEF survey that there are 10, 000 street children in
Lahore, out of which 9,000 children have been sexually abused. He said UNICET could reach only 3,000 sexually abused children
and rehabilitate them by giving them vocational training, psychological aid
and financial support to their parents. - sccp Horrific fate awaits children spurned by society http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=43990 Out of the approximately
12,000-14,000 street children in Karachi, 50 percent fall victim to
commercial sex exploitation, a majority of them being male children between
7-11 years of age. According to data recently revealed by NGO Azad Foundation, the number of street children in the
city rose from 10,000 - 12,000 in 2004 to 12,000 - 14,000 in 2006. She said that street children are
at a high risk of sexual abuse, targeted primarily because they are
vulnerable. Consequently, some children begin to offer sexual services to
these people and become involved in ‘survival sex’. “Saddar
is the hub of street children from all areas of Karachi,” says Aqsa Zainab of Azad Foundation, adding that child abusers are mostly
found near shrines where ‘langar’ is distributed or
near railway stations where they arrive from other cities. It is from here
the young boys are kidnapped and sold as commercial sex workers. - htsccp Families play a direct role in
promoting child prostitution as well. Particularly within families themselves
involved in sex work, the guilt factor is deployed to chide young girls into
the profession, as if their sexual activity were vital for the survival of
their female-headed households. Girls who enter the profession do often end
up supporting their own mothers, grandmothers and several siblings. It is no
wonder that young girls are considered an economic asset within a family of
sex workers. Personal decisions to enter prostitution, albeit emerging from a
larger process of socialisation, also cannot be
discounted. Families of young sex workers do not think their daughters
capable of doing anything else. They deprive them of education and exposure
to the larger world, so that these young girls hardly have any other options
in life. Social ostracisation of such families
further reinforces this generational perpetuation of prostitution. On the flip side is the demand for
under-age sex workers. Seemingly oblivious to a term like paedophilia,
clients can boisterously demand to have sex with a young girl, provided they
have the required money to pay for her services. Instead of feeling guilty,
these clients are reassured by myths of male virility being boosted due to
sex with younger girls. 95pc
teenage prostitutes were victims of abuse: Survey Ninety-five per cent of the
teenage prostitutes in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and
Lahore were sexually abused by their close relatives, friends and teachers
before they adopted the profession of granting sexual favours
for payment, a new study has found. Indo-Pak girls forced into prostitution In a startling case of organised women trafficking that has come to light,
Pakistani and Indian girls aged between 11 and 13 are being smuggled to the
Middle East countries for being forced into prostitution there. The girls,
who are shown as aged between 20 and 22 on their passports, are brought to
these countries on the pretext of getting them attracting jobs. - htcp ECPAT:
Fifth Report on implementation of the Agenda for Action [DOC] [B]
COUNTRY UPDATES – Child
Prostitution Flourishes In Peshawar Children continue to serve as
prostitutes in Political
Executions, Child Prostitution, and Forced Marriage at the Age of 9 Child prostitution has risen 635
percent in recent years. Dozens of Iranian girls are brought to Despite the verbal commitments of
all the governments of past and present no measures have been taken against
the child prostitution and nothing has been achieved in that direction.
Prostitution by children continues to flourish unhindered. SPARC AT THE
PRE-SESSIONAL WORKING GROUP OF THE 34TH SESSION - On October 31, 2001, Pakistan
signed the Optional Protocol to the UN CRC on the Sale of Children, Child
Prostitution and Child Pornography and Optional Protocol on Involvement of
Children in Armed Conflict. Taking the Lid Off Child
Prostitution There is hardly any day without a
customer. His usual clients are
travelers changing buses at Girls are usually forced into
prostitution when they are about 11 years old because their young age fetches
a good price to the traffickers. Adolescent and Youth Reproductive Health in Pakistan [PDF] Ch.3 ARH
issues/Sexual abuse and forced sex work/page 21 MALE CHILD PROSTITUTION - In
Pakistan, male prostitutes are believed to be cheaper for clients than female
prostitutes. The prime age for male
prostitutes is between 15 and 25. It
is likely that even less is known about their working environment and
specific problems because the social taboos against boys admitting to sex
with male clients are even greater than they are for girls. Changing Attitudes
Key to Ending Child Sex Trade Up to 200,000 women and children
are sold into servitude in All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC §
107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use |
Human Trafficking in [Pakistan] [other countries]Street Children in [Pakistan] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Pakistan