Human Trafficking in [Rwanda] [other countries]
Street Children in [Rwanda] [other countries]
Child Prostitution in [Rwanda] [other countries]
 

Child Prostitution

The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

Republic of Rwanda [ Country-by-Country Reports ]

The Republic of Rwanda is located in E central Africa [map] and is bordered by Congo (Kinshasa) (W), by Uganda (N), by Tanzania (E), and by Burundi (S). Kigali is its capital and largest town. Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa. It is landlocked, has few natural resources, and minimal industry. The 1994 genocide decimated Rwanda's fragile economic base, severely impoverishing the population, eroding the country's human resource base, and destroying much of the countries infrastructure. Rwanda is recovering and has made social and economic progress. Administrative, judicial and economic infrastructures have been rehabilitated and the economy has stabilized and is growing due to sound macroeconomic policies and substantial support from donors.

CAUTION:  The following links and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Rwanda. 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.

U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs

INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - There are an estimated 7,000 street children in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali, and in provincial capitals who work as porters and garbage collectors or sell small items such as cigarettes and candy. Such children are at significant risk of commercial sexual exploitation, such as the exchange of sex for services (e.g. food or protection). A study by the Ministry of Labor and UNICEF estimated that 2,140 children are engaged in prostitution in urban areas.

Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS - Due to the genocide and deaths from HIV/AIDS, there were numerous children who headed households, and some of these children resorted to prostitution or may have been trafficked into domestic servitude. UNICEF estimated in 2004 that there were 2,140 child prostitutes in the major cities and several thousand street children throughout the country.

Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 1993

[5] In view of recent developments in Rwanda, the Committee would welcome the preparation of the new report in the light of the changing realities. The Committee considers that such a report would permit it to engage in a more constructive and fruitful dialogue with the State party and requests that the report be submitted to it within one year with a view to the resumption of the Committee's dialogue with representatives of the State party.

Saving the street kids of Kigali

Rwanda has the highest proportion of orphans and child-headed households in the world, according to a 2005 UNICEF report. Many children lost their parents in the genocide; now AIDS is creating more orphans. In 2006, Rwanda's minister of gender and families estimated 1.2 million were orphaned and vulnerable. The majority receive aid from charities or were adopted. But a 2002 UNICEF study estimated 7,000 street children lived in Rwanda, 3,000 in the capital alone. Their lives are bleak. In 2004, UNICEF estimated 2,140 child prostitutes were working in Rwanda's cities.

US names Kenya in Slavery Report

Sex tourism is becoming more common on the Coast, the US alleges. "Women and children are trafficked from Burundi and Rwanda to coastal areas in Kenya for sexual exploitation in the growing sex tourism industry," the report says. It notes that the Government recently began a registration program for coastal guesthouses, in part to deter sex tourism.

Orphans of the Genocide

That many of the girls who come through shelters and missions in Kigali work as prostitutes and risk contracting HIV is of equal concern to aid workers. "It's difficult… they are unstable," says one of Dion's aides, who identified herself only as Madame Eugenie. "The girls I see spend most of their days in the mission. In the evening, many go to the nightclubs and work as prostitutes for the money they need to survive.

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Human Trafficking in [Rwanda] [other countries]
Street Children in [Rwanda] [other countries]
Child Prostitution in [Rwanda] [other countries]