The Special Rapporteur on the Sale and Sexual Exploitation of Children works on behalf of the
United Nations Human Rights Council
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), CDH is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. ...
to investigate the exploitation of children around the world and make recommendations to governments on how to end such practices.
The position was created in 1990 by the former
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of t ...
(UNCHR) amidst growing international concern over the commercial sexual exploitation and the sale of children. It followed the adoption on 20 November 1989 of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC or UNCRC) is an international human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Con ...
by the
United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
. This international instrument recognizes "that in all countries in the world, there are children living in exceptionally difficult conditions, and that such children need special consideration". By 2000, almost every country in the world had signed up to, and agreed to be bound by, the provisions of the convention.
The special rapporteur is required to investigate the exploitation of children around the world and to submit reports on the findings to the General Assembly and the UNCHR, making recommendations for the protection of the rights of the children concerned. These recommendations are targeted primarily at governments, other United Nations bodies and non-governmental organizations.
The current special rapporteur is
Mama Fatima Singhateh
Mama Fatima Singhateh is a Gambian lawyer, judge, and politician. Between 2009 and 2013, she was a judge in the High Court, then at the Court of Appeal of The Gambia. She subsequently served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Ga ...
.
Previous Special Rapporteurs were:
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Maud de Boer-Buquicchio
Maud de Boer-Buquicchio (born December 28, 1944) is a Dutch jurist and former UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. She served as Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe from 2002 a ...
(2014-2020)
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Najat Maalla M’jid
Najat Maalla M'jid is a Moroccan pediatrician who serves as the United Nationsbr>Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children She was appointed to the role by Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterr ...
(2008-2014)
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Juan Miguel Petit
''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...
(2001-2008)
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Ofelia Calcetas-Santos
Ofelia Calcetas-Santos (died January 2011) was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography from 1994 to 2001. During her tenure as Special Rapporteur, Calcetas-Santos published reports o ...
(1994-2001)
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Vitit Muntarbhorn
Vitit Muntarbhorn ( th, วิทิต มันตาภรณ์) is an international human rights law, international human rights expert and professor of law at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. Muntarbhorn was designated in Sept ...
(1991-1994)
See also
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United Nations special rapporteur
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Trafficking of children
Trafficking of children is a form of human trafficking and is defined by the United Nations as the "recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, and/or receipt" kidnapping of a child for the purpose of slavery, forced labour and exploitation. ...
References
External links
Office of the UN High Commission for Human RightsSpecial Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography International Justice Resource Center (IJRC)
{{Pedophilia
Child labour
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Child sexual abuse