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 ...
(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 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. Cur ...
. 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.
Previous Special Rapporteurs were:
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Maud de Boer-Buquicchio (2014-2020)
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Najat Maalla M’jid (2008-2014)
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Juan Miguel Petit (2001-2008)
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Ofelia Calcetas-Santos (1994-2001)
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Vitit Muntarbhorn
Vitit Muntarbhorn ( th, วิทิต มันตาภรณ์) is an international human rights expert and professor of law at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. Muntarbhorn was designated in September 2016 as the first UN Inde ...
(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