Commercial Exploitation of Children…

The 28th GWI Conference resolves: that National Federations and Associations (NFAs) ensure that their respective governments have not only signed but have also ratified the:

1. UN Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (2002);
2. UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (2000);
3. UN Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (2000); and,
4. International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999).

Plan of Action

1. NFAs should identify their Government’s position in relation to the UN Optional Protocol and to the ILO Convention and, where it is found that they have not been signed and/or ratified, lobby the government to meet these requirements.
2. NFAs should ensure that resources are available to implement the measures and that there is effective use of the law to prevent the exploitation of children.
3. NFAs should monitor the extent to which there is cooperation between the police, education organizations and information for parents regarding the safe use of the Internet by children.
4. NFAs familiarize themselves with these documents. The UN Optional Protocol was adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution A/RES/54/263 of 25 May 2000, entered into force on 18 January 2002. UNHCHR and UNICEF websites have the full text. The ILO Convention 182 can be found on the ILO website: www.ilo.org.