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Title | Date added | Template | Original document | Paragraph text | Body | Document type | Thematics | Topic(s) | Person(s) affected | Year |
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Vulnerabilities of children to sale, trafficking and other forms of exploitation in situations of
conflict and humanitarian crisis 2017, para. 20 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In Asia, children constituted 48 per cent of the 14.8 million refugees by the end of 2015. The ongoing conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic, which had created 2.4 million child refugees in 2015 and more than 2 million internally displaced children by 2016, has led to situations of extreme vulnerability. Indeed, United Nations assessments have revealed cases of child recruitment in 90 per cent of the locations surveyed in that country and cases of child marriage in 85 per cent of them. Similarly, the decades-long conflict in Afghanistan has created 1.3 million child refugees and, by 2016, had displaced more than half a million persons, 56 per cent of whom were children. Those children are at a particularly high risk of being abused and exploited, with a very elevated level of child or forced marriage and domestic abuse. Likewise, the reported rise in the number of child brides among Rohingya children who have fled Myanmar and live in neighbouring countries perpetuates the cycle of violence and poverty experienced by those girls. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Vulnerabilities of children to sale, trafficking and other forms of exploitation in situations of
conflict and humanitarian crisis 2017, para. 19 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | At the regional and national levels, children on the move are also vulnerable to sale, trafficking and other forms of exploitation. There are also reports of missing children, some of whom fall into the hands of criminals to continue their journey to reach relatives or acquaintances in another country. In Africa, nearly 3 million children were refugees by the end of 2015. As of mid-2016, 390,000 Nigerian children had been displaced to the neighbouring countries of Cameroon, Chad and the Niger, and a further 1.1 million children had been internally displaced owing to the conflict in the Lake Chad basin. Children have been subjected to abhorrent abuses, mainly at the hands of Boko Haram, which has reportedly recruited and used more than 8,000 children since 2009, abducted at least 4,000 girls, boys and young women, and inflicted sexual violence on more than 7,000 girls and women, often leading to pregnancies. Since the beginning of the conflict in South Sudan, in 2013, children have constituted 66 per cent of the 1.3 million refugees, and the majority of the 1.9 million internally displaced persons. A direct consequence of the war has been the recruitment and use of more than 17,000 children, with a further 3,090 children abducted and 1,130 children sexually assaulted by armed forces and armed groups, among others. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19 2017, para. 30b (ii) | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Committee recommends that States parties implement the following preventive measures:] Develop and implement effective measures, with the active participation of all relevant stakeholders, such as representatives of women’s organizations and of marginalized groups of women and girls, to address and eradicate the stereotypes, prejudices, customs and practices set out in article 5 of the Convention, which condone or promote gender-based violence against women and underpin the structural inequality of women with men. Such measures should include the following: Awareness-raising programmes that promote an understanding of gender-based violence against women as unacceptable and harmful, provide information about available legal recourses against it and encourage the reporting of such violence and the intervention of bystanders; address the stigma experienced by victims/survivors of such violence; and dismantle the commonly held victim-blaming beliefs under which women are responsible for their own safety and for the violence that they suffer. The programmes should target women and men at all levels of society; education, health, social services and law enforcement personnel and other professionals and agencies, including at the local level, involved in prevention and protection responses; traditional and religious leaders; and perpetrators of any form of gender-based violence, so as to prevent repeat offending; | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2017 | ||
Gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19 2017, para. 26a | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [Legislative level]
According to articles 2 (b), (c), (e), (f) and (g) and 5 (a), States are required to adopt legislation prohibiting all forms of gender-based violence against women and girls, harmonizing national law with the Convention. In the legislation, women who are victims/survivors of such violence should be considered to be right holders. It should contain age-sensitive and gender-sensitive provisions and effective legal protection, including sanctions on perpetrators and reparations to victims/survivors. The Convention provides that any existing norms of religious, customary, indigenous and community justice systems are to be harmonized with its standards and that all laws that constitute discrimination against women, including those which cause, promote or justify gender-based violence or perpetuate impunity for such acts, are to be repealed. Such norms may be part of statutory, customary, religious, indigenous or common law, constitutional, civil, family, criminal or administrative law or evidentiary and procedural law, such as provisions based on discriminatory or stereotypical attitudes or practices that allow for gender-based violence against women or mitigate sentences in that context; | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2017 | ||
Gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19 2017, para. 14 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Gender-based violence affects women throughout their life cycle and, accordingly, references to women in the present document include girls. Such violence takes multiple forms, including acts or omissions intended or likely to cause or result in death or physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women, threats of such acts, harassment, coercion and arbitrary deprivation of liberty. Gender-based violence against women is affected and often exacerbated by cultural, economic, ideological, technological, political, religious, social and environmental factors, as evidenced, among other things, in the contexts of displacement, migration, the increased globalization of economic activities, including global supply chains, the extractive and offshoring industry, militarization, foreign occupation, armed conflict, violent extremism and terrorism. Gender-based violence against women is also affected by political, economic and social crises, civil unrest, humanitarian emergencies, natural disasters and the destruction or degradation of natural resources. Harmful practices and crimes against women human rights defenders, politicians, activists or journalists are also forms of gender-based violence against women affected by such cultural, ideological and political factors. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2017 | ||
Rights of rural women 2016, para. 26 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Article 6 on the suppression of the traffic in women and of the exploitation of prostitution has special relevance for rural women and girls, including indigenous women and girls, who face specific risks because they live in remote areas. The economic hardships of rural life, alongside the lack of information on trafficking and how traffickers operate, can make them especially vulnerable, in particular in conflict-affected regions. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2016 | ||
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 24 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The payment of dowries and bride prices, which varies among practising communities, may increase the vulnerability of women and girls to violence and to other harmful practices. The husband or his family members may engage in acts of physical or psychological violence, including murder, burning and acid attacks, for failure to fulfil expectations regarding the payment of a dowry or its size. In some cases, families will agree to the temporary "marriage" of their daughter in exchange for financial gains, also referred to as a contractual marriage, which is a form of trafficking in human beings. States parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography have explicit obligations with regard to child and/or forced marriages that include dowry payments or bride prices because they could constitute a sale of children as defined in article 2 (a) of the Protocol. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has repeatedly stressed that allowing marriage to be arranged by such payment or preferment violates the right to freely choose a spouse and has in its general recommendation No. 29 outlined that such practice should not be required for a marriage to be valid and that such agreements should not be recognized by a State party as enforceable. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2014 | ||
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 23 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Forced marriages are marriages in which one and/or both parties have not personally expressed their full and free consent to the union. They may be manifested in various forms, including child marriage, as indicated above, exchange or trade-off marriages (i.e. baad and baadal), servile marriages and levirate marriages (coercing a widow to marry a relative of her deceased husband). In some contexts, a forced marriage may occur when a rapist is permitted to escape criminal sanctions by marrying the victim, usually with the consent of her family. Forced marriages may occur in the context of migration in order to ensure that a girl marries within the family's community of origin or to provide extended family members or others with documents to migrate to and/or live in a particular destination country. Forced marriages are also increasingly being used by armed groups during conflict or may be a means for a girl to escape post-conflict poverty. Forced marriage may also be defined as a marriage in which one of the parties is not permitted to end or leave it. Forced marriages often result in girls lacking personal and economic autonomy and attempting to flee or commit self-immolation or suicide to avoid or escape the marriage. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2014 | ||
Gender-related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women 2014, para. 34 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Gender sensitivity should be reflected in reception arrangements, taking into account the specific needs of victims of sexual abuse and exploitation, of trauma and torture or ill-treatment and of other particularly vulnerable groups of women and girls. Reception arrangements should also allow for the unity of the family as present within the territory, in particular in the context of reception centres. As a general rule, pregnant women and nursing mothers, who both have special needs, should not be detained. Where detention of women asylum seekers is unavoidable, separate facilities and materials are required to meet the specific hygiene needs of women. The use of female guards and warders should be promoted. All staff assigned to work with women detainees should receive training relating to the gender-specific needs and human rights of women. Pursuant to articles 1, 2, 5 (a) and 12 of the Convention, failure to address the specific needs of women in immigration detention and ensure the respectful treatment of detained women asylum seekers could constitute discrimination within the meaning of the Convention. Not least for the purposes of avoiding violence against women, separate facilities for male and female detainees are required, unless in family units, and alternatives to detention are to be made available. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2014 | ||
Women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations 2013, para. 81c | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Committee recommends that States parties:] Ensure that support for reconciliation processes does not result in blanket amnesties for any human rights violations, especially sexual violence against women and girls, and that such processes reinforce efforts to combat impunity for such crimes; | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2013 | ||
Women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations 2013, para. 67 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | At the end of conflict, women face particular challenges as female ex combatants and women and girls associated with armed groups as messengers, cooks, medics, caregivers, forced labourers and wives. Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes, given the traditionally male structure of armed groups, often do not respond to the distinct needs of women and girls, fail to consult them and also exclude them. It is not uncommon for female ex-combatants to be excluded from disarmament, demobilization and reintegration lists. Such programmes also fail to recognize the status of girls associated with armed groups by characterizing them as dependants rather than abductees, or by excluding those who did not have visible combatant roles. Many female combatants suffer gender-based violence, in particular sexual violence, resulting in children born of rape, high levels of sexually transmitted diseases, rejection or stigmatization by families and other trauma. Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes often fail to address their experiences and the psychological trauma that they have undergone. Consequently, they are unable to reintegrate into family and community life successfully. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2013 | ||
Women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations 2013, para. 38g | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Committee recommends that States parties:] Invest in technical expertise and allocate resources to address the distinct needs of women and girls subject to violence, including the impact of sexual violence on their reproductive health; | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2013 | ||
Women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations 2013, para. 35 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | It is indisputable that, while all civilians are adversely affected by armed conflict, women and girls are primarily and increasingly targeted by the use of sexual violence, "including as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instil fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group", and that this form of sexual violence persists even after the cessation of hostilities (see Security Council resolution 1820 (2008)). For most women in post-conflict environments, the violence does not stop with the official ceasefire or the signing of the peace agreement and often increases in the post-conflict setting. The Committee acknowledges the many reports confirming that, while the forms and sites of violence change, which means that there may no longer be State-sponsored violence, all forms of gender-based violence, in particular sexual violence, escalate in the post-conflict setting. The failure to prevent, investigate and punish all forms of gender-based violence, in addition to other factors such as ineffective disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes, can also lead to further violence against women in post-conflict periods. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2013 | ||
Women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations 2013, para. 34 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Violence against women and girls is a form of discrimination prohibited by the Convention and is a violation of human rights. Conflicts exacerbate existing gender inequalities, placing women at a heightened risk of various forms of gender-based violence by both State and non-State actors. Conflict-related violence happens everywhere, such as in homes, detention facilities and camps for internally displaced women and refugees; it happens at any time, for instance, while performing daily activities such as collecting water and firewood or going to school or work. There are multiple perpetrators of conflict-related gender-based violence. These may include members of government armed forces, paramilitary groups, non-State armed groups, peacekeeping personnel and civilians. Irrespective of the character of the armed conflict, its duration or the actors involved, women and girls are increasingly deliberately targeted for and subjected to various forms of violence and abuse, ranging from arbitrary killings, torture and mutilation, sexual violence, forced marriage, forced prostitution and forced impregnation to forced termination of pregnancy and sterilization. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2013 | ||
Violence against women 1992, para. 21 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Rural women are at risk of gender-based violence because of traditional attitudes regarding the subordinate role of women that persist in many rural communities. Girls from rural communities are at special risk of violence and sexual exploitation when they leave the rural community to seek employment in towns. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 1992 | ||
Violence against women 1992, para. 15 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Poverty and unemployment force many women, including young girls, into prostitution. Prostitutes are especially vulnerable to violence because their status, which may be unlawful, tends to marginalize them. They need the equal protection of laws against rape and other forms of violence. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 1992 | ||
Vulnerabilities of children to sale, trafficking and other forms of exploitation in situations of
conflict and humanitarian crisis 2017, para. 85a | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [In terms of prevention and the promotion of rights, States, in cooperation with United Nations agencies and programmes, international organizations, host countries and civil society organizations, should:] Recognize and address the specific vulnerability of boys and girls to sale, trafficking and other forms of exploitation in conflict, post-conflict and humanitarian crisis situations; | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Rights of rural women 2016, para. 43d | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [States parties should protect the right of rural girls and women to education, and ensure that:] Programmes are in place, both inside and outside the school system, to reduce the engagement of rural girls in unpaid care work, which constitutes a barrier to school attendance, and to protect rural girls from labour exploitation, child and/or forced marriage and gender-based violence, including sexual violence and abuse; | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2016 | ||
Rights of rural women 2016, para. 25b | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [States parties should prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against rural women and girls, and, in line with general recommendations No. 19 and No. 33:] Take effective measures aimed at preventing, investigating, prosecuting and punishing acts of violence against rural women and girls, including migrant rural women and girls, whether perpetrated by the State, non-State actors or private persons; | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2016 | ||
Rights of rural women 2016, para. 25a | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [States parties should prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against rural women and girls, and, in line with general recommendations No. 19 and No. 33:] Raise the awareness of rural women and men, girls and boys, as well as local, religious and community leaders, about the rights of rural women and girls, with the aim of eliminating discriminatory social attitudes and practices, in particular those that condone gender-based violence; | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2016 | ||
Vulnerabilities of children to sale, trafficking and other forms of exploitation in situations of
conflict and humanitarian crisis 2017, para. 74 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Conflict and natural and humanitarian disasters expose children, and more particularly those unaccompanied or separated from their families, to multifaceted vulnerabilities and put them at a higher risk of being trafficked, sold and sexually exploited, coerced into child or forced marriages, and used in the worst forms of child labour. While girls are more likely to fall victims to sexual exploitation, there are nonetheless also cases of boys being abused. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Vulnerabilities of children to sale, trafficking and other forms of exploitation in situations of
conflict and humanitarian crisis 2017, para. 41 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | For the girls involved, these coping mechanisms have dangerous short- and long-term implications that put them at increased risk of physical and emotional abuse. Such mechanisms also reduce the likelihood that a girl will complete schooling, a reality that can have negative repercussions throughout a girl’s life, including earlier childbearing, worse health outcomes and lower income. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Vulnerabilities of children to sale, trafficking and other forms of exploitation in situations of
conflict and humanitarian crisis 2017, para. 39 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Moreover, in transit countries such as Libya, migrant girls are often exposed to sexual violence by parties to the conflict, as well as by smugglers, traffickers and other criminal groups. They face threats and sexual violence when held, sometimes for months, in detention centres and in poor conditions, and are also abducted and sexually abused by groups pledging allegiance to ISIL. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19 2017, para. 18 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Violations of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, such as forced sterilization, forced abortion, forced pregnancy, criminalization of abortion, denial or delay of safe abortion and/or post-abortion care, forced continuation of pregnancy, and abuse and mistreatment of women and girls seeking sexual and reproductive health information, goods and services, are forms of gender-based violence that, depending on the circumstances, may amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2017 | ||
Women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations 2013, para. 41b | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Committee recommends that States parties:] Adopt a policy of zero tolerance based on international human rights standards on trafficking and sexual exploitation and abuse, which addresses such groups as national troops, peacekeeping forces, border police, immigration officials and humanitarian actors, and provide those groups with gender-sensitive training on how to identify and protect vulnerable women and girls; | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2013 | ||
Vulnerabilities of children to sale, trafficking and other forms of exploitation in situations of
conflict and humanitarian crisis 2017, para. 40 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Finally, the practice of “temporary” child or forced marriages is one of the dangerous coping mechanisms that girls face while in refugee camps in transit countries. Confronted with the economic burdens brought on by protracted displacement and limited or inexistent work opportunities, some refugee and migrant parents, and often children themselves, turn to those measures because they feel that they are the only option for safeguarding a child’s future or supporting a family’s immediate needs. For example, Syrian refugee girls are often forcibly married by their parents, who view such arrangements as a way of securing their daughters’ safety and ensuring the family’s livelihood through the dowry. Once married, those girls are likely to end up in a situation of sexual and domestic exploitation by a spouse whom they have followed abroad. The use of child and forced marriages to traffic girls into prostitution in another country is also common. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Vulnerabilities of children to sale, trafficking and other forms of exploitation in situations of
conflict and humanitarian crisis 2017, para. 38 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Children may be compelled to work to sustain themselves or provide for their families’ basic needs, especially where parents cannot work legally or simply cannot find work, legally or illegally. Iraqi and Syrian refugee children in Lebanon, for example, work in textile factories, construction or the food service industry, or as agricultural labour or street vendors in conditions amounting to forced labour. According to UNICEF, in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, shopkeepers, farmers and manufacturers hire Syrian refugee children because they can pay them a lower wage. Children, especially girls, are seen as less likely to be targeted by the police or prosecuted for illegal work than adults, making families more likely to send them to work. These types of child labour, which often mask other forms of exploitation, such as trafficking for forced labour, have dire consequences on children. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Vulnerabilities of children to sale, trafficking and other forms of exploitation in situations of
conflict and humanitarian crisis 2017, para. 35 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Similarly, girls are trafficked for sexual exploitation in temporary reception centres and informal settlements. In northern France, some children were transported to Spain, where they were sexually exploited in order to cover the cost of their onward journey to London of around €9,000. In the same area, some children claiming to be adults were sexually exploited for the promise of passage to the United Kingdom or in order to pay for the journey by receiving around €5 a time for sexual services, revealing the level of pressure that they were under to raise the €5,000 to €7,000 charged for their passage. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Vulnerabilities of children to sale, trafficking and other forms of exploitation in situations of
conflict and humanitarian crisis 2017, para. 32 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Threats faced by boys and girls do not end when they leave their home countries. As they travel onward, often paying their way through dangerous routes by using exploitative smuggling and trafficking networks, children are subject to further violence, abuse and exploitation, including at borders owing to pushbacks and interceptions by border control officials. Unaccompanied children and those separated from their families face heightened risks, both along the route and upon arrival in transit countries. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Vulnerabilities of children to sale, trafficking and other forms of exploitation in situations of
conflict and humanitarian crisis 2017, para. 30 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In addition, children, especially those who are unaccompanied or live in conflict and humanitarian crisis areas, may be sold or trafficked to serve as combatants in armed conflict. Children are also used as human bombs and human shields. For example, in Iraq, ISIL and other extremist groups traffic boys and young men, including members of the Yazidi minority, into armed conflict, radicalize them to commit terrorist acts, using deception, death threats or the offer of money and women as rewards. In Nigeria, between 2014 and 2016, a total of 90 children (70 girls and 20 boys) were used by Boko Haram in 56 suicide bombings. Children are also compelled to work as porters, cooks, guards and messengers, or are forced to commit crimes, such as looting and physical and sexual violence. In addition, boys and girls in those situations are often sexually abused. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 |