Children and Trafficking
Coordinators:
Anne Hatløy,
Guri Tyldum and Marianne Tveit , Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science,
Oslo, Norway.
The network group will
bring together the academic perspectives and practical experiences of
researchers and NGOs from several geographical regions. The group will be
working towards a definition of child trafficking that may be constructive in
future research, and that will prevent policies toward child trafficking from
harming other groups of children. Another objective is to discuss how policy
actions affect children in different parts of the world on a grass-root level.
The network will also explore different research strategies for studying child
trafficking, as well as defining the target group for intervention.
“Childhoods 2005” will have four
sessions over two days on the theme of, “Children
and Trafficking”. All sessions are open for papers.
Session 1: Child trafficking in a
broad perspective
In this session, an introduction
and overview of the phenomenon of child trafficking
will be presented. The different arenas and the
differences between geographical areas are among the
topics that will be discussed. Special focus will be
given to the challenges in using the concept of
trafficking across the different arenas.
Session 2:
The needs and rights of children
trafficked for sexual exploitation purposes
This session will discuss the
particular challenges related to the process of
rehabilitation of children trafficked for the
purpose of sexual exploitation. How can the specific
needs and rights of children be attended to in terms
of shelter facilities, reintegration programmes, and
in the process of prosecuting and acting as
witnesses against traffickers?
Session 3: Child trafficking –
exploitation – labour migration
This session will explore child
trafficking for labour exploitation, specifically in
the context of relocation and labour migration. The
focus will be explicitly on trafficking as a form of
labour exploitation, as this area is often given
less emphasis in the general discourse around child
trafficking.
Session 4: Conceptualising
trafficking
In this session we will take
one-step back, and try to look at the trafficking
discourse with "fresh eyes". Based on presentations
of research projects from the various arenas and
communities in which child trafficking occurs, we
will shed light on what constitutes the major
elements in child trafficking as it happens today,
how they are related to the public discourse that is
underway in various countries, and the policies that
are implemented to combat trafficking. Furthermore,
through comparisons with studies from neighbouring
and related fields (i.e. studies on child labour,
migration, and works of area specialists), we hope
to spur a discussion on the positive and negative
consequences, - in terms of policy formulation as
well as theory development – of distinguishing child
trafficking from other forms of child exploitation.
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