Children

Human slavery, child trafficking, its all something that happens in a country far away, maybe someplace you’ve never even heard of, right? Well yes it does and the problem is huge, but it’s also right here at home. Yes, child trafficking and slavery is a major issue in the United States, the Land of the Free!

The State Department estimates that between 600,000 and 800,000 people are victims of trafficking across the world every year and that up to half are children. Every year 14,500 to 17,500 according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), mostly woman and children are trafficked across US borders. The majority of those trafficked into the US come from East Asia and the Pacific (5,000 to 7,000 victims). And then South America, Eastern and Central Europe and Eurasia (3,500 to 5,500 victims), according to the DOJ. The majority of these children are used as forced into prostitution and held as sex slaves. Thousands and thousands of American children are forced into prostitution or become victims of child pornography. I’ve seen figures ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 children forced into the commercial sex industry in the US. Another 300,000 children in the US are at risk of being victims of trafficking every year. These numbers may scare and shock many of you, but the real scare is that these numbers are estimates, as the true number of victims is and may never be known. Some have suggested that 33% of child abuse cases are never reported and the true numbers of victims in all areas of human trafficking are near impossible to define.

The problem of trafficking children into and within the US is a major issue, and while in recent years some headway has been made by lawmakers, little impact has been felt. Only in the past few years have I noticed an increase in news articles and in-depth reporting on the issues, but to hear a story when you watch you local news is something I’ve yet to witness. And I know how most Americans are, I come from Middle America, where there are tons of you who have yet to subscribe to cable and I know the majority of people don’t religiously watch the world news, CNN, BBC and read the Times, let alone constantly search for new information.

So what do we do and how do we do it? For the average Joe’s and Jane’s of the world, the most important thing to do is be aware and not just see it as a big number you have no control over. We can all make a difference, just talking to your friends next time you go for a drink and informing them of this detrimental situation is a good start. Write you local and state law makers, stay aware and don’t let the issue seem so distant…look around there maybe a victim on your own street. There is no real city or state wide statistics on child trafficking, but I know, as do so many others that just around the corner a child is being victimized.

A short time ago I learned the story of on girl who was a victim of trafficking from a wealthy Virginia suburb. Just recently I’ve heard two stories on the news, one in which a mother tried to use a baby as a down payment on a car (CNN Story) and another where a couple tried to sell an infant for $3,000 and an SUV (NBC Story).

The story I just heard echoes the stories featured Teen Girls’ Stories of Sex Trafficking in the U.S., featured on ABC Primetime. In the story “The FBI estimates that well over 100,000 children and young women are trafficked in America today. They range in age from 9 to 19, with the average age being 11.” The story illustrates how these child victims are not the children most presume they are they are everyday average kids from normal American families.

I’ve personally witnessed another person attempting to sell an infant, it was more than ten years ago now in Jamaica when I was on a spring brake trip. A guy actually offered to sell a baby to me and a girlfriend while we where shopping in the market, I was dumbfounded as was my friend. Suddenly our shock was broke when we heard the piecing screams of the child’s mother, her boyfriend had taken the child while she was sleeping and looked to be trying to get some money for drugs and alcohol. It didn’t surprise me a night or two later when a guy offered to trade my friend Mike the cane he had been admiring from me. Though it all seemed surreal and funny at the time as parting college kids, its no laughing matter, this is the everyday scenario for one too many children around the world. Jamaica is currently on the US State Departments Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) as a Tier 2 Watch List Country, and is both a source country and active in internal trafficking, mainly for the purposes of sexual exploitation, but also labor.

Sites like www.craigslist.com have and are being used as portals to solicit and offer prostitution services. Read a CBS affiliate article Craigs List Responds to Prostitution Fears that ran in November 1995, much of the fuel for the fire came after a 4 year old child was being solicited on the site. However the site is self policing and relies on users to report any suspicious activity and we all know how much really gets reported this way.

The reality of it all is that human slavery has never gone away, we got rid of legal slavery and the ownership of human beings, but today’s slavery is far worse and much more wide spread. Human value is very little and you can buy a child over the internet or off the side of a street for almost nothing at all.

Sign the “Increase Resources to Combat Child Sex Tourism” petition.

Links:

Stop Child Trafficking

Child Trafficking

Charity Network Inc. 

Polaris ProjectAnti Trafficking Alliance

Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Woman

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

‘Guidence for Identifying a Child Victim of Trafficking’ by USCCB

This weekend I was trying desperately to avoid work and all that comes with it, but when you work in the NGO world work is hard to avoid.  There I was desperately trying to decompress from a long week at my job working for an anti-child trafficking organization, but I couldn’t escape.  I flip the channel over to CNN and there was Anderson Cooper reporting on the child sex industry in Cambodia.  The series Invisible Chains, Sex Work and Slavery was reporting in-depth on the industry in Cambodia, an industry that so many blatantly ignore, including the government.  Yes, it is against the law, but the law seems to have little jurisdiction on the streets of Cambodia and it offers little protection or hope for the children who are chained to its streets.  The industry is right there in your face no matter what direction you turn, children some as young as five, are displayed right on the edge of the street day and night.  This report isn’t the first one of its kind on Cambodia, Dateline NBC did a series in 2004, but sadly the situation has changed little over the past few years.  UNICEF claims approximately 33,000 children in Cambodia are active in the sex trade.  In a recent article, “UNICEF blasts child porn business in Cambodia”, the outrage was made clear, but will it have any effect?  I am left to be a bit of a pessimist, as the Cambodian government knows clear and well what is going on and as they have ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, they know they are in violation.  It is especially clear when looking at “the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which obligate it to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.” 

Some of Cambodia’s dirty little secrets came to light when in 2002 British Rocker Gary Glitter was charged for having sex with minors and evicted from the country.  Needless to say Gary Glitter and so many like him just find a new place to go and that is exactly what he did.  We latter saw him in the news last year after going to Vietnam where he was again in the spot light.  But Gary is not alone in his quest for young children.  In an article by The Independent on Sunday, January 5, 2003 by Kathy Marks in Phnom Penh.  Marks illustrated how vibrant, cheap, easy and open the child sexual market was.

“In Svay Pak, business is conducted quite brazenly. Twenty brothels, each sealed by a padlocked iron grille, line the potholed dirt track that is the shanty town’s main street. Step inside any of the brick shop fronts and the papasan - pimp - will produce a girl or boy to suit any whim. Oral sex costs $5 (pounds 3.20); $500 buys a six-year-old for a week.”

Anderson Cooper also had Nicolas Kristof, the famed New York Times reporter on the show.  Kristof has himself been reporting on the issue in Cambodia for a number of years now, even buying the freedom of two girls there.  Unfortunately one of them returned quickly back to her brothel, as she had sub come to her drug addiction.   Kristof himself admitted much of the problem was that the numbers where too high and people cannot care about numbers, but they could care about one child.  Therefore we are faced with the hardening reality that hearing a million children are suffering does little to pull the emotional heart strings, but to show a video of a child would grab a tear or two.  I guess myself and all the others out there in the NGO world or in the field desperately need more Anderson Coopers and Nicolas Kristof’s to make are job a little easier.  How said is it we have become so TV obsessed in society that we won’t even react to millions of starving and suffering around the world unless we see it on TV first?  It’s hard to fathom how one child can endure so much, torture and so much mental anguish day after day, year after year.  A daily life consists of mental abuse and rape, and so often gang rape, beatings and so much more.  No one child should ever live that fate for an hour, a day, a year…but for many of these children this is the fate of the rest of their lives…their only lives, however short they may be.  It is estimated that over one million children are victims of sex tourism a year.  The sad reality is that these children have no life at all; they don’t get to go play ball in the streets or play with their dolls.  They are used as toys for the sick and greedy, the men and woman who have bought and sold them, chaining them to this horrid fate.   The life of a child who is a sex slave is dramatically cut short and the fate as a slave is all many will ever know.  A child who is held as a sex worker is faced not only with beatings and a fate not fit for the small body of a child, but they are heavily exposed to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases that will enviably go untreated.  Many still believe that sleeping with a virgin will cure AIDS and the younger the more potent the cure.  Condoms are increasing in use, but they are still rarely used or made available to sex workers.  But for many it is not just the sexually transmitted disease that take over their little bodies, but also drugs.  Drugging a child is one way to keep them in these ‘invisible’ chains, and so addiction is just another fight many children must now face. The only hope for these children is more reports to the mainstream, increased education, public advocacy, lobbing both within the US and overseas.  Countries like Cambodia don’t really crack down on the pimps and Johns, for multiple reasons, one is so often than not the local law enforcement are involved in this lucrative trade.  Another reason the fight is so hard is the endless streams of Westerners who flood the country in search of cheap sex and so many come for the young and even younger each year.  An underdeveloped country cannot deny the economic benefits that all the western pedophiles bring with them.  All I could think as I tried to sleep and rest over the weekend was that I was undeniably working for the right cause.  For I know that these programs are only a reminder to me of how desperate the situation of human slavery is for millions of mostly woman and children around the world every day, but for so many others this was just an eye opener.  But I am personally happy to see the increase in coverage on this issue for too many people think that human slavery is an issue of the past, but the unfortunate and cold truth is it is very much alive today and it is not looking to disappear anytime soon.  The scary thought is that human slavery in our modern world is on the increase.  Why are humans becoming one of the most traded commodities on the planet?  The trade in humans is only surpassed by the trade in arms and drugs.  But I will wait for another day to explore this topic more and for now I will leave you with some links to go over and that question in your mind. 

Relevant blogs:

Anderson Cooper 360 Blog Counter PunchDaily Kos 

Read more on:

US State Department on Child Sex TourismEnd Child Prostitution, Abuse and Trafficking in Cambodia ILO

Stop Child Trafficking

The Emancipation Network

Polaris Project

Charity Network Inc.

American Assistance of Cambodia

AFESIP

U.S. State Dept. - Office to Combat and Monitor Trafficking in Persons

Amnesty International: Women’s Human Rights Network

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women

Girls Educational and Mentoring Services

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
 

Check out the movie, The Day My God Died, for a nice eye opening experience.

When you begin to research the issues that affect our children world wide you never get over the shock of the numbers. The stories of so many never leave your mind, and even as these numbers grow you seem to never loose that one thought in your mind, “how is this possible?” I will, and can never imagine being able to understand how someone could hurt another human being, especially a child. But then again our world is far from perfect.

I wanted to give you some general information on statistics that are vital to understanding international children’s rights, and the issues that are so often spiraling out of control. However, one can find that these statistics or numbers are often nothing more than a guess. As the true number of child soldiers, victims of trafficking, and other horrid crimes committed against children are only the tip of the ice berg. I will do my best to give you a fair indicator of the information and resources available. I will not cover all the areas in this article, as I will touch much deeper on the statistics of certain areas only when covering that topic later in the year. As just mentioning a topic is far too vague, or the statistics and scenarios vary too much when looking at individual countries in comparison with a world figure. That said, I wanted to give you an idea on the number of children currently suffering needlessly each day.

Please note sources vary on all the issues listed below:

Child Trafficking - There are about 1.5 million children trafficked around the world each year. Approximately 50,000 trafficked persons enter the US each year, mostly woman and children, however some sources claim this number is as low as 18,000.

Child Soldiers - Human Rights Watch put estimates around 200,000 - 300,000 child soldier’s world wide. Children, many as young as five to seven, fight in around the world as we speak. According to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, The problem is most critical in Africa, where up to 100,000 children, some as young as nine, were estimated to be involved in armed conflict in mid 2004.

Child Labor - According to the ILO in 2000 there where some 352 million children ages 5-17 participating in some form of labor, this includes permitted activity and illegal activities. Of these children 171 million where working in hazardous conditions, and most of those children where under the age of 15.

Female Genital Mutilation- According to the World Heath Organization (WHO) the number of girls who have been subject to FGM is “estimated at between 100 and 140 million” and that each year another 2 million are at risk.

Child Molestation - “It is estimated that at least two out of every ten girls and one out of every ten boys are sexually abused by the end of their 13th year”, according to The Child Molestation Research and Prevention Institute

Child Porn - It is estimated that 100,000 child porn sites, a number that is only growing, are currently active on the internet today. According to The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children “83% had pornographic material that involved children between ages of 6 and 12; 39% had material involving children between ages 3 and 5; and 19% had images of infants or toddlers under age 3.”

Children and Poverty - World wide it is millions upon millions of children live in poverty everyday, this is not just a lack of food, but clean drinking water, sanitation and education. According to UNICEF the number is over a billion (Childhood Under Threat - Poverty). According to the National Center for Children and Poverty 39% of American children live in low income families.

Children and Violent Crime - The following graph about domestic crime victims was found at the Bureau of Justice Statistics:

Please note violent crimes included are homicide, rape, robbery, and both simple and aggravated assault.

What is most frightening about the graph above isn’t just that the age of victims who are victims of the most violent crimes, but that one can only imagine how the graph would look if you added in victims under the age of 12. The other frightening thought is that this only illustrates the rate of crime against young victims in the United States, one can only imagine the sheer shock of seeing what a war torn undeveloped country looks like.

Child Mortality Rate

Additional Resources and Information

State of the World’s Children 2007

I wanted to get some stats from Interpol, but alas I am not a registered police officer so I am not able to, but if you happen to know someone who is take a look.

CIA World Fact Book has country specific information

US Government Child Statistics has tons for resources and direct contacts on the site. They also have some international resources.

Child Info - UNICEF has a lot of graphs and charts on various issues related to children.

ILO Fact sheets on Child Labor

UNICEF Monitoring and Statistics is really quite cool as you can go on the site and create and export specific stats that you are looking for. Of course they have substantial statistics on anything related to children and it is a superb resource.

The Child Protection Table shows detailed information by country, male vs. female and urban vs. rural on issues such as, Child Labor, Child Marriages, Birth Registration and Female Genital Mutilation. Many of these figures will shock and surprise you, especially when you see the number of countries involved in child labor and the percentages of girls who face genital mutilation in a handful of countries.

Last night I attended a conference run by WIT (Woman in Technology) for the WIT Connect conference Using Technology to Aid Women and Children around the Globe. The conference was held in the greater DC Metro area and it looked to bring together woman leaders in technology.  

Marla Ozarowski, Director of Technology Adoption for Freddie Mac and of the Women in Technology Education Foundation (WITEF) and Girls in Technology, chaired the panel which featured organizations that apply technology to help woman and children around the globe who have been victims of trafficking or exploitation.

The three keynote speakers at the event where Lavika Singh, COO, Charity Network, Inc., Chris Feller, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Charlotte Dolenz, Boat People SOS.

Lavika Singh, COO of Charity Network, Inc. (CNI), a charity working to combat child trafficking, whose charity was also one of the events organizers, spoke about technologies positive and negative impacts on child trafficking.  Ms. Singh stated that 300,000 children in the United States are potential victims of child trafficking, while an estimated 50,000 children are currently victims. 

Charlotte Dolenz, Case Manager for Boat People SOS works with the Victims of Exploitation and Trafficking Assistance Program (VETA).  VETA works “to provide protection, relief and assistance to victims of human trafficking”.  As well VETA not only provides social service assistance to victims, but acts as an advocate on behalf of victims.  Ms. Dolenz spoke about many issues including how data sharing can be used to catch traffickers and allow collaboration among Ngo’s and law enforcement. 

Chris Feller, Supervisor of the Child Victim Identification Program (CVIP), for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children talked primarily about the use of the internet in child pornography cases and how a child who’s images continue to exist in cyberspace are never able to escape there abuse.  For even once a child is rescued and rehabilitated they are continual abused as they know these images will remain on the internet and continue to circulate around the globe.  Ms. Feller discussed how technology can also be used to catch the pedophiles that use the internet to abuse there victims.  ISP’s are now used to block certain websites and e-mails from going over their servers.

Prior to the speakers there was a networking session, where I had the opportunity to speak with a number of women who where attending the event and of course conversations quickly led to the internet and its now vital role in our everyday lives.  I discussed at great length with three other women the new developments in web searching, how students use the internet over libraries for research papers and how you can find anything quickly on Google.  Yes, how would one function if they couldn’t Google something for just one day?  We Google prospective boyfriends, clients, political figures, consumer products, addresses, we Google everything!  So did you know you could Google someone and get directions to there house?  That’s a scary thought when one thinks of the ease of trafficking a child over the internet. 

Following the conference I had the opportunity to speak with all three of the women who spoke at the event individually, Lavika Singh stressed to me the role that technology has played for traffickers.  “Innovation–the internet, cell phones, and inexpensive phone lines–has made child trafficking cheap, easy, and very lucrative for traffickers.  By caring for victims and prosecuting traffickers, we’re taking the profits out of the picture and making it too hard and too risky for traffickers.” 

Anyone reading this knows how important the internet is to sharing information and educating our world, but there are two sides to the internet and we must work together to use technology effectively.  If a trafficker or pedophile can find our children online, then we too need to use the internet to find them.  You can buy anything you want online, even a child, and that is something I think we may all want to think about next time we sit down at our computers.

The biggest area parent’s need to warn there children about is giving out any personal information over the internet.  David E. DeSantis, stated in his article, Site Seeing on the Internet……Keeping our Children Safe. , that “Eighty-nine percent of the 212 children’s sites surveyed collect personal information from children, but only one percent obtain parental permission prior to collecting such information.”  So the question that every parent must ask is, “Do I know if my child is giving out personal information?”  I know it’s hard to regulate every move our children make in such a digital age, but we must make sure we give them the tools to make smart choices and warn them about the dangers and consequences.

I must admit as a person who has worked both in the corporate and charity sectors, it was a pleasant surprise to see the two successfully work together on issues that have such an impact on our global economy and our children’s future. I hope we will see more industries and business associations getting involved in doing similar panels and seminars.

The true value of this panel wasn’t highlighting on the positive and negative effects of technology on our children today, but bringing to light the serious issues that are so often forget or misunderstood. Children’s future is so heavily affected by technology and we all need to be aware of the warning signs and how to effectively use technology as a positive force to protect our children both in the
United States and world wide

There are a lot of resources out there for parents to help keep there children safe on the internet.  National Center for Missing and Exploited Children does an amazing work in this area and I will cover this subject in more detail in a following blog.  Please find some additional resources below:

Please read my next three blogs as I will profile the work and cause of each one of the speaking charities.

 Resources:

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998

CVIP Information packet

Statistics on Households Computers and the Internet Online Almanac

NetSmartz Workshop - Keeping Kids and Teens Safer on the Internet

The Police Notebook - Keeping Kids Safe Online by the University of Oklahoma Police Department

Microsoft - Protect Your Family

Kids Health - Internet Safety

The Parents Guide to the Information Super Highway

I had no rights

As I sat under a tree on day
A man offered me sweets and
Took me away.

In a cupboard I was locked
It seemed forever the light blocked.

I had to work day and night
We couldn’t out up a fight.

I didn’t have no food
When the man was in a mood.

Two years went past and I didn’t see
Any of my family.

We didn’t play and didn’t talk
Some children couldn’t even walk.

If we were ill, some would die
Then I would cry.

The Police arrived and set us free
So I could go back and sit under
My tree.

Conor MacDonald
Student,Knights Enham JuniorSchool
From the CBU Children’s Rights Center

“The well-being of children requires political action at the highest level. We are determined to take that action.” – World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children, 1990

As I mentioned in my last blog with the exception of the US and Somalia the UN party countries have signed and ratified the convention in whole or in part. Therefore I know the question that first jumps to everyone’s mind is, “Why hasn’t the US signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child“?

On February 16, 1995, the United States did actually sign the Convention; however the treaty has never been submitted to the Senate. The United States has also stated that it does not plan to ratify the convention.  At the General Assembly Special Session on the Children’s World Summit February 1, 2001, Ambassador E. Michael Southwick, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs made a statement at the Preparatory Committee.

“States may be encouraged to consider ratification of these instruments, but it is wrong to assert an obligation to ratify them. We also believe it is misleading and inappropriate to use the Convention as a litmus test to measure a nation’s commitment to children. As a non-party to the Convention, the United States does not accept obligations based on it, nor do we accept that it is the best or only framework for developing programs and policies to benefit children.”

To read his entire statement on the US role in the rights of the child and the United States views on the Convention please click here.  There have been numerous critics over the years that have done considerable lobbing against the ratification.  The main claims against ratification is that it will undermine the United States authority, as well as undermine parents abilities when raising their children, stating that it will give children higher rights than that of their own parents.  I personally as do many others find this nothing but contradictory as the Convention makes considerable reference to the relationships between parent and child.

The most probable cause for disagreement and non-ratification of the Convention by the United States is the paradox of the death penalty. The Convention prohibits any child being sentenced to death for any crime occurring before the child turns eighteen. Currently with twenty-two states allowing the executions of juveniles, one can easily see the United States unlikely ratification and clear obstacle to the United States ever ratifying the treaty. During the above mentioned Special Session the United States and Iran alone rejected a proposal to ban the addition of a ban on the death penalty or life without parole for children offenders.

 A Child Awaiting Execution - Amnesty

The Death Penalty Information Center is a good resource to find our more on any issue associated with the death penalty in the US. For more information on the US and the Death penalty click here and for a list of states with the death penalty for children click here.  China, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, USA and Yemen, have executed persons who where under 18 years old during the period in which the crime was committed since 1990. In more recent years only Iran and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have executed children. China, Pakistan USA and Yemen have now risen the minimum age to 18 in law. “The USA and Iran have each executed more child offenders than the other six countries combined and Iran has now matched the USA’s total since 1990 of 19 child executions.” (Amnesty). 

The other point of contention that the United States has used is that it sees the Convention are not within the jurisdiction of the Federal government, but that of the individual states. However other Federalized states such as Germany and Brazil have ratified the treaty.

Let us not forget to mention Somalia, who also has not signed and ratified the convention. So why haven’t they ratified the Convention? This is brief and clear, they are a country with continual human rights violations. A country so ripe with disregard to human life, one needs not question there reasoning behind not signing the treaty.  The Human Rights Watch - Somalia report highlights the key issues concerning violations on children.  The hard truth is that yes, while Somalia and the US are both non-parties to the convention it is the US that everyone is looking at and asking, “Why” and for good and obvious reasons.  If the US won’t sign the convention then why should anyone listen to them when they blow the horn on countries who don’t comply?

Let me just say one thing, do we the United States honestly want to be compared to Somalia, a country known for the use of child soldiers, when it comes to children’s rights? Just read the State Departments Report on Somalia and I think you will find your answer.

“Human rights are inscribed in the hearts of people; they were there long before lawmakers drafted their first proclamation.” – Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

I know anyone reading this blog has an interest in the welfare of our children and I know most of you understand their fundamental rights.  However I just want to give you some resources on laws, treaties and conventions effecting children’s rights, especially a brief introduction on the Convention on the Rights of the Child.   

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is probably best explained in easy terms on Wikipedia, so I won’t get all detailed about it.  The conceptual idea of creating a convention for children’s rights emerged after the UN’s “Year of the Child” in 1979.  Following ten years of discussion the Convention was finally adopted into international law on November 20, 1989 and then came into force on September 2, 1990.  Those dates’ rights there illustrate in my opinion just how far behind on protecting our children we are and have always been.   

With the exception of the US and Somalia the UN party countries have signed and ratified the convention in whole or in part.   Therefore I am led to my first bit of discussion for my next blog, “Why hasn’t the US signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child?”. So please read my next entry when I will discuss this further.  I promise I will try to be as objective as possible.  For now I will move on…

Children aged 0-14 make up 27.4% (CIA Fact Book) of our world’s population.  It may not seem like a large figure, however this is the number of the potential future leaders of our world and we must take there rights seriously.  A child who is a victim of war, abuse slavery, and so many other unspeakable crimes is loosing not only their youth, but their future.  Of course a child of 10 working in a diamond mine dramatically decreases his or her life span, as does the 14 year old girl sold into prostitution.  The average life expectancy I can find for a miner is 33-45 years, however the figures where not based on children alone, but miners on the whole.  According to one article on Cambodian sex workers “While the life expectancy for Cambodian woman is 56 girls in the sex trade are lucky to live half that long” (Canadian Encyclopedia Article).  The children, who do make it to adulthood, lead a life full of struggle and many continue the cycle of violence, turn to drugs, develop mental illnesses or sever health problems and dieses

There are various policy papers and laws around the world which focus on issues relevant to children’s rights; however I won’t go through them all, but leave you with some resources and links.

CRIN (Children’s Rights Information Network)

A World Fit for Children - UN Special Session

US laws information on Children’s Rights- Mega Law

Cornell University -Wex, a legal dictionary and encyclopedia

Children’s Rights

United Nations Children’s Rights Report

Human Rights Watch – Children’s International Legal Standards – Gives direct link to all the relevant conventions, treaties, etc. that have issues relevant to children’s Rights.

Council of Europe on Family Law and Children’s Rights

Stanford Encyclopedia on Philosophy on Children’s Rights

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Hello Blog Readers!

Welcome to the Children’s Blog, my name is Cassandra Clifford.  I’m very excited to be one of the eight blogger/writers for the Foreign Policy Association’s “Great Decisions” 2007 series.   I hold an MA in International Relations and have spent much of my career dealing with various topics in Central and Eastern Europe, mostly human rights and the current political situations.  I have focused heavily on the former Soviet Union and various issues of Human Rights, particularly issues of ethnic cleansing.  I currently work as a Director for a charity working to combat child trafficking.

First of all I want to thank all of you for coming to the site and joining the “Great Decisions” of 2007.  You’ve taken the first step in the decision making process and I only hope that by reading my blog and that of my esteemed fellow bloggers that we will be able to not only inform you about our eight key issues for the year, but also help you to get your own thought process going so that you can come to your own conclusions and decisions on these vital topics. 

I will look to cover the full gamut of issues and topics related to children and I will do my best not to be overly focused on certain issues, like child trafficking, or too regionally biased.  However, those topics closest to our hearts will get the most discussion at times.  Issues that I will be covering include: general issues of children’s rights, international conventions and the US, child migrant labor, AIDs, poverty, victims of war, landmines, child soldiers, street children, and of course child trafficking.  However, this is unfortunately only a small sample of issues concerning the current situation and the future of our world’s children, and I will do my best to give justice and a voice to children everywhere.

Thanks for reading, Cassandra