C S E C The Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/childprostitution/Gambia.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in The Gambia. Some of these
links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated,
misleading or even false. No attempt
has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking for
material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of child prostitution are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring how children got started, how they survive, and how
some succeed in leaving. Perhaps your
paper could focus on runaways and the abuse that led to their leaving. Other factors of interest might be poverty,
rejection, drug dependence, coercion, violence, addiction, hunger, neglect,
etc. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the manipulative and dangerous adults who control this
activity. There is a lot to the
subject of Child Prostitution. Scan
other countries as well as this one.
Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or
regions. Meanwhile, check out some of
the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, Dakar, 6 May 2004 [accessed 13 March
2015] The sexual abuse of
children in the “There is a certain tolerance in wider society that this is going on,” Faye told IRIN. She said one of the strongest indications that a traditional taboo on such behaviour is being lifted is the new aggressive pursuit of Sugar Daddies by the children themselves. Globalization Of
Sex Trade [DOC] Tammy Quintanilla,
CLADEM (Comité de Latinoamérica
y el Caribe para la Defensa de los
Derechos de la Mujer), 1997 old.socialwatch.org/en/informesTematicos/40.html [accessed 19
September 2011] SEXUAL REGIONALIZATION - In ***
ARCHIVES *** ECPAT Country
Monitoring Report [PDF] Janelle Martin,
ECPAT International, 2015 www.ecpat.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/A4A_V2__AF_GAMBIA_FINAL2.pdf [accessed 30 August
2020] Desk review of existing
information on the sexual exploitation of children (SEC) in Gambia. The
report looks at protection mechanisms, responses, preventive measures, child
and youth participation in fighting SEC, and makes recommendations for action
against SEC. 2018 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor Office of Child
Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor
Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2019 www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2018/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 30 August
2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 527] In The Gambia, children
are trafficked internally and subjected to commercial sexual exploitation,
forced labor, and domestic work. Girls and boys from West African countries,
including Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, and
Sierra Leone are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. (3,4,15) Tourists from Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, the
Netherlands, and Canada also subject children to commercial sexual
exploitation in brothels and motels in tourist areas. (4,16) Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61571.htm [accessed 9 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– In January 2004 a joint UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)-government study
reported that children engaged in prostitution in the main tourist resort
areas were predominantly underage, some as young as 12. The report stated
that the country has become an attraction for suspected or convicted European
pedophiles that entered the country as tourists and committed their crimes
against children with impunity. Victims of trafficking were children of both
sexes, normally younger than 16 to 18 years old, and included both citizens
and immigrants or refugees from Some child
prostitution victims stated they worked to support their families, or because
they were orphans and their guardian/procurer supported them. The
guardian/procurer often assumed the role of the "African uncle,"
allowing the children to live in his compound with their younger siblings or
paying school fees on their behalf in return for their servitude Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 12 October 2001 sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/uncom.nsf/0/591a51d686b9a0dcc1256aed0044ea6a?OpenDocument [accessed 6 February
2011] [64] The Committee
is concerned about the large and increasing number of child victims of
commercial sexual exploitation, including for prostitution and pornography,
especially among child laborers and street children. Concern is also
expressed at the insufficient programs for the physical and psychological
recovery and social reintegration of child victims of such abuse and
exploitation. Koranic schools in Reuters, www.aina.org/news/20060616164407.htm [accessed 4 October
2012] Until recently most
countries in Five Years After ECPAT: Fifth Report
on implementation of the Agenda for Action ECPAT International,
November 2001 www.no-trafficking.org/content/web/05reading_rooms/five_years_after_stockholm.pdf [accessed 13
September 2011] [B]
COUNTRY UPDATES – THE GAMBIA– CSEC and especially sex tourism is a problem in the Report by Special
Rapporteur
[DOC] UN Economic and
Social Council Commission on Human Rights, Fifty-ninth session, 6 January
2003 www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0/217511d4440fc9d6c1256cda003c3a00/$FILE/G0310090.doc [accessed 16 May
2011] [42] The age of
criminal liability is 7. A child under 12 may be criminally liable
for involvement in prostitution or pornography if it can be proven that he or
she had knowledge to understand the act of commission or
omission. Research on sexual exploitation of children is under
way and preparations are being made to harmonize domestic laws with the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, to enact a Children’s Code and to
establish a National Commission on Children. The necessary laws
will be in place in 2003. Childcare units have been established at
the Departments of Social Welfare and the Police, and a Child Protection
Alliance, which includes government departments, United Nations agencies,
local and international NGOs and other organizations, has developed a
National Plan of Action on Child Protection. A Child Rights Unit has been
established at the Attorney-General’s Chambers. Child
Sex Tourism And Exploitation Increasing In The United Nations
Children's Fund UNICEF, www.unicef.org/media/media_20825.html [accessed 16 May
2011] It reveals the
strong existence of a false “glamorization” of prostitution, particularly in
sex tourism. “Many children engaged in prostitution spoke of their envy of
girls involved in prostitution – their clothes, style and hanging out at
nightclubs.” For many, according to the report, being a sex worker “means
having access to a lot of cash to buy jeans, shoes, to go to beauty salons
for hair and nail care to show off at beach parties and nightclubs.” Although sex tourism
is the more sensational face of the sexual exploitation of children in The
Gambia, “sugar daddies” perhaps represent its more pervasive face. This
involves sexual abuse and exploitation of young girls by adult Gambian men in
exchange for money and gifts, and includes, according to the report, family
members, teachers and other trusted adults. Community attitudes
towards sexual exploitation of
children Olymatou Cox, The Gambia,
The African Social Science Journalist [Published by students in the AVU-IUP
Certificate in Journalism Program: Research Methods in Journalism and Public
Opinion Polling] www.chss.iup.edu/certj/CoxCH.htm [accessed 16 May
2011] In some instance,
adults did say that children must play a role in their own protection-primary
by listening to and following the advice of their parents and other elders.
As some of the children’s groups observed, many adults agreed that parents
can only do so much to protect their children. Even if their needs are taken
care of, they can still engage in behaviour that is
detrimental to their well being, such as sexual relations with sugar daddies.
Most children engaged in prostitution did in fact say that their parents had
no idea of what they did for a living and they could easily hide their income
from them. Thus, the prevailing idea that parents collude with and support
their children’s exploitation could be a partial exaggeration, perhaps a
convenient form of denial that one’s own children could become a victim.
Adult prostitutes generally blamed themselves and the men who exploited them
for their predicament. The idea that, as children, parents and authorities
should have protected them seemed native to most of them and a denial of
their own agency and ability to make a rational decision. Europeans
Involved In Gambian Child Sex Tourism afrol News (African News
Agency), 11 February 2003 www.afrol.com/html/News2003/gam001_sex_tourism.htm [accessed 16 May
2011] One of the typical
ways of contacting the children is establishing a relation to a poor family
by "offering financial help for buying food and then offering school
sponsorship to children. The The Protection
Project - The The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/gambia.doc [accessed 2009] FACTORS THAT
CONTRIBUTE TO THE TRAFFICKING INFRASTRUCTURE - An increase in government legal
responses in countries such as Thailand has redirected the flow of European
pedophiles to places such as The Gambia.
A quarter of the Gambian population lives on tourism, and this fact,
combined with the fact that Gambia is a cheap destination, has drawn
pedophiles and other sex tourists. FORMS OF TRAFFICKING
- The
Department of Social Welfare launched a UNICEF-funded study on sexual abuse
and exploitation of children in The Gambia in May 2004. The report concluded
that Gambian children face exploitation in the form of sex tourism as well as
child pornography and trafficking associated with the tourism industry and
that most children involved in prostitution are encouraged to do so by their
parents in order to supplement family income.
Moreover, it is common for girls as young as 13 or 14 years of age to
get married; in addition, young girls will engage in sexual relations with
older men in exchange for gifts, a practice known as the “Sugar Daddy
Syndrome.” Another common traditional
practice, known as the “Almudu Syndrome,” involves
sending children, usually teenagers, to study Islam and the Qur’an with a
knowledgeable adult. In return for their education, the children work for
their teachers; however, in some cases children do not receive their promised
education and are exploited by their teachers, even becoming sex slaves. Gambian
Child-Sex Tourism Case Rolled Up afrol News (African News
Agency), 28 April 2004 www.afrol.com/articles/12133 [accessed 16 May
2011] A Norwegian teacher
has been charged with sexual abuse of a 12-year-old boy in The Gambia. The case is rolled up by Norwegian police
in Scot accused of
child rape in John Ross, The
Scotsman, thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland/Scot-accused-of-child-rape.2547530.jp [accessed 16 May
2011] A Scot due today to
face charges of raping a ten-year-old girl in European paedophiles flock to Gambian ' Alex Duval Smith in www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/jul/04/childprotection.uk [accessed 16 May
2011] So the youth of the
***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** ECPAT Global
Monitoring Report on the status of action against commercial exploitation of
children - GAMBIA [PDF] Renata Cocarro & Manida Naebklang, ECPAT International, 2007 www.ecpat.net/A4A_2005/PDF/AF/Global_Monitoring_Report-GAMBIA.pdf [accessed 16 May
2011] The While girls are the
primary target of commercial sexual exploitation, boys have been increasingly
victimised in the last few years, especially in the
tourism sector. In research conducted by
the Child Protection Alliance (CPA) – the ECPAT group in the country – and
Terre des Hommes, interviews with boys involved in prostitution confirmed
that the perpetrators are usually foreigners, some of whom travel to The
Gambia on package tour holidays for the specific purpose of having sexual
relationships with young Gambian men. The research also indicated that a
number of ‘bumsters’ - young people who follow
tourists and offer to be a guide or a friend - are engaged in commercial sex
or act as pimps. Anecdotal evidence and observation of certain locations
around the beach and tourism development areas suggests that some of these ‘bumsters’ are below the age of 18. It is important to
note that a certain percentage of sex tourists in The Gambia are female, and
as such, it is possible that underage boys are also being sexually exploited
by women. The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/gambia.htm [accessed 6 February
2011] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - According to UNICEF, commercial sexual exploitation
of children is on the rise. The problem is most acute in the sex
tourism industry, where young children, especially girls, are coerced by
Gambian adults offering gifts and promises of a better or “more Western” life
style. Child trafficking is also a
problem. As a transit and destination country, the All
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ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Child Prostitution – The Gambia",
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