E/CN.15/2014/CRP.1 In this context, “contact” and “non-contact” sexual abuse are frequently distinguished from one another both in terms of the actual conduct, as well as with regards to its criminalization. This is discussed further in Chapter Four: Combating the problem. Contact sexual abuse is used to refer to in-person sexual contact of a harmful nature. Non-contact sexual abuse denotes the producing, possessing or distributing of sexual abuse material, making harassing or sexually suggestive comments to children, advertising sexual services of children on the Internet, and actively employing or viewing children in live online sex shows.33 With respect to “exploitation”, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has described the word “exploiting” to mean “using for one’s own profit or for selfish purposes"34. More specifically, UNHCR describes the “exploitation of a child as the use of the child in work or other activities for the benefit of others and to the detriment of the child’s physical or mental health, development, and education”.35 Exploitation thus includes, but is not limited to, child labour and child prostitution. Article 3 (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) does not define exploitation but includes illustrative forms of exploitation in the definition of trafficking in persons. These include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. Both child sexual abuse and exploitation involve an offender taking advantage of a child’s lack of power and status, and can refer to acts that are very similar or offences that overlap. An offender might, for example, sexually abuse a child and then further exploit that child by selling a recording of the abuse. Acknowledging this, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has declared that “[s]exual abuse becomes sexual exploitation when a second party benefits – through making a profit or through a quid pro quo – through sexual activity involving a child. This may include prostitution and child pornography.”36 Under this approach, the term ‘abuse’ focuses more on the treatment of the child or victim, while ‘exploitation’ refers more to the benefit of the offender. Another fundamental distinction can be drawn between commercial and non-commercial child abuse and exploitation. The Stockholm Declaration and Agenda for Action, adopted at the First World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in 1996, condemns the commercial sexual exploitation of children as “a form of coercion and violence against children [that] amounts to forced labour and a contemporary form of slavery”. ILO defines commercial child sexual exploitation as “the exploitation by an adult with respect to a child or an adolescent – female or male – under 18 years old; accompanied by a payment in money or in kind to the child or adolescent (male or female) or to one or more third parties”37. Hence, commercial sexual exploitation denotes child exploitation that is committed for monetary or other economic profit, while non-commercial exploitation pertains to exploitative acts committed for personal gratification rather than for financial or economic gain. Though a seemingly clear distinction, the line between these two forms of abuse and exploitation can become blurred where the quest of a perpetrator for personal gratification coincides with obtaining an economic benefit through the abuse. For example, perpetrators may share child sexual abuse material with online community members for personal gratification. As some communities require commercial distribution of abuse material in order to gain entry or to access additional material, however, consumers of child sexual abuse material, could engage in both commercial and noncommercial exploitation through the same act. Similarly, a trafficker might sexually abuse a child that he or she later forces to engage in commercial sexual exploitation. __________________ 33 34 35 36 37 8 Quayle, E, et al. In: Ainsaar, M., Lööf, L. (eds.). Pp. 10-11. Available at http://www.childcentre.info/robert/public/Online_behaviour_related_to_sexual_abuse.pdfError! Hyperlink reference not valid.; See also Subgroup Against the Sexual Exploitation of Children, the NGO Group for the Convention of the Right of the Child. 2005. Semantics or Substance? Towards a Shared Understanding of terminology relating to the sexual abuse and exploitation of children. P. 41. UNHCR, 2001. Action for the Rights of Children. Critical Issues: Abuse and Exploitation. Ibid. See Subgroup Against the Sexual Exploitation of Children, 2005. P. 16 ILO, Commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. The ILO’s response. Available at: http://www.ilo.org/ipec/areas/ CS-EC/lang--en/index.htm. V.14-03040