A/HRC/15/20* foster family solidarity and kinship ties. However, owing to the erosion of such ties, such children often end up being subjected to domestic servitude at the hands of their own relatives.13 40. Increasingly, parents are implicated in the exploitation of children in the general market for domestic labour. Some parents do so with the belief that their children will be provided with formal education and work. Deceiving the parents, the intermediaries often end up trafficking the children into domestic servitude or other forms of exploitation. In Ecuador (see A/HRC/15/20/Add.3), children are “rented” by their parents or others to third parties who can employ them at their will. Many of the victims are exploited in domestic servitude. Reports of the Council of Europe express concern about the international trafficking of children aged from 8 to 15 years from West Africa to Europe, where they are exploited in domestic labour, usually in the households of compatriots.14 Underlying such practices is a failure to recognize children as full human beings with equal rights. Instead, children are treated as commodities who can be moved around and exploited for the benefit of adults. 41. Children on their own often accept domestic work for lack of other options, in particular as live-in arrangements entail a new home and often a (false) promise of education. Street children, including those who were abandoned or fled parental abuse, often seek domestic work to find shelter. Children who are orphaned as a result of AIDS also often end up in domestic servitude.15 Girls also increasingly migrate independently from impoverished rural areas in search of domestic work.16 42. Children find it especially difficult to extract themselves from situations of domestic servitude. The relationship between the employer and child usually starts out seemingly well before exploitation and abuse become obvious. Consequently, the children feel that they are in the wrong and stay for fear of ‘failing’ their families. Children who have been sexually abused find it difficult to leave because of the shame of ‘being spoiled’ and when they do leave, are afraid to go back to their families and end up in the streets. Child domestic workers who migrated or were trafficked long distances often face financial, language and cultural barriers preventing their return home. 4. Domestic servitude in forced and child marriages 43. Forced marriage combines sexual exploitation with domestic servitude.17 The victims are forced to perform household chores in line with gendered stereotypes, while submitting to their husbands’ sexual demands. The link between forced marriages and servitude is explicitly recognized by article 1 (c) of the 1956 Supplementary Convention on Slavery, which considers women to be persons of servile status if they have been subjected to: “Any institution or practice whereby: (i) A woman, without the right to refuse, is promised or given in marriage on payment of a consideration in money or in kind to her parents, guardian, family or any other person or group; or 13 14 15 16 17 GE.10-15169 A/HRC/7/6/Add.3, paras. 56–57. Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe: Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, “Domestic slavery: servitude, au pairs and mail-order brides”, Assembly document No. 9102 (2001), para. 21. Secretary-General, World Report on Violence against Children (United Nations, 2006), p. 240. A/HRC/7/6/Add.3, paras. 54–55. Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, A/HRC/4/23, para. 43. 9