A/HRC/37/33 children’s dependence on others, their restricted power in decision-making, and their vulnerability to manipulation and exploitation. 14 33. Armed conflict puts women and children at a heightened risk of sexual violence and exploitation either as the result of social or legal breakdown or as a weapon of war. Natural disasters receive less attention with regard to acts of sexual violence, although evidence suggests that its incidence is high also in such situations.15 The impact of sexual violence and exploitation goes beyond immediate consequences; it may leave survivors with longlasting trauma, sexually-transmitted diseases or unwanted pregnancies, and they themselves may be ostracized by the community (see A/70/222). 34. Children who have been displaced, are unaccompanied or separated from their families, or are living in poverty are at a particularly high risk of sexual violence. Poverty, hunger and desperation may force children into “survival sex”, offering themselves in exchange for food, shelter or protection; for example, displaced children may be vulnerable to demands for sex by camp officials, police officers or military personnel in return for protection.16 Children may be placed in emergency shelters with unrelated adults and children of the opposite sex, increasing their risk of abuse or exploitation. 17 To prevent such situations, States and humanitarian actors should ensure that separate housing is established for children and that “safe adults” are appointed to supervise and support them. Moreover, child-friendly or safe spaces should be established where children can rest and play with a sense of normality, and receive care and support.18 35. States should also establish child-friendly, independent, timely and effective reporting mechanisms, and provide a functioning referral pathway for children and families to follow. According to ECPAT International in its submission to OHCHR, this should be accompanied by the collection of data, in order to gain a better understanding of the scale and scope of sexual exploitation of children in humanitarian situations, which would allow for more targeted prevention and protection approaches. Children and families should also receive education on the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, to raise their awareness and to empower children to protect themselves (see also A/HRC/19/63). 2. Harmful practices 36. The incidence and risk of child, early and forced marriage are heightened in humanitarian settings. For example, Girls not Brides, in a submission to OHCHR, showed that, in Yemen, the rate of child marriage had risen to 65 per cent from 50 per cent before the conflict, while in Syrian refugee communities in Jordan, the rate of child marriage almost tripled from 2011 to 2014, from 12 per cent to 32 per cent. Families sometimes resort to this harmful practice as a coping mechanism in times of emergency, as a way to “protect” their daughters from sexual violence, or to free themselves of an economic burden. Other factors include insecurity, gender inequality, increased risks of sexual and gender based violence, breakdown of the rule of law and State authority, the misconception of providing protection through marriage, the use of forced marriage as a tactic in conflict, lack of access to education, the stigma of pregnancy outside marriage, absence of family planning services, disruptions in social networks and routines, increased poverty, and the absence of livelihood opportunities.19 37. Patterns of physical violence against children can also be exacerbated in humanitarian situations. Increased strain on families and communities, in conjunction with 14 15 16 17 18 19 8 Child Protection Working Group, Minimum Standards for Child Protection (see footnote 6), p. 91. Child Protection Working Group, A Matter of Life and Death (see footnote 13), sect. 3.3. UNICEF, Profiting from abuse: an investigation into the sexual exploitation of our children, New York, 2001, p. 31. Ibid. Global Protection Cluster, Strengthening Protection in Natural Disaster Response: Children (see footnote 11). See Human Rights Council resolution 35/16.