A/HRC/34/55
8.
On 13 October 2016, the Special Rapporteur presented her report on the sale of
children for the purpose of forced labour to the General Assembly at its seventy-first
session.4
2.
Follow-up to thematic priorities
9.
As a follow-up to her report containing a thematic study on the issue of information
and communications technologies, 5 the Special Rapporteur spoke at the annual full-day
meeting on the rights of the child, held during the thirty-first session of the Human Rights
Council, which focused on the sexual exploitation of children online. On 2 May 2016, she
co-organized, with the International Telecommunication Union, a workshop entitled “Child
online protection: the road ahead, emerging trends and technologies”, which took place in
Geneva in the context of the World Summit on the Information Society Forum 2016.
10.
In follow-up to her visit to Nigeria and in connection with her study on the care,
recovery and reintegration of child victims of sale and sexual exploitation, 6 on 13 June
2016, during the thirty-second session of the Human Rights Council, the Special
Rapporteur co-organized an event on the rehabilitation and reintegration of the victims of
Boko Haram.
3.
Communications
11.
Summaries of communications sent during the reporting period appear in the
communications reports of special procedures. The Special Rapporteur sent six
communications addressing such issues as child marriage, child abduction, the sale of
children and the sexual exploitation of children, but has not yet received any replies.
III. Study on illegal adoptions
A.
Objective, scope and methodology
12.
The present study addresses an aspect of the mandate that was highlighted in the
1990 founding resolution, namely the problem of the adoption of children for commercial
purposes. 7 It should be noted that children can also be sold for the purpose of illegal
adoption.8 In the present study, the Special Rapporteur aims to highlight the wide variety of
illegal acts and illicit practices that have been and continue to be committed in the context
of domestic and intercountry adoption processes with the ultimate goal of suggesting
concrete solutions to prevent and combat the phenomenon.
13.
The purpose of the study is to go beyond individual cases and to look at large-scale
cases of illegal adoption and sale of children that occur at the national and international
levels through illegal acts and illicit practices that reflect deficiencies in the child protection
systems and/or the involvement of criminal networks. In all cases, States bear
responsibility, either through omission or commission.
4
5
6
7
8
4
A/71/261.
A/HRC/28/56.
A/70/222.
See Commission on Human Rights resolution 1990/68, para. 1.
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child
prostitution and child pornography, art. 3 (1).
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