A/HRC/17/46 effective without a deep understanding of the root causes of this alarming phenomenon; an understanding of the phenomenon alone would remain moot in the absence of a commitment to address and mitigate the situation of the estimated 100 million street children. The High Commissioner added that children in street situations were to be found everywhere, and stated that it was a shameful situation that affected the developing and developed world alike. 7. The High Commissioner explained that children living and/or working on the street were particularly vulnerable to human rights violations, including sexual exploitation and abuse, violence and trafficking. In addition to violence, discrimination and stigma, children in street situations also lacked basic rights, such as access to education, health care, food and adequate living conditions. They could be easily subjected to exploitative work, drugs and harsh punishment for small offences. They faced serious health problems, including HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases. The international community had to protect children in street situations, and at a minimum ensure that they are not subjected to punishment by laws penalizing survival behaviours, such as begging, vagrancy, truancy and running away. She also emphasized that children living and/or working in the street should not be seen as a social problem, but as human beings with a full potential to contribute to society and as agents for change. 8. The youth representatives from programmes supported by Plan International, in Bangladesh (Tania, aged 14, and Riaz, aged 16) stated that they had grown up living and working on the streets. Sometimes children lived on the streets because they were poor and their family situation was not good, sometimes facing domestic violence. They added that there were many children around the world who, for different reasons, were forced to spend their childhood on the streets, without the love and affection of their parents or without opportunities to attend school and live decent lives. Long-term solutions were needed for helping such children. If everyone in society cooperated, children in the streets could grow up with confidence like other children and become successful. 9. The representative of the African Movement of Working Children and Youth (Severine, aged 17), from Benin, stated that many children lived in very difficult situations, including working for other people, being taken out of school or being abandoned by parents owing to poverty. They lived from begging, prostitution or stealing, had no shelter, slept on streets or in market places, were persecuted by the police and often imprisoned. It was an obligation of the State and of parents to send children to school; older children needed support in order to get training and education to earn their living. States should create professional training centres and schools, especially in remote areas, to better protect the girl-child, provide free health care to children and use resources to promote and protect the rights of children. 10. The Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Najat Maala M’jid, drew a distinction between “street children” and “children in the street”; the first term referred to children who lived all the time in the street and had no contact with their family, while the second referred to children who maintained some contact with the family. However, the distinction between the two was not always clear and there were a variety of situations depending on age, sex, how children survived in the street and if they both lived and worked in the street or only worked there. She emphasized the specific vulnerability of girls to sexual exploitation and early pregnancy. She stressed that each child was unique, and that solutions had to be tailored to each particular case. She analysed the different contexts that made a child live and work on the streets: family situations; social and cultural factors, including the persistence of certain harmful practices, such as early or forced marriage; socio-economic difficulties; as well as institutional factors. She cited the difficulties arising from the phenomenon of children’s gangs and the lack of access to social alternatives, opportunities and employment. 4