[child-rights] Expert on sale of children ends visit to Greece

UN Press release
15 November 2005

The Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and
child pornography of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Juan
Miguel Petit, made the following statement on 14 November in Athens:

In my capacity as Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child
prostitution and child pornography, I carried out an official visit in
Greece from 8 to 14 November 2005. During the visit, I had some 25
meetings and interacted with over 100 persons.

I thank the Government and in particular the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
for having extended to me the invitation to visit the country and for
facilitating all meetings with public authorities.

During the visit, I had the honour to meet the Minister of Justice, and
high level representatives of the Ministry of Public Order, the Ministry
of National Education and Religions, the Ministry of Interior, the
Ministry of Employment and Social Protection, and the Ministry of Health
and Social Solidarity. I met representatives of the Parliament, judges,
prosecutors and the police. I had meetings with international
organizations, NGOs, community centres, children's institutions and a
detention centre for unaccompanied minors awaiting deportation. I had the
opportunity to speak with children in all these institutions.

This visit comes after a mission to Albania, undertaken from 31 October to
7 November. The purpose of visiting two neighbouring countries was to
better understand trans-national dynamics of phenomena like child
trafficking and migration flows of unaccompanied children.

After having been a country of origin of migration, in the last decade
Greece has increasingly become a country of transit and destination of
migrants. The huge and dispersed coastline makes Greece an attractive
destination or a gateway to the European Union. This big flow of people on
the move brought along challenges that the country was not prepared to
face. I refer in particular to the situation of children, which is the one
pertaining to my mandate. Unaccompanied minors can be easily exposed to
the risk of exploitation and trafficking if they are not adequately
protected.

Several achievements can be registered: relevant international instruments
were ratified, some other are in the process of being ratified; new laws
have been adopted on trafficking of human beings and on migration The law
on migration will enter into force in January 2006.; an institutional
framework to implement the law against trafficking was set up through the
establishment of the Inter-Ministerial Task Force for Combating Human
Trafficking and the adoption of an integrated programme.

Nevertheless, even though the number of registered cases of child
trafficking or child sexual exploitation that was reported to me may be
relatively small, the institutional capacity to respond needs to be
further improved.

There is still need to improve the coverage of social programmes with
specialised staff with specific expertise to work with foreign
unaccompanied minors, street children, and victims of trafficking. This
was recognised by all actors I inter-acted with.

The protection of unaccompanied minors is to be improved. Although the
Government is making efforts in this direction, in practice unaccompanied
children are too often treated as adult illegal migrants. This is
particularly concerning for more vulnerable categories of unaccompanied
minors, such as victims of trafficking and asylum seekers, who may end up
being deported without having had the possibility to access the protection
measures they are entitled to.

The situation of Roma and Roma children is a concern. I visited a Roma
settlement in which housing conditions and sanitation are just not
acceptable. Access to health and education is limited or lacking and
social programmes are not providing assistance to the community. The State
should take specific measures to improve the living conditions and the
possibilities of development of Roma communities to give to Roma children
alternatives other than street work or prostitution as survival strategies
for them and their families.

During the visit, I looked for information on the case of the
approximately 500 children who went missing from the children's
institution Aghia Varvara between 1998 and 2002. I share the conclusion of
the report of the Ombudsman on the case, which indicated the overall
deficiencies of the institution Aghia Varvara to adequately respond to the
challenging objective of the government programme set up at the time and
aimed at giving protection and social care to street children. I saw the
records in which children coming and going from Aghia Varvara were
registered. All the elements I gathered indicate a deficiency in the
design of the educational and social methodology of the programme. During
my visit in Albania, the Albanian Ombudsman informed me that only 4 of the
missing children from Aghia Varvara have been located in Albania. We do
not know where the others are. As a preliminary suggestion, I recommend to
consider the possibility of creating a mix commission of relevant Greek
and Albanian authorities, the Ombudsmen of both countries and NGOs which
have worked on the case. The commission should coordinate the efforts to
locate the children whose whereabouts remain unknown and identify
institutional responsibilities. My perspective on this case is on the
lessons that we should draw from it to prevent its recurrence in the
future. For this, a more efficient and cooperative relationship between
the Government and NGOs is needed to make children a recognised priority
for the country beyond political, institutional and ideological disputes.

My last consideration relates to the lack of an overarching institutional
set up for child protection. Institutional responsibilities are spread
among different ministries without a coordinating entity. Such a
coordinating body is very much needed to improve the institutional
capacity to respond to the problems I referred to, together with specific
measures such as specialised educators and social workers, outreach
programmes, community centres, and resourced shelters. The cooperation of
NGOs in the implementation of these measures, which are to be framed in an
overarching policy on children's rights and child protection, is an
indispensable asset. An advisory board of civil society and public
authorities to advice on the design of policies and on priority areas can
be instrumental to give an institutional framework to the participation of
civil society.



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