Implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and commercial sexual exploitation of aboriginal children in Canada

• Main Author: Zulu, Charity Kalo Malauni
• Other Authors: Durrant, Joan (Family Social Sciences)
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: sexual exploitation; children's rights; risk factors
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/23918

Canada’s 1991 ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) means that policies to eliminate commercial sexual exploitation should be implemented equally for all children, without discrimination. However, Aboriginal peoples are disproportionately represented among Canada’s population of commercially sexually exploited children and youth. They are also more likely to experience the primary risk factors for commercial sexual exploitation – poverty, exposure to violence, and involvement in the child welfare system. I conducted a policy analysis examining the implementation in Canada of the CRC Articles related to the primary predictors of commercial sexual exploitation of children, to determine whether they are being implemented differentially for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children. The findings revealed that although Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children obtained identical scores on the quantitative measures, the implementation of the relevant rights standards differed substantially across the two populations, as evident in differential funding and service provision for the two groups.