Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Uganda :

Abstract

The report represents findings of a study on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children completed in February 2011. It is a follow up study on the first national study on Children Sexual Exploitation of Children done in 2004 which documented the extent of the problem. The 2004 study revealed that over 12,000 children were affected by trafficking and prostitution in Uganda. The 2011 study was commissioned to document factors that contribute to the rise of CSEC; interventions at various levels and changes therein since 2004. The study also sought to identifypolicy and advocacy interventions and issues that need to be addressed to ensure that systems are establishedand/strengthened to address the problem of CSEC in Uganda. This was a cross-sectional study that utilized both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. In total,529 children and 60 key informants were interviewed during the data collection exercise in ten districts. Although a review of existing literature showed that some small scale studies have been done following the 2004 CSEC study to some extent had tried to expose CSEC, many of these studies were found to be limited in terms of scope and methodology due to limited funding. This research was an attempt to investigate the CSEC in Uganda in a more detailed manner. The study established that commercial sexual exploitation of children exists, is hidden, more prevalent in urban settings, and appears to be infiltrating schools. The study has estimated that the number of children affected by CSEC had increased from 12,000 now estimated to be 18,000 with more girls more affected than boys. The age at which children get involved in CSEC is getting younger though majority interviewed were between 14 -17 years. Lack of responsible parental care is one of the factors that render children susceptible to CSEC since approximately 80 percent children were staying alone. In addition, lack of sustainable opportunities for education were identified as key drivers to CSEC since most victims (88 percent) were out of school and most of them had not gone beyond primary level. It was noted that there was a lot of entry, nomadism, relapse and exit from CSEC sometimes influenced by school holidays, production processes, festive seasons and entertainment calendar. Trafficking is one of the conduits of CSEC. Trafficking is a complex and hidden phenomenon mainly prevalent in the agriculture, fishing and business sectors. The study revealed that recruitment and movement of children is well coordinated by different players at local and regional level with more girls affected than boys. Most female victims of trafficking end up in prostitution prone environments while boys enter hazardous work like fishing on lakes, agriculture, markets, metal scrap or stone quarries. No single factor can explain the cause of movement, but poverty intersects with many other factors including ophanhood, to push children into CSEC. Trafficking is more internal, though transnational trafficking has started emerging where children are mainly targeted for adoption, fostering, religious extremist activities, labour and prostitution. The study further revealed that patterns of trafficking have changed significantly since 2004 with more children from poor families trafficked from rural to urban centers and -urban to urban areas. Similarly a big number of children are moved from rural to rural especially in fishing and agricultural areas especially in central Uganda; others are moved across countries and beyond. Although recruitment of children for trafficking is mainly done by adults, some children, especially those working in bars and lodges are increasingly participating in recruitment of fellow children. The study revealed that there is a variation in manifestation of CSEC. Some districts served as source while others were transit and destination points. Child prostitution is steadily increasing especially in fishing communities and urban centers. Poverty, peer pressure, desire for a good life style drive children in commercial sex. Students were also cited as victims of commercial sex work. Most child sexual customers are employed in the transport industry, informal business activities and few in formal trade. Many children are connected by pimps, friends and self through telephone contacts, visiting entertainment places, bars and markets. Commercial sexual exploitation is a disguised practice that is characterized by spontaneous and continuous or sexual, physical and psychological abuse of children and threats of denunciation and intimidation in order to retain children in the sexual exploitation. Children in CSEC are deprived of their wages, their movements and contacts with outside world limited. Unless children escaped or received help from NGOs, churches and local council officials, quitting by themselves was extremely difficult.Pornography is a new dimension of CSEC that is growing at a very fast rate compared to prostitution. Pornography, trafficking and child prostitution are closely interlinked. Pornography in Kampala city has been taken to another level from mainly engaging in pornography for their own entertainment to commercial gain, involving well-coordinated network embracing music celebrities, bar and karaoke group owners with approximately 1,800 children exploited per week. It is disguised in shooting of films, photos, videos and participating in strip dancing. Interventions in area of pornography have concentrated more in petitions to line ministries, Media Council, Parliament and a few court cases, this is yet to be addressed. Children failure to mention government services shows either absence or failure of government programmes to trickle down to address this rather dehumanizing servitude practice. In spite a purported increase in NGO services for CSEC more have tended to target adult CSWs and CSEC largely remains unattended to with a few NGO efforts. The few NGOs addressing the problem of CSEC cover smaller geographical areas reaching few beneficiaries and many of these CSOs need capacity building. Networking and coordination among CSOs working with CSEC is still weak, underfunded, limited staffing, uncoordinated and limited capacity in many districts. Other challenges facing interventions include; poor law enforcement both by police and courts of law, stigmatization which pushes the children into hiding, low advocacy for issues related to CSEC at national level to influence policy and funding, limited capacity of staff to provide psychosocial support to clients. Children largely were un-informed about their rights and how to participate in CSEC issues and how to free themselves from exploitation; many agencies are ignorant of the players in the field, knowledge and skills and due to limited funding. Interestingly the issues of CSEC are completely absent in most the NGO strategic plans. The study found it difficult to track resources due to poor documentation at national and district levels. It has become clear in this study that CSEC as a problem is increasing in Uganda and many children are being exploited with this trend trafficking, prostitution and pornography are likely to continue. There is virtually no commitment on the part of government to address the problem of CSEC compounded poor mobilization of actorsand lack of resources. In addressing CSEC, various activities and recommendations have been identified in the proposed actions including awareness, victim and psychosocial support, law enforcement, research, and training, education, strengthening networking and coordination among key actors. Drafting a good legal regime and other policies is not enough unless accompanied by enforcement structures and motivated personnel. A few NGOs have tried to address the problem but the problem represents different needs from children and actors and requires a multi-stakeholder approach at community, district and national levels in a coordinated manner involving children and parents.