From the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG)

“There is an increased risk of unac­com­pa­nied chil­dren in Haiti, includ­ing orphans and restaveks*, being abducted, enslaved, sold or traf­ficked, due to increased inse­cu­rity in the coun­try,” a group of UN human rights experts warned Tuesday**.

The experts, who are man­dated by the Human Rights Coun­cil to mon­i­tor slav­ery, sale of chil­dren, traf­fick­ing and vio­lence against chil­dren, stressed that “pro­tec­tion of chil­dren must be at the heart of the relief oper­a­tion in Haiti.”

The UN High Com­mis­sioner for Human Rights, the Com­mit­tee on the Rights of the Child and the Inde­pen­dent Expert on Haiti have also empha­sized the crit­i­cal need to pro­tect chil­dren in the chaotic after­math of the earth­quake, and in light of the par­tic­u­lar dan­gers posed by thou­sands of gang-members and other crim­i­nals who escaped from pris­ons dam­aged by the quake.

“Unac­com­pa­nied chil­dren are par­tic­u­larly vul­ner­a­ble and it is essen­tial, wher­ever pos­si­ble, to reg­is­ter, trace and reunite chil­dren with their fam­i­lies,” the UN experts said, adding that “dur­ing the evac­u­a­tion efforts, it is imper­a­tive to avoid the unnec­es­sary sep­a­ra­tion of fam­i­lies which may place chil­dren at higher risk, aggra­vate their trauma and dis­tress and hin­der their recov­ery and reintegration.”

The group praised the UN’s estab­lish­ment of a ‘Child Pro­tec­tion Sub-Cluster,’ which is geared to safe­guard children’s rights and pre­vent vio­lence, abuse and exploita­tion, and high­lighted the efforts of this body to set-up a rapid reg­is­tra­tion sys­tem for unac­com­pa­nied chil­dren. “One of their key goals is to reg­is­ter chil­dren under five, and older girls, chil­dren and youth with men­tal dis­abil­i­ties or seri­ous injuries, as well as restaveks that have been sep­a­rated from their ‘employ­ers,’” the UN experts said. “We wel­come this vital initiative.”

They also urged the inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions and gov­ern­ments assist­ing Haitians “to ensure that the work on child pro­tec­tion remains a pri­or­ity and con­tin­ues to be prop­erly funded and coor­di­nated under the umbrella of the United Nations.”

(*) Restavek means “stay­ing with” and refers to the Hait­ian sys­tem under which par­ents who can­not sup­port their chil­dren send them to live with more afflu­ent rel­a­tives or strangers from whom they are sup­posed to receive food, shel­ter and edu­ca­tion in exchange for work. The Restavek sys­tem is prone to exploita­tion and some­times leads to chil­dren being kept as vir­tual slaves.

(**) Ms. Gul­nara Shahin­ian, Spe­cial Rap­por­teur on con­tem­po­rary forms of slav­ery; Ms. Najat M’jid Maalla, Spe­cial Rap­por­teur on the sale of chil­dren, child pros­ti­tu­tion and child pornog­ra­phy; Ms. Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, Spe­cial Rap­por­teur on traf­fick­ing in per­sons, espe­cially in women and chil­dren; Ms. Marta San­tos Pais, Spe­cial Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Sec­re­tary Gen­eral on Vio­lence against Children

http://www.unog.ch/80256EDD006B9C2E/%28httpNewsByYear_en%29/AD2FED1CB50F372EC12576BE0032D0CD