Trafficking in Children: The Scope of the Problem and the International Legal Framework

This paper is a submission to the Fourth International Conference on Human Rights entitled Human Rights and Religion, which was held at Mofid University on May 16th-17th 2007. In this paper, considering trafficking as modern-day slavery which affects more than 1.2 million children worldwide, the author deals with the various purposes of trafficking in children all over the world. The slavery in the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam is focused and the applicable international laws against trafficking in children are enumerated and explained in this paper. Then the author gives several guidelines for drafting model legislation for protection of children and in the end claims that Islamic Law provides a comprehensive legal system that fully protects women and children and prohibits all forms of exploitation of human beings although contemporary practices in some Muslim countries contradict Islamic rules and principles and must be reformed .