2005 11: In denial about child trafficking

The Sun online. Speak up! Tue, 22 Nov 2005

THERE was an awkward silence when Prof Jaap Doek, the chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, revealed to editors at a luncheon on Saturday that Malaysia was one of only seven signatories to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that had yet to submit its country report to the UN.

The embarrassment deepened when Doek said in response to a question that the other delinquents were war-ravaged Afghanistan and a handful of Pacific island nations. Doek had information that the report had indeed been prepared, never mind that it is some nine years since the convention has been signed, and was with the A-G.

The urgency of the report was driven home to those present at the event, organised by Unicef in Kuala Lumpur in conjunction with the World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse, through a touching video presentation on child trafficking.

More than the stupefying fact that an estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked every year, it was the look of fear on a child sex worker who was filmed as she waited for her next abuser that told the story of their wretched lives.

Yet, while we lament about tragedies like our stubbornly high road fatalities, HIV/AIDS infections and drug addiction rates, these children, perhaps the most vulnerable of victims, are being forced every day into an existence that must make them wish for death.

Surely, there must be no crime more abominable than the exploitation of the innocent child, who stands for all that humanity can hope for. Unless it is the crass denial that the problem even exists in our country.