Enforcement of laws on the worst forms of child labor

Abstract

Child trafficking occurs in every single country on the globe and Armenia is not an exception. Almost 20% of all trafficking victims are children all over the world. Data show that trafficking in persons covers intra-regional and domestic trafficking. Armenia is one of the most common countries where child trafficking is quite widespread, in particular, those types of child trafficking which involve forced child labor and forced child begging. Worldwide, trafficking is mostly driven by poverty. And although many improvements have been carried out by the Armenian Government, Armenia still faces a number of challenges. We still see numerous people in the streets begging money for their lives. This high rate of poverty in our country causes trafficking of children who coercively work in the streets deprived of their right to education and careless childhood. Children who have become victims of the trafficking are very hard to find, as in most cases they don’t realize that they are victims and are unaware of their rights. Children are forced to go work at an age below the one accepted by the society, mostly caused by poverty and other factors in families which very often contradicts with the law.