Conclusion In the broadest sense, alleviating the risk of trafficking
•
Significant expansion of public social and
in restavèk children should be guided by the following
human rights services including a much wider
premises:
service network for the police, especially the Brigade pour la Protection des Mineurs
•
•
The recruitment of restavèk servant children
(BPM), the courts and administration of
is intimately linked to poverty, especially
justice, the Office Protecteur de Citoyens
for sending households and oftentimes for
(ombudsman), the Institut du Bien-être Social
receiving households as well.
et Recherches (IBESR), and the Office National de Migration (ONM), especially ONM
Donor and government programs directed
services along the Haitian-Dominican border,
at reducing the risk of restavèk placement should invest heavily in poverty alleviation
•
•
Prioritizing services in the Port-au-Prince
and better quality and more widely available
metropolitan area as the most important
education, especially in rural areas.
center for both supply and demand of restavèk children, and the urban community
Program interventions directed at trafficking
with the highest risk of organized violence,
in children should retain a focus on the
especially during electoral campaigns and
broader issues of children’s rights, the wider
changes in government,
social problems of child abuse and child labor exploitation, and an emphasis on humane
•
Strong advocacy for binational migration
treatment of all children, rather than focusing
policy reforms and enactment of legislation
solely on restavèk placement.
needed to combat trafficking, •
Pertinent program areas include the following:
Universal access to public services that have a strong, immediate impact on the supply and demand of restavèk children, especially
•
Investigation to fill in serious gaps in knowledge of victims to be served,
•
Legal reforms and improved law enforcement on behalf of children and against child abusers and the users of children as servants; passage of laws against child trafficking and child domesticity and the strengthening of children’s legal rights,
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access to education and potable water.