Child migration
Children exploited in illegal and criminal activities
#### Children exploited in illegal and criminal activities

An important safeguard for child victims of crime is the ‘non\-punishment clause’. It means that child victims of criminal offences, including human trafficking, are to be protected from sanctions or prosecution for acts that they committed in relation to their situation as victims. The non\-punishment clause protects children who are exploited in illegal or criminal activities and child victims of exploitation and/or trafficking who were forced to enter a country without valid travel documents.

The UN Guidelines on Justice in Matters involving Child Victims and Witnesses of Crime emphasis that “children who are victims and witnesses may suffer additional hardship if mistakenly viewed as offenders when they are in fact victims and witnesses.” The Guidelines say child victims should be protected from prosecution irrespective of any form of ‘consent’ or their active involvement in an offence and irrespective of the child's age in relation to national laws defining the age of criminal liability. A child victim should be considered and treated as such “... regardless of their role in the offence or in the prosecution of the alleged offender or groups of offenders”.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking and the UNICEF Guidelines on the Protection of Child Victims of Trafficking reiterate the right to non\-criminalisation specifically in relation to the situation of victims of trafficking who are to be protected from criminal liability for “any criminal offence that was a direct result from being trafficked”. This provision is further strengthened by the non\-punishment clause of the 2011 EU Anti\-trafficking Directive and the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, and is therefore made binding upon States Parties: “Each Party shall, in accordance with the basic principles of its legal system, provide for the possibility of not imposing penalties on victims for their involvement in unlawful activities, to the extent that they have been compelled to do so.” (Article 26\).

When a non\-national child is in conflict with the law and there are no indications that the child has been exploited in illegal activities or has otherwise been victimized, the same standards of juvenile justice applies to national children.


What are the rights of child victims according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)?