Silent Voices: working with children prone to commercial sexual exploitation : Assessing the gap with a human rights and intersectional discrimination approach

Abstract

The thesis is the result of the field work done with a group of children living in a shelter named "Hijos de la Luna" which took place in the city of Oaxaca, Mexico during 2010 and 2011. By implementing the human rights based approach and the intersectional discrimination concept originally used within the feminist literature, the researcher developed a participatory tool as the first part of a peer to peer strategy with children prone to commercial sexual exploitation. The aim of the thesis is to show that intersectional discrimination allows policy makers as well as NGOs to target "risk groups" while a human rights based strategy along with a participatory education model can provide alternatives with a child centered approach. Research includes a brief analysis of commercial sexual exploitation of children in Oaxaca, Mexico as well as some recommendations for the different actors involved.