By Wendy Anders

Did you know that at least 28 percent of human trafficking involves children?

And the U.S. Department of State estimates that more than a million children are exploited each year in the global commercial sex trade.

An update on an international effort in Costa Rica to diminish this tragic form of modern slavery was recently provided by the Quebec-based International Bureau for Children’s Rights.

The IBCR’s Costa Rica 3-year project has focused its activities jointly with the Costa Rican judicial system in San José; Jacó, Parrita, and Quepos in the Central Pacific, Limon on the Caribbean, Ciudad Neilly on the southern Panama border, and La Cruz on the northern Nicaragua border.

With funding from the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada, the 2015-2018 activities include reinforcing the abilities of police officers, prosecutors and judges when dealing with human trafficking cases; facilitating the transfer of skills and knowledge in order to enhance the professional abilities of the personnel in question; and integrating specialized training on human trafficking in vocational training centers through permanent and mandatory courses.

Over the course of the coming months, the Bureau said the project will “focus on developing standardised operating procedures between the services involved to make the system more effective from the perspective trafficking victims.”

The project partners also include the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Embassy in Costa Rica, the Costa Rican National Police School, the National Law School, the Costa Rican Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ), Coalición Nacional Contra el Tráfico Ilícito de Migrantes y la Trata de Personas (National Coalition against the Illicit Trafficking of Migrants and Persons), Comisión Nacional Contra la Explotación Sexual Comercial (National Commission Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation), and Costa Rican civil society organisations.

The project has also involved consulting directly with children to inform and improve prevention and treatment of victims, said the IBCR.