Earlier this year, the Afghan government signed its first ever National Action Plan to stop child trafficking in the country. The move was encouraged by thousands of Change.org members and supported by the United Nations, and the resulting plan has been hailed as a strong strategy to fight child trafficking in a country where it is rampant. But President Karzai and General Petraeus are dragging their feet in implementing the plan. Is the delay because they know both international and Afghan security forces have been complicit in child trafficking in the past? Or is there another reason they lack the political will to tackle this horrific crime?
The National Action Plan comes as a result of a year of hard work from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), the Afghan government and civil society, and after nearly 4,000 Change.org members wrote to the UN asking them to make fighting child sex trafficking in Afghanistan a priority. The plan addresses the recruitment of underage children into the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and the sexual exploitation of children by government officials, security forces, and civil society. Specifically, it includes the adoption of a national strategy to address sexual violence against children; develop and adapt national laws and issuance of directives to protect children from sexual violence; ensure that offenders are held accountable through civilian and military justice mechanism; and initiation of comprehensive education and community awareness raising campaigns.
But thus far, the Afghan government and International Security Assistance Force for Afghanistan (ISAF) have failed to implement the National Action Plan, and the problem of child trafficking thrives in Afghanistan. Children are trafficked in many forms in Afghanistan. They are recruited into the Afghan security forces as child soldiers and forced into domestic servitude in private homes. They are also trafficked for sexual exploitation, in brothels and through bacha bazi -- a term that literally means "boy play," and is the tradition of wealthy men paying young boys to dress in women's clothing to be used for entertainment and sex.
Why would the government and international security forces be so reluctant to prevent a crime as universally despised as child trafficking? Maybe its because many of the people who have been found complicit in child trafficking have been members of Afghan or international security forces. Maybe it's because teen and pre-teen boys make for cheap security labor, unable to protest being sent into dangerous situations. Maybe it's because child sex trafficking, especially the sexual abuse of young boys, is deeply rooted in parts of Afghan culture.
But regardless of the reason, it's time the Afghan government and ISAF implemented the National Action Plan to fight child trafficking. Sign this petition to help make child trafficking in Afghanistan just another chapter in the country's history.
Photo credit: World Economic Forum
Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic 
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