August 13, 2020 DialoguePage, maHp News 0 Comments

WEBINAR: Child trafficking in South Africa – exploring the myths and realities

The Centre for Child Law (CFCL) invites you to join the launch of the ‘Child Trafficking in South Africa: exploring the myths and realities’ report on Friday, 21 August 2020, 10:00-11:30 (SAST). A presentation of the findings of the report will be followed by responses from experts in the field of children on the move, child protection, human trafficking, sex work and gender-based violence. ACMS/maHp associate researchers Dr Stanford Mahati and Dr Rebecca Walker will be part of this panel of experts. Afterwards there will be a Q&A session with all participants. To RSVP for this event please email Isabel Magaya by Friday, 14 August 2020 isabel.magaya@up.ac.za.

In South Africa child trafficking has become a central concern for both the State and non-State actors. However, very little reliable data exists to determine the nature and scope of the problem in the country and confusion around the definition of human trafficking also means that it is regularly conflated with human smuggling and other forms of irregular migration of both adults and children.

Based on concerns that claims of ‘child trafficking’ and ‘child protection’ are being erroneously used to justify measures and practices that violate the rights of children this study commissioned by the Centre for Child Law (University of Pretoria) explores the current child migration/trafficking context in South Africa. Drawing on empirical research the report shows that despite a progressive framework of laws and policies designed to protect the rights of children in South Africa, including non-nationals, the realities of children on the move are being regularly ignored. Furthermore, the use of unsubstantiated claims about child trafficking are being used to justify repressive policies and practices, which subsequently, places children at greater risk.

See the invitation here.

[This webinar invitation has been slightly edited from its original version, which appeared on the Centre for Child Law website on August 2020.]

About Stanford Mahati

Stanford Mahati is a postdoctoral fellow at the African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand. His current research is funded by the Wellcome Trust and is part of the Migration and Health Project (maHp).

A ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin and Gerd Bucerius “Settling Into Motion” alumni he earned his PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He specializes in issues of child migration, transnational migration families, child work, children’s sexualities, sociology of health, qualitative methods, rural livelihoods, designing and evaluating interventions targeting vulnerable children and their households.

In 2014-15, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR), University of Cape Town. He conducted research on the “the functioning and consequences of transnational child raising arrangements in South and North: Angolan, Nigerian and Ghanaian migrant parents living in South Africa and the Netherlands (TCRA-SAN)”.

Stanford has worked as a researcher and consultant for a number of local and international agencies in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

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