EU Training for guardians of unaccompanied children

Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child is any human being below the age of 18 years.

(UNCRC, Article 1)

Children are also sometimes referred to as adolescents or minors. The term minor is mostly used in civil or criminal codes of EU Member States and in some EU Directives and refers to children below 18 years of age. The term has been criticised since being a ‘minor’ could be understood to be connected with a lower status and a reduced set of human rights compared to adults. The term adolescent refers to the time when a child develops into an adult and does therefore not comprise young children. In General Comment No. 20 on the implementation of the rights of the child during adolescence, the Committee on the Rights of the Child focuses on children aged between 10 and 18 years old without defining the term ‘adolescent’.^[1] The EU Trainers Manual for guardians of unaccompanied children uses the term ‘child’ consistently to refer to all children under 18 years of age, including young children and adolescents. This terminology reflects the rights-based approach of the training programme, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Child trafficking refers to the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or reception of a child, including the exchange or transfer of control over those persons, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, as a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, including begging, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude, or the exploitation of criminal activities, or the removal of organs. The consent of a victim of trafficking in human beings to the exploitation, whether intended or actual, shall be irrelevant (…).

Anti-trafficking Directive 2011/36/EU, Article 2.

Country of origin means the country or countries of nationality or, for stateless persons, of former habitual residence.

Qualification Directive (2011/95/EU), Article 2.n