A/79/213 education of children and families, socioeconomic status and exposure to forced displacement. Children living with disabilities can have impairments and vulnerabilities aggravated by migration and displacement settings, or new conditions may develop, including related to mental health, if they are not provided with the necessary care and support, are excluded from services or are invisible in migration and displacement planning. 97 37. The Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, together with the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children , supplementing the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, 98 protect children from all forms of exploitation and abuse, including human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Yet, child trafficking remains one of the most egregious child rights violations globally and is inherently connected with other forms of explo itation and abuse, with child trafficking victims almost twice as likely as adults to be subjected to physical or extreme violence 99 and one in three identified trafficking victims being a child. 100 For children, preventing and responding to trafficking requires strong child protection, social protection and education systems, online safety, enhanced pathways for safe and regular migration and frontline responders equipped to identify victims and survivors. It also requires additional considerations, including best-interests processes, child- and gender-sensitive justice procedures, access to legal advice and representation, sexual and gender-based violence services, training for enforcement and prosecution staff on child rights, alternative care solutions and tailored reintegration assistance. Moreover, trafficked children, including those exploited for criminal purposes, are often arrested, punished and criminalized, instead of being provided with the necessary protection and child- and gender-sensitive assistance that they should be afforded under international law. In line with the non-punishment principle, child victims of trafficking should not be subject to arrest, charge, detention, prosecution, or be penalized or otherwise punished for illegal conduct that they committed as a direct consequence of being trafficked. 101 38. Child migrants can also be particularly vulnerable to child labour, despite protections against child labour and exploitation 102 set forth in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, especially if they are undocumented, unaccompanied and in countries where they face socioeconomic exclusion and lack of access to rights and basic services. Many children in these situations end up in agricultural and domestic work and some are victims of child trafficking. 103 Moreover, of an estimated 3.3 million children in situations of forced labour daily, there are an estimated 1.7 million children in commercial sexual exploitation, many of whom are victims of human trafficking. 104 39. With almost half of all international migrants being women or girls, it is critical that gender-specific needs are incorporated into migration policies and responses, __________________ 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 24-13410 UNICEF, “Included, every step of the way: Upholding the rights of migrant and displaced children with disabilities” (February 2023). Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 35 (among others); Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons, “Call for accelerated action by 2025 to prevent and end child trafficking” (November 2023), p. 2. Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (United Nations publication, 2022). Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons, “Non -punishment of victims of trafficking”, issue brief No. 8/2020. Convention on the Rights of the Child, arts. 32 and 36 (among others). International Labour Organization, “Child labour and migration”. International Labour Organization, cited in Inter-Agency Coordination Group, “Call for accelerated action”, p. 7. 15/24