Ofelia Calcetta Santos, Special Rapporteur to the United Nations on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, is to visit Guatemala next week as part of a significant two-week inspection of the country. The UN investigator, who is responsible for monitoring the human rights situation facing children in the world, is to investigate, amongst other issues, the accusations of child trafficking in Guatemala. The idea for the UN Rapporteur's visit to Guatemala came after UNESCO’s 1999 Stop Paedophilia Conference. This is the first visit by Filipina Calcetta Santos to Guatemala and the first by a Special Rapporteur in many years. She is expected to spend one week in the country's capital, Guatemala City, meeting mainly with government officials, non-governmental organisations and Supreme Court members. In the second week she will travel to various places around the country meeting with children's rights organizations, including Casa Alianza, a non-profit organization dedicated to the rehabilitation and defense of street children in Mexico and Central America, and adoption agencies. Issues of concern on the investigator's agenda will be the trafficking of children and child prostitution amongst others. Calcetta Santos will also visit Guatemala's red light district to see the problem of child prostitution first hand. The idea for the UN Rapporteur's visit to Guatemala came after a discussion with Bruce Harris, the Regional Director for Latin American Programs of the child advocacy agency "Casa Alianza", at the January 1999 meeting in UNESCO in Paris. Calcetas requested an invitation to visit the country, which was granted through the Guatemalan Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva. Special Rapporteurs to the United Nations are able to receive information about individual cases of violations or threatened violations of human rights as part of their investigations into a country. After making an analysis of the problem the expert is able to make recommendations to the government asking its members to take necessary action. Visits are normally made to countries where there are deemed to be serious human rights problems. The Special Rapporteur will make a formal report to the UN Committee on Human Rights in Geneva In August 1999, another UN Special Rapporteur - on the Application of Justice, Param Cumarasway from Malaysia - will visit Guatemala. Casa Alianza has also presented information on the trafficking of girls for sexual exploitation to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Radhika Coomaraswamy, from Sri Lanka, who is preparing a report on the trafficking of women for the UN Committee on Human Rights. Casa Alianza has been involved in the fight against the trafficking of children in Guatemala through international adoptions for the past three years. To date the organization has helped five mothers recuperate their babies. In September 1997, the Attorney General's Office and Casa Alianza exposed the illegal trafficking of babies in Guatemala and presented 15 criminal accusations against lawyers involved. International adoptions make up around 95 percent of all adoptions in Guatemala, generating, according to some estimates, some US $ 20 million a year, the majority of which goes to lawyers who handle paperwork and oversee the process. A recent report by UNICEF stated that between 1,000 and 1,500 babies and children are "trafficked" every year and that Guatemala's weak adoption law combined with huge demand from foreign couples had created a market that has reduced babies to merchandise. Casa Alianza, a branch of the New York based Covenant House, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the rehabilitation and defense of street children in Mexico and Central America. The organization serves more than 4,500 homeless children annually. (Source :Casa Alianza Press release of 16/07/99) Communication and Society - Children and Youth issues Sexual Abuse of Children, Child Pornography and Paedophilia on the Internet: An international challenge - Expert Meeting, UNESCO, Paris, 18-19 January        Contact:Choy Arnaldo, UNESCO, Communication Division