In some parts of the world, child prostitution is tolerated or ignored by the authorities. Thailand's Health System Research Institute reported that children in prostitution make up 40% of prostitutes in Thailand. A CBI statement said that studies and surveys sponsored by the Ministry of Women and Child Development estimated about 40% of India's prostitutes to be children. India's federal police said in 2009 that they believed around 1.2 million children in India to be involved in prostitution. It is the commercial sexual exploitation of children, in which a child performs the services of prostitution, usually for the financial benefit of an adult. Types Commercial sexual exploitation of adults Ĭhild prostitution, or child sex trafficking, is a form of sexual slavery. Forms of sexual slavery can, for example, be practices such as the detention of women in "rape camps" or "comfort stations", forced temporary "marriages" to soldiers and other practices involving the treatment of women as chattel, and as such, violations of the peremptory norm prohibiting slavery. In contrast to the crime of rape, which is a completed offence, sexual slavery constitutes a continuing offence. Thus, the crime also includes forced marriages, domestic servitude or other forced labor that ultimately involves forced sexual activity. Sexual slavery is a particular form of enslavement which includes limitations on one's autonomy, freedom of movement and power to decide matters relating to one's sexual activity. In the commentary on the Rome Statute, Mark Klamberg states: The text of the Rome Statute does not explicitly define sexual enslavement, but does define enslavement as "the exercise of any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership over a person and includes the exercise of such power in the course of trafficking in persons, in particular women and children" (Article 7.2.c). It also defines sexual enslavement as a war crime and a breach of the Geneva Conventions when committed during an international armed conflict (Article 8.b.xxii) and indirectly in an internal armed conflict under Article(8.c.ii), but the courts jurisdiction over war crimes is explicitly excluded from including crimes committed during "situations of internal disturbances and tensions, such as riots, isolated and sporadic acts of violence or other acts of a similar nature" (Article 8.d). The Rome Statute (1998) (which defines the crimes over which the International Criminal Court may have jurisdiction) encompasses crimes against humanity (Article 7) which include "enslavement" (Article 7.1.c) and "sexual enslavement" (Article 7.1.g) "when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population".