Law No. 038-2003/AN on the definition and suppression of child trafficking

This law, adopted in 2003, addresses child trafficking in Burkina Faso. Article 1 defines a child as “any human being under the age of eighteen.” Article 3 defines child trafficking as “any act by which a child is recruited, transported, transferred, harbored, or received, within or outside Burkina Faso by one or more traffickers through threats and intimidation by force or other forms of coercion, embezzlement, fraud or deception, abuse of power, or exploitation of a child’s vulnerable situation, or in the case of the offer or receipt of remuneration to obtain the consent of a person having control over the child for the purposes of economic or sexual exploitation, illicit adoption, early or forced marriage, or any other purpose prejudicial to the health, physical or mental development, or well-being of the child.”