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* Human Rights Watch tiers are dependent upon on how each country’s domestic efforts meet minimum standards. Tier 3 countries are deemed to be not in compliance with the minimum standards and not making significant efforts; Tier 2 countries are not in compliance, but making significant efforts; and Tier 1 countries are in compliance.

CHAD

The most serious human rights abuse in the country is the illicit trafficking of children for labor, sexual trade and child soldiers. In August 2008 the UN Security Council working group on children in armed conflict confirmed the continued use and recruitment of child soldiers. The SC noted that its recommendations issued in a September 2007 report had not been acted upon by the government.

CHINA

The most serious abuse of Childrens Rights in China is the transport of children for use in factories throughout the country. Given false papers about their age, these children often become virtual prisoners of their employers either through wages that don’t meet the cost of room and board or quite literally, by locking them in the workshop or factory buildings.

China also suffers from a large population of girls sold into slavery and prostitution both in China and throughout the Pacific Rim and beyond.

CONGO

According to Human Rigths Watch, Congo is rated tier two. The most serious human rights abuse in the country is the illicit trafficking of women for prostitution and young boys as child soldiers. In Congo, Bosco Ntaganda, a former rebel commander charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC), still lives, without any hindrance whatsoever.

COTE D'IVOIRE

There were frequent incidents of sexual violence against women and girls, including those committed during assaults by armed robbers on public transportation vehicles, and to a lesser extent at checkpoints manned by New Forces rebels and government security forces. In western Côte d'Ivoire, victims of sexual violence are targeted on the basis of their nationality or ethnic group. Survivors' access to health and legal services is extremely limited. Children are also sold into labor markets

EGYPT

Egypt is a source for children trafficked within the country for commercial sexual exploitation and domestic servitude. Extensive amendments to Egypt's Child Law in June 2008 included establishing a network of government child protection committees, criminal penalties for officials who detain children with adults, and expanded legal assistance for children facing investigation or trial. They also criminalize female genital mutilation. At this writing, the government has yet to issue implementing regulations for the new law.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA

There is trafficking of children for sexual and labor exploitation.

ERITREA

There is trafficking of children for sexual and labor exploitation.

GAMBIA

According to Human Rights Watch, Gambia is a tier two source and trans-shipment point for children used in forced labor and the sex trade industry.

GUATEMALA

Guatemala is a Human Rights Watch, tier two source of children for sexual exploitation.

HAITI

In addition to suffering from chronic malnourishment and a lack of educational opportunity, many Haitian children also suffer physical abuse. In 2004 the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs reported that its hotline received more than 700 calls from children reporting abuse. Few statistics regarding the wider problem of child abuse have been collected. Trafficking of children
also is a significant problem. UNICEF estimates that 2,000 to 3,000 Haitian children per year are trafficked to the Dominican Republic.

INDIA

For those millions of children born to lower caste families or in the countryside, children’s rights are largely ignored,. These children work on farms, Those abandoned in the cities or from the lower castes there, either work extremely low paying jobs or beg and steal. There is a great deal of trafficking in the sex trade as well.

LIBERIA

The government was unable to provide for the needs of the majority of children. School‑related costs remained high, thereby making education unattainable for significant numbers of school-age children. In both public and private schools, families of children often were asked to provide their own uniforms, books, pencils, paper, and even desks. For primary education, the national enrollment ratio was 53 percent for boys and 47 percent for girls.

PANAMA

According to Human Rights Watch, Panama is a tier 2 Humans Rights offender. Panamanian women and children are forcibly inducted into the sex trade.  Children are forcibly impounded into the labor market as well.

PERU

Violence against children and the sexual abuse of children were serious problems. MIMDES reported 845 cases of violence or sexual abuse of children five years of age and under and 1,909 cases of abuse of children ages six to 11. Many abuse cases went unreported because societal norms viewed such abuse as a family problem that should be resolved privately. The Women's Emergency Program worked to help children who were victims of violence. The country was a destination for child sex tourism, with Cusco and Iquitos as the principal locations.

RWANDA

Children are routinely dragged into the still simmering war between Hutus and Tutsi as Child Soldiers.

SAUDI ARABIA

Saudi Arabia is a transit point for children going into forced labor and some sexual exploitation. Women are also oppressed through male dominated societal prerogatives and religious dogma. In addition, the government neither set a minimum age for marriage nor adopted any comprehensive policies to combat forced and early marriages. Marriages of Saudi girls as young as 10 to much older men were reported in 2008.

SOUTH AFRICA

According to Human Rights Watch, South Africa is a tier 2 source of transit, and destination for men, women, and children trafficked for forced labor and sexual exploitation; women and girls are trafficked internally - and occasionally to European and Asian countries - for sexual exploitation.

The Children's Act became law in April 2008 and offers increased protection for children and the promotion of children's rights. The Child Justice Act passed in June established a separate criminal justice procedural system for child offenders. It also increased the minimum age of gcriminal capacity from seven to 10 years, but allows for mandatory minimum sentences-including life sentences for offenses such as murder and the rape of a minor-to be applicable to children ages 16 and 17 years. This is despite constitutional provisions that children should be detained only as a last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time, and despite the call by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for life that imprisonment of child offenders to be abolished.

Additionally, around 122,000 children live in child-headed households, making them particularly vulnerable to discrimination, ostracism, social exclusion, and sexual exploitation. Unaccompanied refugee and asylum-seeking children face obstacles and delays in accessing the courts to formalize their status, resulting in informal foster placements and delays in accessing social welfare.

SYRIA

According to Human Rights Watch, Syria is a tier 3 destination and transit country for women and children trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor; a significant number of women and children in the large and expanding Iraqi refugee community in Syria are reportedly forced into commercial sexual exploitation by Iraqi gangs or, in some cases, their families, While the number of honor crimes is unknown, the Syrian Women's Observatory, an unlicensed group, documented at least 10 in 2008, including the killing in April of a 14-year-old by her brother because she had a relationship with another teenager.

TAJIKISTAN

Women and girls in Tajikistan continue to confront gender-based discrimination and violence. According to Human Rights Watch, Tajikistan is a tier 2 source country for women trafficked through Kyrgyzstan and Russia to the UAE, Turkey, and Russia for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation; men are trafficked to Russia and Kazakhstan for the purpose of forced labor, primarily in the construction and agricultural industries; boys and girls are trafficked internally for various purposes, including forced labor and forced begging

THAILAND

 Bangkok is a center of prostitution and the use of children for sexual trafficking. Thailand is also a huge venue for Sexual Tourism where foreigners come to sexually prey on children.

TANZANIA

local organizations are working to assist neglected children and the country's estimated 2.5 million orphans. However, there are inadequate numbers of schools, teachers, books, and other educational materials to meet the demand.During the year fees continued to be charged for enrollment beyond form one, the equivalent of the first year of high school. As a result, many children did not have access to a complete secondary education. The responsibility to pay for books, uniforms, and school lunches fell primarily to parents. Overall school completion rates were the same for boys and girls: 56 percent for primary school and 33 percent for secondary.Child sexual abuse remained a problem, and there were several convictions during the year; most persons convicted for the sexual abuse of children were given the maximum sentence of 30 years' imprisonment.

VENEZUELA

According to Human Rights Watch, Venezuela is a tier 2, source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor; Venezuelan women and girls are trafficked within the country for sexual exploitation, lured from the nation's interior to urban and tourist areas; child prostitution in urban areas and child sex tourism in resort destinations appear to be growing; Venezuelan women and girls are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation to Western Europe, Mexico, and Caribbean destinations.

ZAMBIA

According to Human Rights Watch, Zambia is a tier two, source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation; many Zambian child laborers, particularly those in the agriculture, domestic service, and fishing sectors, are also victims of human trafficking;; Zambia is a transit point for regional trafficking of women and children, particularly from Angola to Namibia and from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to South Africa for agricultural labor.

Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against women and children is a major endemic problem in Zambia, especially in Lusaka and the Copperbelt, fueling the country's HIV pandemic and impeding women's access to HIV treatment.

According to both a June report by Zambia's chapter of Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF) and the Victim Support Unit (VSU)-the police unit that addresses abuses against women and children-the true national extent of sexual and gender-based violence in Zambia is unclear due to lack of reporting by victims and survivors. Despite this, the VSU received reports between January and August 2008 of 65 rape and 626 child rape cases in Lusaka alone.

While a 2005 amendment to Zambia's penal code made child rape punishable by a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, the country currently has no specific SGBV legislation, and provisions in the penal code do not criminalize marital rape and psychological abuse, among other shortcomings.

ZIMBABWE

According to Human Rights Watch, Zimbabwe is a tier two, source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation; large scale migration of Zimbabweans to surrounding countries - as they flee a progressively more desperate situation at home - has increased; rural Zimbabwean men, women, and children are trafficked internally to farms for agricultural labor and domestic servitude and to cities for domestic labor and commercial sexual exploitation; young men and boys are trafficked to South Africa for farm work, often laboring for months in South Africa without pay before "employers" have them arrested and deported as illegal immigrants; young women and girls are lured abroad with false employment offers that result in involuntary domestic servitude or commercial sexual exploitation; men, women, and children from neighboring states are trafficked through Zimbabwe en route to South Africa tier rating.