United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, and the Chairman of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Jacob Egbert Doek, have welcomed the entry into force today of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. "Entry into force of the Optional Protocol is a significant further step in the protection of children against particularly gross violations of their rights", Mrs. Robinson said.

Frehiwot Eshetu appears like any ordinary daughter. As a 13-year-old she helps her mother clean around their small, mud-walled home and looks after her youngest brother Tariq. Yet a year ago she was living on the streets with prostitutes, her friends were using drugs, sniffing benzene and begging. Surviving on scraps from garbage she soon became sick, her stomach infested with worms and her skin and hair riddled with lice. But Frehiwot is lucky. She is described as a success story – plucked from the streets of Addis Ababa and re-united with her family.