7 (a) Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography [excerpt]* The States Parties to the present Protocol, Considering that, in order further to achieve the purposes of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the implementation of its provisions, especially articles 1, 11, 21, 32, 33, 34, 35 and 36, it would be appropriate to extend the measures that States Parties should undertake in order to guarantee the protection of the child from the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Considering also that the Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development, Gravely concerned at the significant and increasing international traffic in children for the purpose of the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Deeply concerned at the widespread and continuing practice of sex tourism, to which children are especially vulnerable, as it directly promotes the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Recognizing that a number of particularly vulnerable groups, including girl children, are at greater risk of sexual exploitation, and that * Adopted by General Assembly resolution 54/263 of 25 May 2000. The Optional Protocol entered into force on 18 January 2002. It currently has 51 States Parties, namely: Afghanistan, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, France, Guatemala, Holy See, Honduras, Iceland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Norway, Panama, Peru, Qatar, Romania, Rwanda, Serbia and Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Spain, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, United States of America, Venezuela, Viet Nam. 99