A child protection agency in Beijing said cases of child trafficking, domestic violence and sexual abuse have increased this year.

The Beijing Youth Legal Aid and Research Center spoke to METRO on Wednesday, two days ahead of Universal Children's Day, that is being celebrated today.

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The center is the only legal aid organization for minors in Beijing. This year it received more than 500 calls for help, a 50 percent increase from last year.

Vice-director of the center Zhang Wenjuan said minor's rights are not being well protected.

"In Beijing, child trafficking is not a serious problem, but domestic and sexual abuses are quite prominent," she said.

In June 2009, a primary school mathematics teacher molested an 11-year-old student surnamed Zhang in Chaoyang district.

The student complained of pain on the evening of June 12. She informed her parents that her mathematics teacher had sexually assaulted her in the school's computer room that lunchtime.

The father of the child told Chaoyang police of the incident the following day and the teacher was detained for 14 days.

A police investigation revealed the teacher had previously molested other girls but his victims were too frightened to report anything to the school or their own parents.

"The punishment was too light. He should have been put into jail," the girl's father told METRO on Wednesday.

Zhang Wenjuan, the center's vice-director, said she is talking with the father to consider suing the mathematics teacher.

She added that molestation cases by teachers were a nationwide problem. Zhang said these teachers take advantage of their privileged status to abuse naive minors.

"Children are not mentally or physically mature, and they lack the ability to distinguish right from wrong. This makes them a big target," she noted.

Zhang advises parents to pay close attention to their children and talk with them about any problems.

"They should learn what is happening in their school and follow the physical and mental condition of their children," she said.

Although human trafficking is considered rare in Beijing, children in single-parent families and those of migrant workers are still the largest risk groups.

"These parents are often busy making money and can't pay close enough attention to their children," Zhang said.

But the vice-director said the real problem lay in the current law to protect underage citizens in China, last revised in 2006.

"According to the current law, abused minors must collect evidence themselves to sue their parents. This is ridiculous," she said.

The government should establish a system to help minors report problems, and that civil affairs departments should set up anti-domestic violence safe houses for abused children, Zhang said.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the UN's Universal Children's Day. In 1959, the assembly made a 'Declaration of the Rights of the Child' to protect minors around the world.