NIGERIA: UPDATE OF CHILD LABOR INFORMATION FOR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 LAGOS 001361 SIPDIS DOL/ILAB FOR TINA MCCARTER; DRL/IL FOR LAUREN HOLT E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAID EIND ELAB ETRD PHUM SOCI NI SUBJECT: NIGERIA: UPDATE OF CHILD LABOR INFORMATION FOR MANDATORY REPORTING REQUIREMENTS REF: A) E-MAIL OF DRAFT 2005 LABOR REPORT FROM TINA MCCARTER B) STATE 143552 C) LAGOS 1914 ¶1. As per ref B, para 5, Post met with Ministry of Labor, ILO, UNICEF, law enforcement and immigration, as well as NGO representatives to update the mandatory child labor report. The following paragraphs are updates keyed to the topics listed in ref B, para 7. Post has provided a separate response to ref A. Many of the facts included in ref A but not mentioned in ref C need to be updated and corrected. ¶2. Laws and regulations proscribing the worst forms of child labor From Lagos 1914: Yes. President Obasanjo signed ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor in 2002, following ratification by the National Assembly in June 2001. Obasanjo also has signed ILO Convention No. 138 on Minimum Age for Employment and ILO Convention No. 111 on Equality of Occupation. Federal legislation also outlaws forced or compulsory labor. In most sectors, the minimum work age is 15 years, which is consistent with the age for completing educational requirements. The law prohibits employment of children less than 15 years of age in commerce and industry and restricts other child labor to home-based agricultural or domestic work. The law states that children may not be employed in agricultural or domestic work for more than 8 hours per day. Apprenticeship of youths at the age of 13 is allowed under specific conditions. In July 2003, the National Assembly passed the Child Rights Act, bringing together into one law provisions from various existing laws, including the prohibition of exploitative labor. The Act must be signed by all the states. To date, three of thirty-six states have signed, and the others are reviewing the Act. August 2005 Update: As of today, a total of six states have passed the Child Rights Act. ¶3. Regulations for implementation and enforcement of proscriptions against the worst forms of child labor From Lagos 1914: Mixed. Since 2000, the government has had a memorandum of understanding with the International Programme on Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) to fund and develop a plan to implement provisions of Convention 182. Nigeria passed the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement and Administration Act in June 2003. The Act makes it a crime to force a person into labor outside Nigeria; however, it apparently does not explicitly outlaw forced labor in Nigeria. This apparent gap in the legislation currently is in review. However, preexisting legislation would seem to outlaw forced labor within Nigeria. As called for by the Act, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) was created in August 2003 to enforce the provisions of the Act and other related laws, including provisions addressing child labor and trafficking. Since its establishment in 2003, NAPTIP reports receiving more than fifty complaints of child labor, especially domestic labor. NAPTIP officials claim, however, that their ability to act on the complaints is limited. Its mandate they claim is unclear due to the lack of uniformity in the body of laws affecting child labor. However, some high-profile cases of trafficking in children have been pursued. A widely reported case occurred in Oyo, Ogun, and Osun states in September and October of 2003. Nigerian police, alerted by staff from a nongovernmental organization (NGO),found more than 200 children from Benin forced to work in stone and granite quarries. The children were returned to Benin, and investigations are ongoing in Benin and Nigeria to prosecute the traffickers. In another case, in Cross River State, police arrested two traffickers and prevented sixty Nigerian children from being sent to work on cocoa plantations in Odun State. The Ministry of Employment, Labour, and Productivity has a unit to deal specifically with child labor issues, as well as an inspections department whose major responsibilities include enforcement of legal provisions relating to conditions of work and protection of workers. However, there are fewer than 50 inspectors for the entire country, and the Ministry has conducted inspections only in the formal business sector, in which the incidence of child labor is not significant. Other agencies that share responsibility for enforcing child labor laws include the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Youth Development, the Child Rights Department of the National Human Rights Commission, and local government areas of the thirty-six states and federal capital territory. President Obasanjo also selected a special assistant for human trafficking and child labor in June 2003. Available legal remedies include criminal penalties and civil fines. August 2005 Update: NAPTIP has led the establishment of state-level anti-trafficking committees, consisting of immigration officials, civil society organizations, law enforcement agents, and federal ministries in 22 states. Being constituted at the local level, these committees are more effective at sensitizing the local population about the dangers of trafficking than if the education and outreach were performed through highly centralized federal mechanisms. The Ministry of Employment, Labour, and Productivity has an office with an inspectorate in every state. There are approximately 420 inspectors, and 120 of them are dedicated to the informal economy. However, the inspectors are not as effective as they could be, due to inadequate funding and training. ¶4. Whether there are social programs to prevent and withdraw children from the worst forms of child labor From Lagos 1914: Yes. Private and government initiatives to stem the incidence of the worst forms of child labor and child employment in general are on-going. These programs, however, suffer from financing and human resource constraints. In conjunction with the ILO, the government formulated a national program of action in support of child rights, survival, protection, development, and participation; however, the program has shown few results due to logistical problems and changing personnel in the Ministry of Employment, Labour, and Productivity. The government is implementing the ILO/IPEC West Africa Cocoa Agriculture Project (WACAP) to combat hazardous child labor in the cocoa and other agricultural sub-sectors and prevent the trafficking of children for labor exploitation. Laws call for universal basic education throughout Nigeria; however, authorities do not consistently enforce laws requiring parents to send their children to school. President Obasanjo launched the Universal Basic Education (UBE) program in 1999, at the beginning of his elected administration. The program aims to make education free and compulsory for all children at the primary and junior secondary school levels. Progress towards the goals of this program varies among the states. The British Council program that provides technical assistance for UBE says that about twenty-eight of thirty-six states have declared free basic education as official policy. In theory all children in these states have "access" to free education. However, in practice education is not free due to the numerous associated costs of books, transport, uniforms, etc., so actual access is considerably below 100 percent even in these states. As of July 2003, the national net enrollment rate was below 60 percent. The completion rate was about 64 percent, and the transition rate from primary to secondary was 44 percent. Among other factors, analysts blame underfunding and a lack of qualified teachers for the shortcomings of the UBE program. Several programs by NGOs and international organizations (IOs) address child labor in Nigeria. UNICEF undertakes a mix of advocacy, awareness-raising, and support activities across the country. One program works to remove young girls from the street hawking trade and relocate them to informal educational settings. ILO programs work to involve communities and schools in withdrawing children from exploitative situations such as street hawking and prostitution. The programs aim to reintegrate the children into school, if possible, or otherwise provide vocational training. A new ILO program partners with the News Agency of Nigeria to raise awareness and build media capacity in eliminating child labor and trafficking. The Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation (WOTCLEF) (initiated by the wife of Nigeria's vice president) focuses on advocacy, counseling, and rehabilitation. The organization has organized national and international conferences, presented an anti-trafficking bill to the National Assembly, and established prevention and awareness programs in primary schools. August 2005 Update: UNICEF has implemented a children's congress program. In each state, one child, age 10-17, is chosen from each local government area to represent his/her area. The congress meets in the capital for moderated discussions of civil rights and the evils of human trafficking. Each representative is expected to return to their community with a report. A national congress has also been formed, and UNICEF claims that the progress and positive effects of the program are significant. UNICEF is also collaborating with the Nigerian Government on a Strategy for Acceleration of Girls Education in Nigeria, which seeks to narrow the gap between boys' and girls' access to education. ¶5. Does the country have a comprehensive policy aimed at the elimination of the worst forms of child labor? From Lagos 1914: Yes. While there is no single national child labor law, Nigeria has made significant progress toward developing comprehensive child labor policy. The collective body of domestic labor laws and international agreements provides a solid legal foundation for addressing the problems through institutional means. The Child Rights Act brings many of the various provisions under one law, but some parties are still pushing for a formal national child labor policy and advocacy strategy. August 2005 Update: No change from previous report. 6.Is the country making continual progress toward eliminating the worst forms of child labor? From Lagos 1914: Yes. Nigeria has made qualitative progress toward eliminating the worst forms of child labor. Awareness has spread throughout civil society and the government has shown its commitment to the issue. NGOs report having a strong relationship with members of the National Assembly. They say many legislators are sensitized to the issues and ready to work with them. Unfortunately, in spite of programs designed to reduce child labor of all types, economic hardship has resulted in high numbers of children in commercial activities aimed at enhancing meager family income. Children frequently are employed as beggars, hawkers, and bus conductors in urban areas. The use of children as domestic servants also is common. Few data are available to analyze changes in the incidence of child labor. The only survey conducted by Obasanjo administration, the National Modular Child Labour Survey Nigeria 2000/2001, reported approximately 15 million children working in Nigeria. Of these, 6 million were not attending school and more than 2 million were working very long days (15 or more hours per day). Trafficking in children is a problem in Nigeria. The country is an origin, transit, and destination country for trafficked persons. Children are trafficked internally to work as domestics or on cocoa and orange plantations. Children are also trafficked to other nearby countries to serve as domestics or agricultural laborers. Disconcertingly, NGOs say many parents are pleased with the opportunity to traffic their children, believing that they are providing a better future for their children and themselves. Children trafficked internally often return to their villages at Christmas with gifts purchased for the families by their traffickers, who seek to create a false sense of economic gain and generate a supply of future victims. In 2003, many states that arrested traffickers were forced to release them when victims and their families refused to testify. There are no reliable statistics on the overall number of trafficked persons per year. The government is working to eliminate international and internal child trafficking. It provides support to international NGOs, which protect trafficking victims. Nigerian embassies in destination countries provide assistance to victims, and the Foreign Ministry created a position to facilitate victim repatriation. Internally, regional centers to monitor child rights violations have been established. There is federal and state government acknowledgement of trafficking, and prevention efforts are underway at all levels. Awareness campaigns, undertaken by NGOs, the U.N., prominent politicians, state governments, and members of the press continue to gain widespread attention. The government has also initiated prosecutorial proceedings against traffickers. A host of issues intertwine to compound the child labor problem in Nigeria. Roughly 70 percent of Nigeria's 135 million people live on less than $1 per day. Poverty is by far the largest push-factor leading to child employment. A national HIV/AIDS rate of five percent exacerbates poverty and contributes to the incidence of children living without one or both parents. The complexity of the child labor problem requires a comprehensive social, economic, and legal approach. August 2005 Update: The National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) continues to expand its activities against trafficking, and has recorded three successful convictions of traffickers and has two more cases pending. In March 2005, police rescued more than 100 trafficked children, including 67 children aged between one and 14 concealed in a truck, ostensibly transporting frozen food. The children were headed to Lagos, potentially to wind up as domestic servants. In July, police in Cross River State, acting on a tip, stopped a bus carrying 40 children to Cameroon for forced labor. The children were returned to their homes in Cross River and Ebonyi States, and NAPTIP is planning to prosecute the traffickers. The UN Office on Drugs and Crimes provides assistance with research, law enforcement training, and the creation of regional communication networks to the government of Nigeria in the Global Program Against Trafficking in Human Beings. Nigeria is also partnered with Italy in the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute pilot project, focusing specifically on trafficking in children from Nigeria to Italy. BROWNE