REQUEST FOR CHILD LABOR INFORMATION FOR TRADE AND

UNCLAS ABIDJAN 000037


STATE FOR AF/W AND DRL/ILCSR-TDANG
LABOR FOR ILAB-TMCCARTER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD PHUM SOCI USAID IV
SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR CHILD LABOR INFORMATION FOR TRADE AND
DEVELOPMENT ACT (GSP) 2008 REPORT

REF: 08 STATE 127448



1. The information in this cable is in response to the
questions under points A through E in paragraph 9 of reftel.


2. A. Cote d'Ivoire has ratified International Labor
Organization (ILO) Convention 138 regarding the minimum age
for employment and ILO Convention 182 regarding the worst
forms of child labor. In February 2007, the Ministries of
Family and Social Affairs and Labor and Public
Administration, along with their NGO partners, proposed a
bill outlawing child trafficking and the worst forms of child
labor. The bill awaits approval by the Council of Ministers.
If approved by the Council, the bill must be voted on by the
National Assembly before it becomes law.

The minimum age for employment in Cote d'Ivoire is 14 and the
minimum age for admission to hazardous work is 18. Articles
22.2 and 23.1 of the Labor Code, which was adopted on January
12, 1995, forbid night work and hazardous work by children.
Article 22.3 of the Labor Code provides that the rest period
provided to workers under 18 must be at least 12 consecutive
hours long. Article 23.9 of the Labor Code provides that a
child cannot be in a job that is recognized as being beyond
the child's strength. Article 337 of the Penal Code punishes
facilitating the debauchery or corruption of minors.
Articles 354 to 360 of the Penal Code punish sexual violence
against children. Article 362 of the Penal Code punishes
violence against children under 15 as well as depriving
children of food and care to the extent of threatening their
lives. Article 370 of the Penal Code punishes kidnapping of
minors. The minimum age for military recruitment and/or
involvement in armed conflict is 18.

Ministerial Decree 2250 of March 14, 2005 established a list
of occupations the government considers the worst forms of
child labor. In the agricultural and forestry sector they
are: logging, burning of fields, application of chemicals,
application of chemical fertilizer, utilizing chemicals in
nurseries, and carrying heavy loads. In the mining sector
they are: drilling and blasting, transporting stone fragments
or blocks, crushing of stone, the extraction of ore using
chemicals such as sodium cyanide and sulfuric acid and sulfur
dioxide, and work in underground mines. In the commercial
and domestic service sectors they are: sale of pornographic
material, work in bars, and garbage picking. There are no
penalties for violation of the prohibition on the worst forms
of child labor.


3. B. According to the Ministry of Civil Service and Labor,
there are no legal remedies available to government agencies
that enforce child labor and worst forms of child labor laws
because there is no law specifically outlawing child
trafficking and the worst forms of child labor. Because no
legal recourse exists to punish those who engage in the worst
forms of child labor, violations are rarely investigated or
addressed. Although other laws exist which could be used to
prosecute perpetrators (laws forbidding mistreatment of
children, for example),judges lack training on applying
these laws to child labor cases, and thus rarely convict
offenders.

On September 20, 2007, the Government of Cote d'Ivoire
adopted a National Action Plan Against Trafficking and the
Worst Forms of Child Labor that covers the period September
2007 to December 2009. The government promised to disburse 1
billion 900 million CFA (USD 3.8 million) out of a total
budget of three billion 200 million CFA (USD 6.5 million)
over 3 years starting in 2008. However, the government did
not disburse any funds in 2008. Aside from the National
Action Plan, the government devotes minimal material or
financial resources to the child labor problem and relies
heavily on assistance from international donors and NGOs.

Although regional labor inspectors routinely visit legally
established companies at least once a year, no labor
inspectors are solely dedicated to addressing child labor.
The National Police have a training program for officers that
includes training on child trafficking and the worst forms of
child labor. The Deputy Director of the Juvenile Delinquency
and Anti-Child Trafficking Unit of the National Police said
that from June 2006 through March 2008, 624 officers have
been trained on these issues.

Because the Ministry of Justice does not keep any statistics
on judicial cases brought to tribunals throughout the
country, it is impossible to know how many offenders have
been convicted or fined for child labor violations. There
are no systematic investigations of child labor violations.


4. C. The government has not directly provided
awareness-raising and/or training activities for officials
charged with enforcing child labor laws or worst forms of
child labor laws. However, the government has collaborated
with organizations such as the International Cocoa
Initiative, German aid agency GTZ, and ILO to provide such
training to prefects, deputy prefects, police officers, and
judges. In 2008, using funding from GTZ, the Ministry of
Labor and Civil Service continued to create and operate
watchguard committees in the departments of Aboisso,
Abengourou, Sinfra, and Oume. In July 2008, the National
Committee for the Fight Against Child Trafficking and
Children's Exploitation created a committee in the region of
Bondoukou, located in the northeast, and in the region of
Daloa, located in the center-west, to coordinate the
awareness-raising and monitoring carried out by the
committees created in previous years at the department and
village levels. These regional committees were headed by
prefects and the regional directors of the Ministry of Family
and Social Affairs. The committee in Daloa opened transition
schools that permitted 107 destitute children (62 boys and 47
girls) aged between 7 and 12, at risk of being trafficked, to
be reinserted into regular schools.


5. D. Cote d'Ivoire's policy on child labor is elaborated in
the National Action Plan Against Trafficking and the Worst
Forms of Child Labor, which was adopted in September 2007.
The plan was drafted jointly by the Ministry of Labor and
Civil Service and the Ministry of Family and Social Affairs.
The plan includes the building and rehabilitation of 10
shelters nationwide. The government has announced the
creation of an inter-ministerial body to ensure follow-up of
the implementation of the plan. Action on the plan has
stalled, however, as the Ministry of Economy and Finances has
not disbursed funds needed to implement plan objectives.

Cote d'Ivoire's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP),
dated December 11, 2008, notes that child labor is one of the
results of poverty and that the lack of national
labor/employment policies is one of the reasons why child
labor persists. The PRSP highlights the needs of street
children, some of whom work as vendors. The PRSP calls for
increasing equal access to education, improving the quality
of education, and making efforts to keep children in school.
It calls for improvements in school infrastructure, staffing,
and materials. The PRSP also calls for greater efforts to
protect and reintegrate street children, child laborers, and
victims of trafficking as well as returning street children
to their homes or identifying other appropriate care for
them. The PRSP states that funding should be made available
to carry out the National Action Plan Against Trafficking and
the Worst Forms of Child Labor.

Education is free in law. However, in practice, many parents
do not send their children to school because they cannot
afford registration fees, books, and/or uniforms. Education
is not compulsory in law or practice.


6. E. Children work predominantly in the agricultural sector.
The large majority of them are from Burkina Faso, Mali, and
other neighboring West African countries. Children also work
in the informal urban sector as apprentices, laborers, and/or
domestic staff.

Cote d'Ivoire is making slow, but steady progress on
eliminating the worst forms of child labor. Nearly all of
the ministries implicated in the child labor issue have
managed to step up their training and sensitization programs
with the help of international partners. One key blind spot,
however, remains the Ministry of Justice, where much work
remains to be done to ensure that offenders do not continue
to escape prosecution for child labor-related offenses.


NESBITT