Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09BAMAKO9
2009-01-07 16:36:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Bamako
Cable title:  

MALI'S UPDATE ON WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR

Tags:  ELAB EIND ETRD PHUM USAID ML 
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R 071636Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY BAMAKO
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 9890
DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
INFO USMISSION GENEVA
UNCLAS BAMAKO 000009 


DOL/ILAB FOR TINA MCCARTER
DRL/ILCSR FOR TU DANG

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD PHUM USAID ML
SUBJECT: MALI'S UPDATE ON WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR

REF: 08 STATE 127448

UNCLAS BAMAKO 000009


DOL/ILAB FOR TINA MCCARTER
DRL/ILCSR FOR TU DANG

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD PHUM USAID ML
SUBJECT: MALI'S UPDATE ON WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR

REF: 08 STATE 127448


1. In response to reftel, this cable provides the 2008
update of the worst forms of child labor information.

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A) CHILD LABOR LAWS AND REGULATION
--------------


2. Article 187 of the Malian Labor Code of 1992 and Article
20 of the Malian Code for the Protection of Children of 2002
set the general minimum age for employment at 15 years.
However, Decree No. 96-178 of 1996 establishes more detailed
regulations regarding children's work. It allows children
from the ages of 12 to 14 to work in certain occupations,
including seasonal or domestic work, although they may not be
employed for more than four and a half hours per day (two
hours a day, if they are in school),or without the
authorization of a parent or tutor. The decree prohibits
children under 16 from working in certain strenuous
occupations, including mining. Finally, it prohibits
children under 18 from engaging in work that threatens their
safety or morals, from working more than eight hours per day,
or from working at night. Article 183 of the Criminal Code
establishes penalties for the sexual exploitation and sexual
abuse of children. The Labor Code prohibits forced or
obligatory labor.

-- The minimum age for military recruitment is 18.

-- Mali ratified Convention 182 in 2000. Since the formation
of the Child Labor Unit in July 2007, the Ministry of Labor
has taken the lead in reaching consensus among the unit's 43
governmental, non-governmental, and civil society members. A
final list of the hazardous occupations has been drafted
after several iterations between the national and local
levels of government. The list is currently awaiting the
approval of the Council of Ministers and is expected to pass
without delay in early 2009. This would set into place a
legislative framework that would allow better monitoring and
prosecution of offenders.

--------------
B) IMPLEMENTATION AND ENFORCEMENT
--------------


3. Penalties for violations of the minimum wage law are
established in the Labor Code and range from a fine of 20,000
to 200,000 FCFA (USD 40 to 400). Legislation passed in 2001
made the trafficking of children punishable by 5 to 20 years

in prison. In 2008, three traffickers were arrested under
this law. They have subsequently been released pending
further investigation and no charges have been brought
against them.


4. Labor inspectors from the Ministry of Employment and
Civil Service conduct surprise and complaint-based
inspections but operate only in the formal sector and lack
resources to effectively monitor child labor throughout the
country. In 2007, there were eight assigned inspectors. No
updated information on the number of inspectors or on the
cases inspected in 2008 was available.


5. Labor inspectors have received some training for
preventing child labor abuses. The frontier police,
INTERPOL, and territorial and security authorities are
responsible for enforcing the bilateral cooperative
agreements to curb cross-border trafficking, signed between
the GOM and Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, Guinea, and Burkina Faso.

--------------
C) SOCIAL PROGRAMS TO PREVENT CHILD LABOR
--------------


6. The Government of Mali is participating in a U.S.
Department of Labor/ILAB funded 3.5 million dollar project to
contribute to the elimination of the worst forms of child
labor and the progressive elimination of all forms of child
labor in the country. The objectives are to identify and
promote replicable, community-based educational innovations
that lead to the prevention or reduction of child labor. The
project aims to strengthen formal and non-formal education
systems that enable working children and those at risk to
attend school, as well as provide data on enrollment,
persistence, transition, and completion of school programs.
In addition, the program will raise awareness of the value of
education for all children, and the hazards of child labor,
as well as strengthen institutions and policies to address
education and child labor.


7. As part of the Africa-wide project, CARE and World Vision
recently completed a USD 3.8 million four-year project
started in October 2003, in conjunction with the Malian
Ministry of Education, to combat child trafficking through
education. The project, which operated in the regions of
Segou, Mopti, and Bamako District, was aimed at reducing
child trafficking and child labor by improving access to
informal schools in the regions of the country most affected
by trafficking.


8. USAID-Guinea completed in December 2008 the first phase
of a project, at the cost of USD 120,000, in 15 villages in
Guinea and five in Mali. Through this project, families in
these villages received education about the methods of child
traffickers and the danger inherent in abusive child labor.
The project also sought to inform truck, taxi, and bus
drivers on how to recognize probable traffickers and
encourage these drivers to contact the appropriate
authorities to report suspicious activity. The second phase
of the project, at a cost of USD 159,000, is scheduled to run
from December 2008 through November 2009.

--------------
D) GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND PROGRAMS
--------------


9. The Ministry of Labor, in collaboration with the ILO, has
been working to draft and pass a law specifically against the
worst forms of child labor. The Minister of Labor and
President of the National Assembly formed a parliamentary
commission toward this end.


10. The Malian Government's Plan of Action, elaborated in
2007, specifically addresses child labor. To implement these
recommendations, the Ministry of Labor formed a National
Steering Committee by decree. The committee is composed of
13 ministries, non-governmental, and civil society members,
totaling 43 members in all. In order to give the Steering
Committee greater political scope, the Labor Ministry drafted
a decree that would be signed by the Prime Minister and would
require the approval of the Council of Ministers. The Labor
Ministry hopes to enhance the Committee's ability to
coordinate activities combating child labor by achieving
greater political consensus.


11. The GOM signed the United Nations Development Assistance
Framework (UNDAF),which defines objectives of concrete and
ambitious outcomes for the United Nations Systems agencies in
Mali for the 2008-2012 time frame Based on the analyses in
the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (GPRSP) for
the 2007-2011 period, UNDAF identifies development goals that
are fully consistent with the national priorities defined in
the national strategy paper for the next five years.


12. Mali's 1999 Education Law makes education free and
compulsory for children ages 7 to 15. The school enrollment
rate for children under the age of 15 who are considered
economically active is 40% compared to 62% for those not
economically active. Between the ages of 15 and 17, the
difference is even more dramatic: 22.7% for those
economically active compared to 58.4% for those not
economically active.

--------------
E) PROGRESS TOWARD ELIMINATING CHILD LABOR
--------------

--------------
Sectors/Work Activities
--------------

The following data is taken from a provisional report
entitled, "Understanding Children's Work in Mali", a joint
publication by the ILO, UNICEF, and the World Bank Group,
issued October 2008.

--Currently, 1.4 million children between the ages of seven
and 14 are employed in child labor, comprising 50% of
children of this age group. More than 60% of children
employed are under the age of 12.

--The phenomenon is more rural (60%) than urban (36%).

--The regions of Bamako and Kidal have less than a 10% rate
of child labor. This is significantly lower than the more
intensely agricultural regions of Sikasso (76.3%),Segou
(67.6%),and Koulikoro (60.6%).

--The majority of children work in the agricultural sector
(83%),followed by the services sector (10%) and
manufacturing (6%). This represents some change in the
statistics from the previous year, which may reflect better

data collection as a result of the Malian government's
collaboration with the ILO and UNICEF.

--The agricultural sector also includes fishing and forest
exploitation (chopping wood and making charcoal). The
services sector includes domestic servitude as well as work
in grocery stores, restaurants, transportation, and
communication. Manufacturing also includes labor in mining
and construction.

--A provisional report completed by the ILO, UNICEF, and the
World Bank will be sent to the contact provided in reftel.

--------------
Children Working in Slavery
--------------


13. There is currently no data available on slavery, child
or otherwise, in Mali, but there is evidence that hereditary
relationships continue to informally link different ethnic
groups, particularly in the north. Members of the black
Tamachek community reportedly continued to live in forced
servitude and were deprived of civil liberties by members of
other ethnic groups, and forced servitude often extended to
their children.

--------------
Children Trafficked
--------------


14. No official estimate of the number of children
trafficked for the purposes of performing labor in 2008 was
available. A common practice is for families to give their
children to itinerant Koranic teachers who promise to provide
boys with education. While some religious education may take
place for as little as one hour per day, the boys are usually
forced to work or beg during the day. Many Malian children
are sold into forced labor in Cote D'Ivoire and other
neighboring countries to work on coffee, cotton, and cocoa
farms or to work as domestic servants. Guinea and Senegal
are also reported destinations for traffickers and their
victims. Organized networks of traffickers, promising
parents they will provide paid employment to their children,
reportedly sell the children to commercial farm owners for
between 14,500 to 29,000 CFA (USD 29 to 60). Mali is also
reported to be a transit country for children trafficked to
and from neighboring countries and to Europe.

LEONARD