CONAKRY, 7 February 2008 (IRIN) - After the sun sets on the streets of the Guinean capital, Conakry, children drift by darkened storefronts and settle into nooks between buildings, curling up to sleep on the pavement. Residents in the city told IRIN they had noticed more and more children living on the streets in recent years - children like orphans Abubakar and Alya who have been on the street together for one year. “We sleep together, we eat together, we do everything together,” Abubakar said. They both said they were 13, but Alya is very small and Abubakar laughs when he says his age. The boys said they walked the streets at night looking through rubbish to see if someone had thrown away something they could eat. “We are very afraid to stay here,” Abubakar said. “But we have nowhere else to go.” Both the boy’s parents are dead. Alya said he stayed with his grandmother until the beatings got too bad and he ran away. Exploited Manimam Condé, who coordinates between the Guinean government and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Forecariah (city in southern Guinea), said unwanted children had reason to be afraid: Traffickers solicited children’s parents and guardians, promising to give them a better life but actually putting them to work - or worse. “Some children are sold and others are put directly to work - sent to work on plantations, or to sell things [carrying them] on their heads in markets,” she told IRIN.
“You also have sales of organs and body parts for medical uses. Sometimes parts of the children are used as sacrificial offerings for ceremonies.” According to the Conakry-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), Action Contre l’Exploitation des Enfants et des Femmes (ACEEF - Action Against the Exploitation of Children and Women), tens of thousands of unwanted children like these in Guinea are being forced to work in slave-like conditions. At the least abusive end of the spectrum, when parents find themselves unable to afford to raise a child, they often give them to someone who shares their last name. At the home of their new guardians, commonly referred to as “tutors”, many children work as unpaid domestic servants or in other labour intensive jobs, according to anti-trafficking experts. At worst, and all too often, the children run away because of abuse or are sold to people who promise to give them a new, better life, but are forced into hard labour. Polygamy exacerbating abandonment Condé said child abandonment in Guinea is being exacerbated by polygamy and a lack of access for many to family planning materials, resulting in parents having far more children than they can afford. Deaths from diseases including HIV/AIDS are also adding to the number of children in Guinea who are left without parents. AIDS orphans are placed with host families who are often already poor and may have difficulty absorbing the economic burden of another child.
Seven-year-old Fatimata Soumah, now singing songs in a classroom filled with dozens of other children who have been abandoned by their parents, was among the lucky ones. For sale abroad Police intercepted Fatimata with her older cousin, whom police said was taking the girl to neighbouring Sierra Leone to sell her for money. Authorities located Fatimata’s parents, but they signed a letter asking a centre for abandoned children, Foyer de l’Espérance in the southern Guinea city of Forecariah, to keep her. “I don’t know why someone would want to sell me,” said Fatimata, holding her baby doll. Other children are shipped around the continent and sometimes to Europe and beyond to work as housekeepers, prostitutes and manual labourers. Raphael Cekui Tea, head of the centre where Fatimata ended up, told IRIN there were so many children being abandoned or rescued from traffickers just in his district that he no longer had enough space to house them all. “Because of the poverty in some families, I believe that can push some people to sell their children to make some money. In Africa that shouldn’t have to happen because we live in communal societies, and when things are difficult you should be able to go to the neighbours and see what they can do to help you,” Tea said. Government officials and child protection workers said while Forecariah is one of the most affected areas in the country, children are being abandoned or sold throughout Guinea. kb/nr/cb |
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Theme(s): (IRIN) Children, (IRIN) Economy, (IRIN) Education, (IRIN) Gender Issues, (IRIN) Governance, (IRIN) Human Rights, (IRIN) Migration, (IRIN) Urban Risk
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Archive for the ‘Child Labor’ Category
GUINEA: Children exploited, abandoned, sold into slavery
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
GHANA: Response to “thriving” child sex industry too weak
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
ACCRA, 20 March 2008 (IRIN) - By early evening the corridors of the Soldier Bar brothel in a busy commercial area of Accra were already filled with long queues of young girls and their clients, when heavily armed police stormed in, arresting all 160 of the girls. The targets of the raid, which took place in February, were the 60 girls among them who were aged under 16 who had been recruited according to brothel manager Matthew Abanga to service the brothel’s teenage clients. CLICK to read an IRIN profile of Bernice, a 13 year-old sex worker in Accra “We drove the [young boys] away initially and did not allow them to come here, but after a while we realised we could make more money if we can meet their demands by supplying them with younger prostitutes of the same age, so we started recruiting child sex workers as well,” he said. With an estimated 20, 000 children on the streets of Accra, many already engaged in child labour, Abanga and the owners of the brothel did not find it difficult recruiting child sex workers. “We knew it was wrong but the money was good,” Abanga told IRIN. Fertile ground Dr. Obiri Yeboah, a sociologist at the Accra Polytechnic who has studied the sex trade in Ghana said urbanisation is mainly to blame for what he says is a growing sex trade phenomenon, as the traditional extended family systems that Ghanaians used to rely on have collapsed, leaving children without families to protect them. “The whole social structure coupled with stark poverty lays a fertile foundation for such brothels to thrive,” he said. Yeboah points to the 25,000 children the Ghana AIDS commission estimates have HIV/AIDS as a sign of the worst effect of the phenomenon on children. “Because they are children unlike the adults they have little say in determining whether to use protection or not. Their adult clients often dictate the terms. With no protection they contract HIV/AIDS and often die in silence,” Yeboah said. Exploitation The Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs in Ghana has launched programmes which focus on “rescuing, rehabilitating and reintegrating” children involved in sex work by caring for them at dedicated centres. Ghana’s police force has recently launched a “war on child prostitution”. The Deputy Women and Children’s Affairs Minister, Daniel Dugan, acknowledged however that the programme has shortfalls. He said the lack of accommodation to house all the girls plus a lack of personnel makes it difficult to effectively monitor the girls and to stop them returning to working in the sex trade. Of the 60 underage girls arrested at the Soldier Bar, for example, only 20 are still part of the programme. And while the brothel’s manager is still in custody, its owner is free. Dugan said a committee has been set up including the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) to provide funding for the fight against child prostitution. The ministry will use some of the money to fund a nationwide survey to establish the extent of the problem, Dugan said. “We have received reports that brothels are thriving across the country exploiting children for money,” he explained. “We want to understand the nature, extent and dynamics of this problem so we can better deal with it.” Alternatives The government also plans to involve non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in introducing child sex workers to vocational training to try to give them alternatives to the sex trade. “The solution starts with economic empowerment and an intensive educational campaign to get families to be more conscious of their responsibilities to these children,” the academic Yeboah said, while criticising the authorities for “not doing enough” so far to combat the trade and “lacking a full appreciation of the extent and effect of such exploitation on the children”. Bright Appiah, Executive Director of the NGO Children’s Rights International in Ghana said civil society has much to offer. “Some NGO’s are far better equipped than the government-run Social Welfare Department and they can offer better rehabilitation and protection for these girls” he said. em/nr/aj |
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Theme(s): (IRIN) Aid Policy, (IRIN) Children, (IRIN) Economy, (IRIN) Education, (IRIN) Gender Issues, (IRIN) Governance, (IRIN) HIV/AIDS (PlusNews), (IRIN) Human Rights, (IRIN) Urban Risk
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MALI: Children scrape by on scrap
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
BAMAKO, 7 April 2008 (IRIN) - Seyba Traoré, aged 11, and his brother Moumini, 9, set out each morning with big bags slung over their shoulders to sort through the capital’s many rubbish dumps in search of scrap metal - car or motorbike parts, old lamps, curtain-rods - any old iron objects will do. They sell on their haul each afternoon at 12 US cents per kilogram to a buyer they know only as Hamdallaye. ”Sometimes we can earn up to US$4.80 a day, and if there is a large pile of scrap we can make even more,” Seyba told IRIN. “Thanks to this money, we can eat well, and we have clothes.” Moumini and Seyba are just two of the many children who dominate the supply-side of the increasingly lucrative scrap-metal trade. It is common to see children bicycling around the capital laden with heavy pieces of iron to bring to shops that are opening up all over the capital to buy and then sell on the scrap. Ousmane Traoré, 13, left his parents in his village of Kelaya, 160km from Bamako, to become a scrap scavenger. “It’s tiring, this work, I have to sort through all sorts of rubbish and it smells bad, but what can I do? I earn my living in this rubbish and I can save a bit of money for my parents at home.” Higher profit margins As the industry grows the profit margins are getting higher each year, even for the children. Shopkeeper Madou Sanogo has been buying scrap in Boulkassoumbougou, a neighbourhood in Bamako, since 2002. “When I started you could buy 1kg from a supplier for 1 US cent, now it’s 12 US cents it really is a booming industry.”
But it is the buyers - mostly adults - who are reaping most of the benefits. Sanogo continued: “I buy the scrap at 12 US cents per kilogram and will sell it on to buyers for double that.” Sanogo first got involved through his brother, who was a mechanic and collected scrap in their yard. “One day I met an Indian man who bought the whole lot and asked me to look for more. That’s when I had the idea of opening this shop… We signed a contract and now they regularly pick it up,” he said. Many of the buyers come from other West African countries, and some from as far as India to export the metal for resale. “Better than begging” And some of this money ends up benefiting the state. According to an adviser in the mayor’s office, many buyers are setting up legitimate businesses, paying US$335 for a licence, and contributing an average of US$7.20 in taxes per month. “They also help clean up the city by clearing piles of scrap metal that litter the streets,” Coulibaly said. However, as the business has internationalised and the wages have increased, the market is getting overcrowded. “Now it is difficult to find enough iron, whereas before, that wasn’t the case. Our supplies are dropping bit by bit,” he complained. Despite the difficulties, many buyers and sellers are pleased to be involved. As Coulibaly put it, “I think this is better than begging.” sd/aj/cb |
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Theme(s): (IRIN) Children, (IRIN) Economy, (IRIN) Health & Nutrition, (IRIN) Human Rights, (IRIN) Urban Risk
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MAURITANIA: Child marriage tradition turns into trafficking
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
NOUAKCHOTT, 9 December 2008 (IRIN) - Marrying off Mauritanian girls as young as six years old to men in Gulf states is turning into a profitable trafficking enterprise as a typically rural marriage practice migrates to the city, according to urban families. “It used to be widespread in the rural milieu, but now child marriages are more developed in urban areas as a new business,” said Sidi Mohamed Ould Jyyide, a sociologist in the capital Nouakchott. “One’s family can get rich for selling a daughter to a wealthy man. Early marriage is almost a guarantee to make a profit in no time.” Price of marriage “Smugglers are ready to pay for all expenses of travelling and accommodation for such girls,” he added. These “smugglers” can be paid intermediaries working for men seeking child-brides, or family members of the girls. Oumelkhary Mint Sidi Mohamed, 14, said when she was eight her father took her from her village of Adel Beghrou near Mauritania’s border with Mali to an aunt in Nouakchott, who transported her to Saudi Arabia. Mohamed told IRIN her family’s dreams of wealth turned into her nightmare when she was raped by a cousin while waiting to be introduced to wealthy men in Saudi Arabia. “[To avoid shame], my family arranged with him to take me back home [to Mauritania] as his wife,” Mohamed told IRIN. “I found myself in his house as a servant. He beat me as soon as my family left. I reported my endless suffering to my father to end the terrible relation.” The girl told IRIN that even after other family members intervened to help her get a divorce after one year, her father again tried to sell her in marriage in Saudi Arabia. Family friend Rabie Ould Idomou told IRIN he then stepped in and adopted Mohamed so he could be her legal guardian and keep her in Mauritania. “She must be rehabilitated [from her childhood trauma] in fairness and tranquillity,” he said. Idomou told IRIN that after getting the father’s approval he is now trying to enrol Mohamed in school. Whose law? While the legal age of marriage in Mauritania is 18 according to the national family code, many in the predominantly Muslim country observe a different religious code. “It is accepted by the Islamic religion to marry a girl of six years old, but any physical contact has to wait for her biological maturity,” Hamden Ould Tah, general secretary of Mauritania’s Islamic Scholars Association, told IRIN. Cultural analyst, author and professor Hussein Ould Medo said child marriage is still common in Mauritania and may be interpreted as a tool to reject what some see as the evils of modernisation. “It is a way to fight against a sweeping change or negative modern transformation.”
A government source said it is difficult to determine the rate of child marriage in Mauritania. “The real rate of such marriages is not known because most cases are not recorded as official marriages and there are no official statistics in [the Ministry for the Promotion of Women and Families],” said ministerial director Aminetou Mint Takki. She added that any violation of the family code’s legal marrying age would be punished. But the law holds little relief for some girls in the country, said Aminetou Mint Moctar, president of the non-profit organisation Women Supporting Families. “The [family code] law is not enforced to protect the poorest or the uneducated.” In 2006 more than 14 million girls under 18 were forced into marriage in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the UN. Mohamed told IRIN she hopes she will be the last child-bride victim: “I hope to play and go to school as every child does. I will never forgive my father and cousin for what they have done [to me]. I pray to be the last girl to go through that pain and humiliation.” sos/pt/np |
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Theme(s): (IRIN) Children, (IRIN) Economy, (IRIN) Gender Issues, (IRIN) Human Rights
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Poverty forcing families to put children to work
Monday, December 29th, 2008Date: 28 Dec 2008
LAHORE, 28 December 2008 (IRIN) - “My only wish in life is to have a decent meal with my family at least once a day. Everything else, even my personal dignity, is now a secondary issue,” said Muhammad Rafiq, 35, at a brick-kiln in Lahore, capital of Punjab Province.
Until February this year, Rafiq ran a cycle repair workshop. But he said rising inflation left him unable to pay the rent. “I fell into debt, couldn’t pay back the Rs 80,000 (about US$1,066) I owed, and finally everything I owned was taken away by the person I rented my tiny shop from,” Rafiq told IRIN.
Left with no choice, he has taken up work at a brick-kiln, moulding bricks from clay and helping to bake them in the kiln. Unable to afford school fees any longer, he has also put his three children, all under 10, to work.
His wife helps lay out the bricks in the sun to dry. “All together, we earn about 7,000 rupees (about US$92) a month. I am sad my children will be illiterate, like myself. I tried my best to send them to school. But now we must make food our priority,” said Rafiq.
There is as yet little data on the social impact of rising food price inflation. But the evidence suggests families are feeling the pinch. The government’s Federal Bureau of Statistics Consumer Price Index (CPI) put annual inflation in November 2008 at nearly 25 percent.
An Oxfam briefing paper entitled Double-Edged Prices published in October, said the price of wheat flour in Pakistan had increased 100 percent between January 2007 and April 2008.
Wheat flour or ‘atta’ is the staple for most of the country’s 160 million people.
Child labour on the rise
Irfan Raza, an assistant manager at the Society for the Protection and Rights of Children (SPARC), told IRIN: “Child labour is on the rise. This is quite evident everywhere we look. There is no choice for families, given inflation. ‘Atta’ prices have doubled. Everything else has, too, so people have been forced to put children to work.”
He also estimated - based on official enrolment figures - that nearly half of Pakistan’s 80 million children were at work. “We can assume most children under 18 who are not at school are working in one place or the other,” he said.
This contrasts with the official figure of 3.3 million child labourers - a statistic that dates back to a survey carried out in 1996 by the Federal Bureau of Statistics with International Labour Organization (ILO) support.
Raza said: “The ILO has offered funding for a new survey on child labour but the fact that this has not been undertaken even after so many years indicates the government does not want the real facts regarding child labour to come out.”
Pakistan’s federal minister for labour, Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, has said the government is “determined to eliminate child labour” and is pursuing a National Plan of Action to combat child labour with the support of international donors.
“People now on the poverty line will face still harder times over the coming year and a half,” Raza said.
The secretary-general of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), I. A. Rehman, has also warned that people are facing a real crisis and are struggling to survive.
The stories of children being abandoned at orphanages that have emerged over the past month are a reflection of the worsening situation.
“I used to go to school but now I don’t. My parents cannot afford to send me or my brother,” said Khurram Ashraf, aged nine, who for the past six months has worked at an vehicle repair workshop.
Khurram earns Rs 1,500 (about $20) a month. For this he often works a 10-hour day. “The money I bring home each month is essential to my family because my father is sick with asthma and cannot work every day.”
kh/at/cb
[ENDS] A selection of IRIN reports are posted on ReliefWeb. Find more IRIN news and analysis at http://www.irinnews.org
Une sélection d’articles d’IRIN sont publiés sur ReliefWeb. Trouvez d’autres articles et analyses d’IRIN sur http://www.irinnews.org
This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. Refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use.
Cet article ne reflète pas nécessairement les vues des Nations Unies. Voir IRIN droits d’auteur pour les conditions d’utilisation.
Too many children working, UNICEF says
Monday, December 29th, 2008GENEVA / NEW YORK, 12 June 2002 - Alarmed by new figures that say one in six children work, including millions in slave-like forms of forced and bonded labour, UNICEF today called on all governments to move immediately and decisively to end the disturbing phenomenon.
The announcement comes in response to an important new report officially launched today by the International Labour Organization that says 246 million children between ages 5 and 17 are working today, most in dangerous conditions. The release of the report is part of the inaugural World Day Against Child Labour, organized by the ILO to draw attention and action to the issue.
“That so many children should be forced to work — and endure the hardship and abuse that so often comes with it — is more than simply unacceptable. It is unconscionable. These children need to spend time learning and developing, not labouring in a desperate attempt simply to survive,” said Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF. “We need to see decisive leadership from governments. They are signatories on international treaties banning such practices. It is well past time for them to live up to their obligations. And there is no better time to start taking such action than today, the very first World Child Labour Day.”
According to the ILO report, “A future without child labour”, 73 per cent of these children - approximately 180 million - are working in the worst forms of child labour - including prostitution, bonded labour, trafficking and hazardous work. Moreover, the figures also show that slavery is not dead, with some 5.7 million children trapped in forced and bonded labour. It is often very difficult for working children to seek help, not just because of their young age, but because they have no birth certificates or official documents and are subsequently “invisible.”
Action Needed on International Treaties
While political leadership is critical for ending child labour, UNICEF stresses that it must be in conjunction with broad partnerships. UNICEF continues to work closely with the ILO, other United Nations agencies and NGOs to advocate for the ratification and implementation of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour. With offices in 161 countries, UNICEF has the most extensive field presence of any UN agency, and has been supportive in securing the ratification by more than 120 countries of ILO Convention 182.
Other agreements that obligate governments to move against child labour include the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most ratified international human rights treaty, and the final document from last month’s United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children, where governments agreed to a wide-ranging set of goals for the health, education and protection of children. One of the 21 goals says that the signatories must, “Take immediate and effective measures to eliminate the worst forms of child labour, as defined in ILO Convention 182, and elaborate and implement strategies for the elimination of child labour that is contrary to accepted international standards.”
Ms. Bellamy said that ending child labour is a key part of UNICEF’s overall attempts to reduce poverty and the devastating impact it has on children.
“Child labour reinforces a cruel cycle of deprivation. On one hand it is symptomatic of widespread and deeply entrenched global poverty. On the other hand, because it usually keeps children out of school, in poor health and subject to psychological and physical abuse, it reinforces this poverty by keeping yet another generation from fulfilling anything close to its potential,” she said. “The ILO report must send alarm bells ringing not only for those of us concerned with child rights, but for everyone who is striving to overcome poverty and the crime, violence, extremism, refugees and other ills it breeds.”
Education is crucial for combating child labour and UNICEF uses education in 30 countries as both a preventive and protective measure against child labour. For example, in Bangladesh UNICEF partnered with the Ministry of Education to provide basic non-formal education to 350,000 of the poorest urban children exposed to hazardous work. Other UNICEF-supported initiatives include promoting birth registration and school attendance, and ending forced and debt bondage, which is particularly widespread in India, Pakistan and Nepal.
For further information, please contact:
Jehane Sedky-Lavandero, UNICEF New York, 212) 326-7269, jsedky@unicef.org
Wivina Belmonte, UNICEF Geneva, +41) 22) 909-5509, wbelmonte@unicef.org
To end child labour nations must fight trafficking of children, UNICEF says
Monday, December 29th, 2008On World Day Against Child Labour, UNICEF Highlights Link With Child Trafficking
GENEVA / NEW YORK, 12 June 2003 – UNICEF said today that efforts to end the worst forms of child labour would not succeed without effective cooperative efforts to fight the trafficking of children and women within and across national borders. On World Day Against Child Labour, UNICEF pointed to estimates that the global trade in human beings is beginning to rival the illicit trafficking of arms and drugs.
“How can we put an end to the most abhorrent forms of child labour when the trafficking of children and women continues unabated?” asked Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF. “Children are increasingly treated as commodities by organized crime networks, where the profit derives from these children being sold into servitude or forced labour. We can no longer simply look at the worst forms of child labour as a shame. We have to see it as one part of an inhuman and criminal trade that must be stopped.”
Trafficking in humans beings is beginning to rival the illegal trade in drugs and arms, with an estimated revenue of $12 billion a year, according to a 2003 International Labour Organization report.
Bellamy said children are seen by traffickers as commodities since they are more easily manipulated, on high demand and can be exploited over a longer period. Hidden from view and often from legal protection, children are lured by promises of a good education or a “better job” and smuggled across borders. Far from home or in a foreign country, trafficked children – disoriented, without papers, and excluded from any protective environment – can be forced to endure prostitution, domestic servitude, early and involuntary marriage, or hazardous and punishing labour.
Although no definitive data exists on child trafficking, some estimate that 1.2 million children are trafficked each year. Girls as young as 13 (mainly from Asia and Eastern Europe) are trafficked as ”mail-order brides.” Girls used as domestic servants are denied access to education and often sexually abused within the homes of their “employers.” In Fiji, for example, a UNICEF survey revealed that eight out of ten domestic workers reported sexual abuse by their employers. In Africa, child trafficking is recognized as a major concern in at least half of the countries, according to a study conducted by UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre.
“Courageous leadership is needed from governments, who are primarily accountable for ensuring that child trafficking is criminalized and children are effectively protected from this form of exploitation.” Bellamy noted that no country is free from the trade in human beings, and that efforts to stop it must be also regional and global in nature.
“Many governments are already signatories to the Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Trafficking and Child Pornography” Bellamy observed. “But much more needs to be done to ensure its effective implementation, including ample awareness campaigns, required legal reform, universal birth registration for children and strong international cooperation. Another important measure is granting humanitarian visas or according refugee status to trafficked children. And there is no better time to start making such commitments than today, World Day Against Child Labour.”
UNICEF is committed to preventing and eliminating child trafficking. Its approach focuses on helping countries to build a protective environment for children – one which safeguards them from exploitation and abuse before it happens. Such a “protective environment” is based on eight common sense actions:
Governments need to show a strong political commitment to combat child trafficking: This includes ensuring that the necessary legislation is in place to outlaw trafficking and punish traffickers. Necessary resources need to be made available to ensure effective action is always guided by the best interests of the child.
Laws need to be rigorously and reliably enforced, including international agreements to help prevent trafficking and facilitate the safe return of trafficked children.
Attitudes and practices need to change: Getting and keeping all children in school –especially girls – would dramatically improve their protection, but 120 million children still never go to school, the majority of them girls. Awareness campaigns need to empower communities, families and children themselves to prevent trafficking.
Children need to be aware of the dangers of trafficking so that they can protect themselves: Children are often lured with promises of money and a ‘better life.’ To counter this, at-risk children need to be given practical skills that allow them to avoid being ensnared. This could include vocational training or income-generating activities at the community level to keep them from falling prey to false offers from traffickers.
All those who interact and spend time with children need to be able to recognize the risks of trafficking and respond accordingly: Teachers need to recognize the warning signs of a troubled home. Police raiding brothels need to know to search for girls who have come from other countries and avoid stigmatizing and victimizing them further. A border guard with limited awareness of trafficking may not react when seeing young children crossing a border without their parents.
Media attention is a crucial advocacy and awareness element in the fight against trafficking and in calling for the effective and systematic protection of the child victim.
Reintegration and rehabilitation for vicims of trafficking: Children who have been trafficked need services to help them escape their situation, and to return home to a safe environment. Services for child victims of trafficking need to be guided by the best interests of the child, including the child’s return to a safe environment.
For further information, please contact:
Jehane Sedky-Lavandero, UNICEF Media, New York (212) 326-7269, jsedky@unicef.org
New study to assist Iraq’s most vulnerable children launched
Monday, December 29th, 2008UNICEF, in partnership with five international NGOs, undertakes study of the needs of Iraqi children made vulnerable by recent war and its aftermath.
BAGHDAD 26 June 2003 – UNICEF has teamed up with five international aid organizations to investigate the situation in which children live in Iraq today. The study will focus on the risks to children’s wellbeing and the coping mechanisms that exist within their families and communities to help them overcome the current challenges they face in post-war Iraq.
UNICEF’s partners include the Christian Children’s Fund, Save the Children UK, World Vision International, the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children US.
“This inter-agency assessment is the first of its kind to be taken at national level in Iraq,” said Carel de Rooy, UNICEF’s Representative in the country.
“Previously, it was virtually impossible to do in-depth surveys of street children, orphans or children living in institutions,” said de Rooy. “Until the late 1990s, the government here did not even recognize that child labour or children living in the streets even existed. That is why this new study is going to be so important to understanding of the needs of children in this country.”
The study is also important because it will cover all 18 governorates in Iraq collecting information from children themselves to ensure that their voices are heard and integrated into new programmes to assist them.
“Iraqi children understand better than anyone what the risks are that they face every day when they walk into the streets and schools of the country. And they know better than anybody what they need to improve their lives, to feel secure and to prosper,” added de Rooy.
The project will identify particularly vulnerable groups of children, including street children, working children, institutionalized children, and children in conflict with the law. It will map out where these children are, what their needs are and which areas of the country require particular attention. The study will also focus on the risks facing children, such as unexploded ordinances, child labour, and sexual violence.
According to de Rooy, while the assessment will identify the acute needs of children made vulnerable by the war, it will also enable the aid organizations conducting the survey to respond to the immediate needs of the children they come across.
“This is not just an assessment, it is a means for making contact with children so that UNICEF and our dedicated NGO partners can immediately assist any child we come in contact with who needs our support,” said de Rooy.
UNICEF is also working with the French NGO Enfant du Monde to care for and assist street children in Baghdad. UNICEF is in the process of identifying a building in the vicinity of the Palestine hotel, where many street children congregate, to use as a drop-in centre.
The centre will provide the children with a safe haven, a place to get away from the dangers of the street, to relax, to play games, or to talk with trained councillors.
UNICEF is also supporting a mobile drop-in centre, essentially a mobile home that drives around areas frequented by street children. The mobile centre will enable children to speak with qualified social workers, to clean up, or to just get off the street.
This will also enable UNICEF and Enfant du Monde to build up relationships with these children so we can find out from them what there needs are and how we as aid organizations can assist them best.
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UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, foundations, businesses, and governments. Contributions to UNICEF’s ongoing support for Iraq children can be made at http://www.supportunicef.org/
For further information, please contact:
Geoffrey Keele, UNICEF Iraq (Baghdad),
Thuraya phone: (++88-2162 333 5948) or Sat. phone: (++873-762 86 9918)
M. Anis Salem, UNICEF – MENA Regional Office, Jordan, Mob.: (++962-79 557 9991)
Rawhi Abeidoh, UNICEF News Desk, (Amman) - Jordan, Mob.: (++962-79 504 2058)
For interviews in the region, write or call directly to the UNICEF News Desk in Amman:
(962-79) 504 2058
iraqichild@unicef.org
Efforts against child labour often overlook domestic workers
Monday, December 29th, 2008Millions of Child Domestic Workers, Mostly Girls, Are Exposed to Abuse, Exploitation and Trafficking, UNICEF says
GENEVA / NEW YORK, 11 June 2004 – The widespread use of children as domestic servants is one of the most hidden forms of child labour, and one that leaves millions of children, mostly girls, at risk of sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking, UNICEF said today.
“Millions of girls are trapped in poorly paid jobs as domestic servants,” UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said, marking World Day Against Child Labour. “Not only are these children forced to work long, hard hours but they are at increased risk of sexual abuse and being trafficked within and across borders.”
Child domestic workers are a familiar sight in most developing countries, where many children are sent out of the home when they are as young as five years old to earn money to supplement the family income.
“Girls that should be in kindergarten are working 16 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week,” Bellamy said. “They are deprived of education and play and often see their basic health and nutrition needs ignored. Their well-being is entirely dependent on the whims of their employers.”
Efforts to address child labour must take into account child domestic workers and ensure that their rights to education, healthy development and a protected childhood are safeguarded, Bellamy said. For children to be guaranteed a protective environment, governments must be committed to their protection by enacting and enforcing laws that punish those who exploit children and communities must be aware of the risks children face, Bellamy added.
The number of child domestic workers worldwide is not known, but the majority of such workers are girls. It is estimated that there are five million child domestic workers in South Asia. Surveys have revealed that in India roughly one in five children under 14 works as a domestic outside the family and that in Bangladesh, an estimated 300,000 work in the capital, Dhaka alone.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that there are 559,000 child domestic workers in Brazil, 250,000 in Haiti, 200,000 in Kenya and approximately 700,000 in Indonesia.
Child domestic workers generally have never attended school or fail to complete their schooling. Their social isolation also excludes them from community-based health services and recreational opportunities.
“In many cases, calling these girls ‘domestic workers’ is misleading,” Bellamy said. “We’re talking about children who, instead of starting each day in the school yard are getting up when it is still dark and toiling until night in slave-like conditions. This is not legitimate employment. And this is not a childhood that any girl or boy should have to endure.”
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For further information, please contact:
Jehane Sedky-Lavandero, UNICEF Media, 212 326-7269
For nearly 60 years UNICEF has been the world’s leader for children, working on the ground in 158 countries to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for poor countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.
UNICEF hails world’s first regional agreement on human trafficking
Monday, December 29th, 2008Greater Mekong Sub-Region commits to fight human trafficking
YANGON, MYANMAR, 29 October 2004 – Today ministers from China, Cambodia, Thailand, Lao PDR, Viet Nam and Myanmar signed a landmark memorandum of understanding that sets forth a framework of action to fight human trafficking.
The six nations of the Greater Mekong Sub-Region have committed themselves to coordinated action on trafficking prevention, law enforcement, the prosecution of traffickers, and the recovery, reintegration and support of trafficking victims.
“This is an important step forward in our joint efforts to fight human trafficking and the suffering it leaves in its wake,” said Carroll Long, UNICEF Representative in Myanmar. “UNICEF applauds the commitment of the region’s countries in joining together to combat this scourge that’s destroying children’s lives and ripping families apart.”
UNICEF-supported studies indicate that some 1.2 million children around the globe are trafficked every year. Approximately one-third of all trafficking in women and children takes place from and within the East Asia region.
Human trafficking takes many forms, including forced marriage, exploitative labor and domestic service, and prostitution.
“While not all trafficking involves commercial sexual exploitation, this is an all-too-frequent phenomenon,” noted UNICEF Representative Carroll Long.
Children are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation, with surveys indicating that approximately one third of those involved in prostitution in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region are between 12 and 17 years of age. Most victims of commercial sexual exploitation are women and girls.
“Children and women forced into the commercial sex industry suffer particularly acute trauma, and the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the region places their lives in severe peril,” said Ms. Long. “UNICEF especially focuses its efforts on protecting these most vulnerable children and youth.”
In Myanmar and the Greater Mekong Sub-Region, UNICEF and its many partners – all of which coordinate their activities as members of the UN Inter-Agency Project on Trafficking (UNIAP) – support a range of actions to combat human trafficking and create a protective environment for children. UNICEF-supported activities in the region include the reintegration of trafficking victims, psychosocial support services for these victims, support for community-level prevention activities, education services, and the enhancement of legal protections.
In Myanmar, UNICEF is working in partnership with communities, NGOs and others to train community officials, teachers, Parent-Teachers Associations and other civil society groups in trafficking prevention, and to reintegrate trafficked victims in their home communities, thanks to funding provided by the Government of Japan.
Next Steps
Officials at today’s meeting confirmed that in early 2005, a Regional Plan of Action on trafficking will be enacted based upon the framework set forth in today’s MOU.
“We welcome the commitment of these countries to begin forging an action plan to address the many factors that give rise to human trafficking in the region, including economic disparity, a lack of educational opportunities, gender bias, and the breakdown of traditional family support mechanisms,” said Ms. Long.
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UNICEF provided financial support for this week’s Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking along with many other UNIAP partners, including sister UN agencies, international NGOs, bilateral donor agencies, and governments. The U.N. Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking, of which UNICEF is a member, is serving as secretariat for this process.
For more information, please contact:
Jason Rush, UNICEF Myanmar, + 95 1 212 090, jrush@unicef.org