The findings of international organisations in charge of children’s issues are alarming. About 41% of the continent’s children work against their will, and on average, one third are employed in sub-Saharan Africa. According to researchers, it is adolescents between 15 and 17 years of age who do the most dangerous work. Moreover, three of the ten countries reportedly most affected by child labour are in Central Africa, despite very commendable efforts by the respective national authorities to address it.
The forms of exploitation faced by young children vary from debt bondage, sex trafficking, forced recruitment into armed conflict, recruitment of a child for drug trafficking and other illicit activities, and all other forms of work likely to harm the health, safety or morals of girls and boys under the age of eighteen. In some countries of the sub-region, many children work in the mines where they risk their health for meagre wages, and are unable to attend school. Most of these young gold miners have never been to school in their lives; perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
There is also the case of children who are still forced to work for the inhumane benefit of industrial mines that supply global chains. Aged between 3 and 17, these children are engaged in tasks such as washing ore, digging in embankments, collecting, sorting and transporting kilos of ore. This exploitation, which forces them to descend into galleries without any protection, exposes them every day and at every moment to constant danger and to respiratory diseases which are mostly incurable.
The mining codes of the various countries are attempting to address the issue of increasing worker protection, which is highly commendable. Such instruments commit to eliminating child labour in the mining sector by 2025, which encourages the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) to assist them in further regulating artisanal mining, ensuring respect for human rights in mining and formalising the adoption by the state of the relevant national action plan that has already been developed.
However, it must be acknowledged that child labour in diamond mines appears to have increased in the months since the closure of schools following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in February/March 2020, especially in countries that are courageously engaged in a conflict resolution and peacebuilding process. Those who have put in place a national legal framework and mining laws that prohibit child labour, which is punishable by a fine and up to three years in prison, are to be commended, but enforcement needs to be strengthened and support given to the authorities to strengthen their control over what happens in the mines.
Whichever country we are talking about, this phenomenon calls for action in line with the timely and courageous commitment made by the Heads of State and Government of the ECCAS to eliminate child labour in all its forms by 2025and to end exploitation, forced labour and human trafficking by 2030. By adopting resolution 72/327, which makes 2021 the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, Forced Labour and Trafficking in Persons, the United Nations (UN) is calling on all Member States to break the silence and to act. This call to action is supported by the ECCAS and all its Member States with a view to a legal commitment and the establishment of monitoring and warning mechanisms to be implemented in 2022 at the world summit on this issue to be held in South Africa.
What do we need to do to achieve this more specifically?
Ten proposals to be considered to combat child labour in Central Africa’s mining sector
- The adoption of a regional coordination and cooperation mechanism for the eradication of child labour involving actors from several state and non-state sectors, and civil society, particularly to raise awareness amongst parents who are still reluctant to see their children return to school owing to the benefit of mining activities; and to combat the extreme poverty of the families from which these children come. Studies show that the presence of children in artisanal mining sites is linked to the extreme poverty of their parents;
- Ratification of laws in force on the protection of children’s rights, in particular the African Charter on the Rights of the Child;
- Establishment in each Member State of a specialised court against child labour, forced labour and trafficking in human beings;
- Exposure of the uncompetitive and unfair practices of global supply chains that exploit children;
- Setting up of a dialogue at all levels to denounce child labour abuses;
- Compiling of data in all countries of recorded observations on child labour;
- Strengthening and building strong partnerships between regions and Member States working towards the eradication of child labour, forced labour and trafficking in persons;
- Inclusion of the right to free primary and even secondary education in the constitutions of countries, and fully support the states that have courageously launched appropriate programmes to succeed in this challenge, which will have the immediate benefit of relieving poor families and enabling many children to return to school. In addition, free education will allow parents to save all the resources that were allocated to schooling and to invest them elsewhere (health, etc.); and
- Develop resilient education mechanisms to continue to provide education in times of crises and disasters of all kinds, such as pandemics (EBOLA, COVID-19), wars, environmental disasters, etc., and identify provinces and regions where resilient schooling should be urgently introduced.
The solutions, which are multiple and complex, require a holistic approach in a socio-cultural environment driven by endemic poverty, deep-rooted cultural considerations, governance, instability, all of which are exacerbated by the COVID-19 health situation.
The strong determination of ECCAS supported by our partners, including the African Union (AU), the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and all the Regional Economic Communities, will lead to a happy end to this social evil.
Kapinga Yvette Ngandu is the Commissioner for Gender, Human and Social Development Commission of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
