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Priorities of the new mandate holder 2014, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Another key area of focus of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, is child and forced marriage. The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery obligates Member States to take all "practicable and necessary legislative and other measures to bring about progressively and as soon as possible the complete abolition or abandonment" of, inter alia, any institution or practice which amounts to forced marriage, such as when a woman, without the right to refuse, is promised or given in marriage on payment to her parents, guardians, family or another person or group; when a husband, his family or his clan transfers his wife to another person for value received or for any other reason; or the inheriting by another person of a woman on the death of her husband (see art. 1). Early and forced marriage can, under certain circumstances, constitute servile marriage or result in domestic servitude or other forms of slavery. The previous mandate holder drew links between child marriage and slavery, and pointed out that Member States were obliged to prohibit and eliminate slavery as a non-derogable and fundamental principle of international law. Child marriage is linked to the thematic issues of trafficking for forced labour, commercial sexual exploitation, migration and contemporary forms of slavery, which reinforces the need for cooperation among the respective mandate holders as part of a comprehensive multi-agency and multi-stakeholder effort to eradicate those practices from society, as women and girls in child and forced marriages may experience conditions within the marriage that meet "international legal definitions of slavery and slavery-like practices", including forced labour. Furthermore, "a potentially high proportion of child marriage cases appear to constitute the worst forms of child labour under the 1999 ILO Convention No. 182."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eradicating contemporary forms of slavery from supply chains 2015, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- Given the complexity and span of supply chains, identifying and eradicating contemporary forms of slavery can be successful only if sustainable and effective multi-stakeholder partnerships and initiatives involving the authorities, businesses, trade unions, consumers and other stakeholders, each acting from their own areas of expertise to enforce mutually agreed goals, are formed. Such initiatives are frequently international in scope, given the breadth of transnational operations. Some focus on a single sector, industry or commodity, while others are cross-sectoral. Others focus on a single issue like child or forced labour, while many typically address a cross-section of labour and human rights issues alongside the environment and general principles of ethical business.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eradicating contemporary forms of slavery from supply chains 2015, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- In the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery of 1956, the protection of the right is extended to include "institutions and practices similar to slavery", i.e. debt bondage, serfdom, servile marriage and delivering a child for exploitation. Child economic exploitation and child hazardous labour are further prohibited in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 10 (3)) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (art. 32). In the International Labour Organization (ILO) Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), the elimination of the worst forms of child labour is called for, which are defined as including all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage, serfdom and forced or compulsory labour as well as hazardous work (art. 3).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eradicating contemporary forms of slavery from supply chains 2015, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- According to ILO data from 2012, 5.5 million of the 20.9 million of persons in forced labour are children and an estimated 5-15 per cent of those are working in supply chains, with the figure significantly higher if domestic supply chains are also taken into account. The lowest tiers in the informal economy are particularly at risk of involving the worst forms of child labour. In 2012, the number of children involved in hazardous work that directly endangers their health, safety and moral development, often understood as a proxy for the worst forms of child labour, was said to be 85 million in absolute terms. While reliable data on those sectors most susceptible to using such work are difficult to obtain, cases of the worst forms of child labour were found in sectors that correspond to those with a high risk of contemporary forms of slavery occurring in supply chains, including agriculture (i.e., farming of raw materials such as sugar, cotton, cocoa and tobacco), construction, mining and quarrying, and garments and textiles.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eradicating contemporary forms of slavery from supply chains 2015, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- In 2014, the draft Business Supply Chain Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2014 was introduced into the United States Congress. The Act, not yet adopted, contains, inter alia, reporting requirements for businesses relating to the disclosure of conditions amounting to forced labour, slavery, human trafficking and the worst forms of child labour in supply chains. At the time of writing the present report, a draft law on business human rights due diligence in supply chains was pending before the Senate in France, after having been adopted by the National Assembly in the first reading in March 2015.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eradicating contemporary forms of slavery from supply chains 2015, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- At the United States federal level, under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005, the Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labour Affairs is mandated to, inter alia, create and maintain a List of Goods Produced with Child Labor or Forced Labor. In addition, a list of products using forced or indentured child labour is also produced by the Bureau of International Labour Affairs and intended to ensure that United States federal agencies do not procure goods made by this labour. Under the Trade and Development Act of 2000, the Secretary of Labor is mandated to issue beneficiary country initiatives to implement their international commitments to eliminate the worst forms of child labour. These transparency initiatives primarily provide information for government procurement but also assist investors and consumers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eradicating contemporary forms of slavery from supply chains 2015, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- The United States Tariff Act of 1930 is also relevant to supply chains and goods produced using forced labour. In section 1307 of the Tariff Act, the import of goods produced with prison labour and forced labour is specifically prohibited: "All goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in any foreign country by convict labor or/and forced labor or/and indentured labor under penal sanctions shall not be entitled to entry at any of the ports of the United States, and the importation thereof is hereby prohibited". The terms forced labour or/and indentured labour include forced or indentured child labour.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Priorities of the new mandate holder 2014, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- In addition to children in domestic servitude and other forms of slavery, the Special Rapporteur is concerned about the uneven implementation, and in some areas retrogression, of the human rights of women as guaranteed under international law, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Women are disproportionately affected by forced labour. Of the estimated 21 million people in situations of forced labour, 11.4 million (55 per cent) are women and girls.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Domestic slavery, alongside other forms of slavery, still exists in parts of the world, notably in certain countries of the Sahel region of Western Africa. The 1926 Slavery Convention (art. 1) defines slavery as "the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised". Slavery still exists in certain sectors of society in Mauritania, even though the Government has outlawed and criminalized the practice (see A/HRC/15/20/Add.2). Women and children in particular end up in domestic slavery. They must work from before sunrise to after sunset, caring for the master's children, fetching water, gathering firewood, pounding millet, moving heavy tents and performing other domestic tasks. Besides exploitative living and working conditions and frequent physical and sexual abuse, the specific nature of slavery manifests itself by the fact that the victim and her children are considered to be their master's property and can be rented out, loaned or given as gifts to others.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Domestic work is particularly hazardous for children, as the nature of the work typically requires long work hours, including night-time work. Children in domestic service are often expected to carry heavy loads or handle dangerous and toxic substances such as insecticides or bleach. Owing to their physical and social isolation, children engaged in live-in domestic work are at a particularly great risk of physical or sexual abuse or humiliating and degrading treatment. In most contexts, domestic work outside the family, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children, and falls within the ambit of the Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (ILO Convention No. 182). No child, regardless of the child's age or "consent", must be engaged in one of the worst forms of child labour. 3
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Children in domestic work will very often drop out of school because of their circumstances or the demands of their employer. This adds to their vulnerability to exploitation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- In many cases, poverty will make parents involuntary accomplices to the exploitation of their own children. In Haiti (see A/HRC/12/21/Add.1), parents from poor families will often send one or more of their children to stay with more affluent families, who may be relatives, family friends or complete strangers. In its idealized form, the practice should ensure that the host family takes care of the child and pays for its schooling, while expecting the child in return to take up a modest set of household chores. In reality, the majority of the estimated 150,000-500,000 so-called restavèk children in Haiti are exploited in domestic servitude. They frequently work extremely long hours without pay, are deprived of schooling, health care and adequate food or shelter and often suffer physical and sexual abuse. The practice is so associated with abuse that the word restavèk (which literally means "to stay with" in Haitian Creole) has become a pejorative term.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- Increasingly, parents are implicated in the exploitation of children in the general market for domestic labour. Some parents do so with the belief that their children will be provided with formal education and work. Deceiving the parents, the intermediaries often end up trafficking the children into domestic servitude or other forms of exploitation. In Ecuador (see A/HRC/15/20/Add.3), children are "rented" by their parents or others to third parties who can employ them at their will. Many of the victims are exploited in domestic servitude. Reports of the Council of Europe express concern about the international trafficking of children aged from 8 to 15 years from West Africa to Europe, where they are exploited in domestic labour, usually in the households of compatriots. Underlying such practices is a failure to recognize children as full human beings with equal rights. Instead, children are treated as commodities who can be moved around and exploited for the benefit of adults.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Children find it especially difficult to extract themselves from situations of domestic servitude. The relationship between the employer and child usually starts out seemingly well before exploitation and abuse become obvious. Consequently, the children feel that they are in the wrong and stay for fear of 'failing' their families. Children who have been sexually abused find it difficult to leave because of the shame of 'being spoiled' and when they do leave, are afraid to go back to their families and end up in the streets. Child domestic workers who migrated or were trafficked long distances often face financial, language and cultural barriers preventing their return home.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 92
- Paragraph text
- Although the victims are largely invisible, domestic servitude constitutes a global human rights concern. Every region in the world is affected. Domestic servitude takes many shape and forms, ranging from slavery as understood by the 1926 Slavery Convention to slavery-like practices, such as bonded domestic labour and child domestic labour. Millions of women and girls, pursuing the opportunities that domestic work provides, while providing a valuable contribution to society, are at risk because their rights, equal human dignity and autonomy are not adequately protected.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 94
- Paragraph text
- [Children are particularly vulnerable to domestic servitude, especially if they live with their employers and/or migrate on their own to find domestic work:] States should help marginalized families whose children are at risk of domestic servitude (e.g. through conditional cash transfer programmes), while reinforcing efforts to provide viable alternatives for children on their own, including street children, abandoned children and orphans. States should expand efforts to work with teachers, religious leaders and community organizations to end child domestic labour.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Children working in this sector face particular, and in some cases a combination of, physical, psychological, economic and sexual exploitation not found in other areas where children work. This is prohibited by article 1 (d) of the 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery which forbids "any institution or practice whereby a child or young person under the age of 18 years, is delivered by either or both of his natural parents or by his guardian to another person, whether for reward or not, with a view to the exploitation of the child or young person or of his labour". The impact of these forms of abuses is not only immediate but has long-term harmful repercussions on the children.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- Small-scale mining and quarrying occurs in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. As a result of the remoteness of mines and quarries and their informal and illegal nature, it is hard to provide exact statistics on the number of children working in this sector. Additionally, as in many other instances of contemporary forms of slavery, the victims are not visible. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that there are at least 1 million children working in mining and quarrying whereas, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that there are 1-2 million children working in artisanal small-scale mining alone. Although estimates of the number of children working in this sector may vary, what is clear is that the numbers are likely to increase as a result of higher prices and demand for minerals from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries and emerging economies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- This report will demonstrate that the work carried out by children in the mining and quarrying sector, by its very nature and the conditions in which it is performed, qualifies as a contemporary form of slavery due to the debt bondage, forced labour and economic exploitation of the child and particularly so with regard to unaccompanied children working in artisanal mining and quarries. For instance, employers yield complete physical and psychological power and control over the children, they are completely and severely dependent on their employer for their basic needs, unable to leave their place of work due to fear of reprisals against themselves or their families and work in physically and socially isolated and remote areas where they are not able to report abuses or access justice.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- The concept of slavery and slavery-like practices cannot be analysed without referral to the development of international human rights instruments, starting with the adoption in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which establishes the principle of the prohibition of slavery in all its forms. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights went on to legally prohibit slavery in all its forms, including servitude and forced labour (art. 8), while the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes that children should be protected from economic and social exploitation. Additionally "their employment in work harmful to their morals or health or dangerous to life or likely to hamper their normal development should be … punishable by law" (art. 10).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- The Committee on the Rights of the Child has on many occasions considered the issue of children working in mines and quarries. For example, in 2009, it expressed its concern at the presence of child workers as young as 5 years working in dangerous conditions in the mining industry, particularly the Katanga region (CRC/C/COD/CO/2, para. 80). In the past year, the Committee has considered the issue of children working in mines in Ecuador, Guatemala, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Most recently, during the Committee's consideration of Ukraine (CRC/C/UKR/CO/3-4, paras. 74 and 75), the Committee raised concern about children working in the informal and illegal economy of the coal-mining sector, where children work under difficult and hazardous conditions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- The Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights has also considered children working in mines and quarries in countries such as China (E/C.12/1/Add.107, para. 23) and Zambia (E/C.12/1/Add.106, para. 25). Most recently, it considered mining in Madagascar. The Committee recommended that the State party: reinforce the legal framework to combat child labour and adopt all the necessary legal and judicial measures to eradicate this phenomenon; support and reinforce the role of the family as an essential element for the protection of children and combat against child labour; and take all necessary measures to implement effectively all policies against child labour, including through awareness-raising campaigns for the public on protection of children, strengthen preventive measures, and prosecute and punish those who are responsible (see E/C.12/MDG/CO/2).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Some unaccompanied children are brought to the mines and quarries by "middlemen" who traffic them from their families and leave them at the mines. Such a case has been reported for instance in Côte d'Ivoire. Children and their families are deceived as to the dangerous and exploitative nature of the work they will end up doing. Such practice is prohibited by article 1 (d) of the 1956 Supplementary Convention: "any institution or practice whereby a child or young person under the age of 18 years, is delivered by either or both of his natural parents or by his guardian to another person, whether for reward or not, with a view to the exploitation of the child or young person or of his labour".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- The lack of traditional family and social structures in artisanal mining and quarrying communities increases the likelihood of child slavery. This is especially true for migrant and trafficked children working in this sector. They are often undocumented, do not receive any Government support or protection and are vulnerable to exploitation by mine employers. These communities are set up by people who for various reasons leave their traditional way of live and go to work in this sector. The communities are set up in an ad hoc manner with little or no regard to societal norms. These communities often attract those unable or unwilling to sustain traditional lifestyles or occupations (see A/HRC/18/30/Add.1).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- Children working in the mines and quarries are vulnerable to physical, sexual, moral and social harm. Artisanal mining and quarrying is inherently informal and illegal -as either it costs too much to get the legal permit to mine or there is no need to get a permit as the law is not enforced. These "frontier communities" are riddled with violence, crime, trafficking in young girls and women for sexual exploitation, prostitution, drug and alcohol use (ibid.). There have been reports that children are given drugs so that they are able to fearlessly extract minerals underground or underwater. Children also take drugs and alcohol in the belief that it makes them stronger and as a result of peer pressure. The drug abuse (particularly amphetamines and marijuana) and alcohol (commercial and/or local brew) destroy their health and keep them in the vicious circle of poverty. Children who arrive alone to work in this sector are even more vulnerable to abuses (see A/HRC/18/30/Add.2).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Poverty
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- Working in "frontier communities" or in remote mines, children are often subject to moral turpitude. They are continuously exposed to physical violence from adult miners and their employers. Children are also at risk of sexual violence such as rape and other forms of sexual abuse. In some cases, children are also forced into prostitution. This has a huge impact on the child's mental well-being and exposes the child to HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Without any proper guardianship, unaccompanied children fall easily prey to alcohol and drug addictions, which further perpetuate their poverty (ibid.).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- Girls, especially unaccompanied girls, working in and around the mines and quarries are vulnerable to rape and sexual exploitation. Sexual exploitation can start from the age of 9 but many of the girls involved are aged between 13 and 17 years. In some mining communities like those in Burkina Faso and Niger, it is believed that male child miners will have greater luck in the mining pits if they have sexual intercourse with a virgin or have unprotected sexual intercourse and do not wash before going underground (see E/C.12/MDG/CO/2). Child prostitution also occurs in the mining communities. For example, in Ghana, girls as young as 12 living in gold-mining communities are found in prostitution (ibid.). A United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) study on sexual exploitation of children around mines and quarries found four main types of exploitation: prostitution on a regular basis, occasional prostitution, companionship or temporary unions, and forced prostitution.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 77
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur highlights the following five challenges in eradicating child slavery in artisanal mining and quarrying.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 78
- Paragraph text
- First, there are legal and enforcement challenges. This is due to the absence of legislation or inadequate legislation, lack of criminalization and the lack of enforcement or adequate enforcement of legislation relating to children working in slavery within the artisanal mining and quarrying sector. Where legislation exists, it is often complex and only favours the owner of the mine or quarry, not the workers - particularly in the case of the children. Additionally, where legislation exists in the form of bans on artisanal mining and quarrying, such activity is driven further underground. This increases the risk of violations of the rights of the children who work, as they are even more isolated and restricted in their movements in order to keep their work secretive.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 81
- Paragraph text
- Fourth, the lack of public awareness about the slavery conditions experienced by children working in this sector is another challenge. The lack of general understanding of what constitutes child slavery and the illegal and informal nature of some artisanal mining and quarrying contribute to the difficulty in collecting data and information on where and how many children are involved in this work. This lack of knowledge makes it difficult to prevent, address and regulate child slavery. Knowledge would allow decision-makers at all levels to make better choices in tackling child slavery in this sector.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph