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Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- A number of sources have reported that children are subjected to contemporary slavery in Ghanaian fisheries by "fisher-entrepreneurs" or middlemen who take them far from their homes to work in fisheries. Recruiters reportedly deceive families with promises of educational opportunities in exchange for a few hours of work each day. Children are also often promised cash or in-kind payments for their labour, such as a cow for boys or a sewing machine for girls. Parents may be offered an advance for their child's work, thus placing the child in a situation of debt bondage. Lake Volta is a popular destination for child slaves, as fishery resources have been depleted and children are considered cheap sources of labour. Tasks in the fishing sector are gendered: boys paddle canoes, pull in nets and carry fish; girls sort, pack and transport fish; and both boys and girls are often tasked with deep-water diving to clear entangled nets. Children usually work six to seven days a week, at least 12 hours a day, and fishing expeditions can last for many days. These children are exposed to dangerous working conditions, long hours, sexual and physical abuse, and even death due to drowning, snake bites or physical abuse at the hands of boat or equipment owners.
- 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
- Boys
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- Some parents take out loans against their children's labour. Other parents sell their children and, upon their arrival in the mines, the children are charged exorbitant prices for their transportation to the mines, food and tools by the employer or middleman. In both these instances, the children are often unable to leave the mines or quarries until they have paid off the debt owed to the middleman or employer. In majority of the cases, children become bonded as a result of their parents' debt. Bonded labour is prohibited under the 1956 Supplementary Convention. Many children report not being able to save or even earn enough money to send back home. This results in them being unable to leave their situation until their debt is paid. In 2010, the Special Rapporteur received information that Bangladeshi and Nepali children were being purchased by middlemen or abducted and sold by gangs to mining employers in India. The price of the child varied from 50-75 USD. According to the information received, the children are forced to work to pay off their debt. The middlemen bring both boys and girls to work in the mines. The girls living and working in the mines are often sexually abused by adult mine workers and employers.
- 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
- Boys
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 106
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur notes that, although quarrying holds many of the same risks to children as mining, there are more programmes focused on mining than on quarrying and urges all actors to intervene to eliminate child slavery in quarrying.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 101
- Paragraph text
- Poverty reduction programmes, such as cash transfer programmes, should be expanded with a specific focus on geographical areas where artisanal mining and quarrying occurs. These programmes should benefit only those whose children attend school and gain regular medical care. This would help improve their well-being.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 98
- Paragraph text
- In order to develop national policies against child labour, most States have created multisectoral insitutions to prevent and eradicate child labour, made up of governmental authorities, representatives of the workers' union, representatives of the employers' union, NGOs and international organizations, the main task of which is to articulate national action plan for the prevention and eradication of child labour. These institutions should have specific programmes to prevent and eradicate child slavery in the mining and quarrying sector. They should also develop and implement policies and social programmes targeting children working in the mines and quarries. Such policies and programmes need to be translated for use at the local levels. In countries most advanced in terms of decentralization, the regional, municipal and local governments have an increasing role with regard to the education, health and protection of children and youth services. Local governments, policies and programmes, because of their proximity to the reality of children and their families, are essential for the development of sustainable and effective actions for the eradication of child working in the mining and quarrying sector. These plans should have sufficient human and financial resources to ensure that they are fully implemented.
- 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
- Youth
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 75
- Paragraph text
- The present chapter shows how if one principal crime goes unpunished, it makes way for -sometimes more complex - subsequent secondary crimes which are dependent on the principal crime. In this case, the fact that child slavery in mines and quarries goes unpunished has led to a series of other human rights violations, such as rape and sexual exploitation.
- 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. 68
- Paragraph text
- Studies show that such child slavery not only has a negative impact on the health, well-being and education of the child, but also later has a negative economic impact on communities and countries. According to the findings of these studies, children who work are more likely to have children who will also work and not go to school. Consequently, the poverty gets passed on from one generation to another.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- Children who work above ground (carrying and breaking coal) are exposed to heatstroke and sunstroke. They also work longer hours than the children who work underground (cutting, digging and pulling trolleys of coal). For the children who get wages, the long hours are not reflected in their wages. According to the information received by the Special Rapporteur, children who ask for more pay are often verbally or physically threatened, punished by being beaten or left locked in mines.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- Children start to work with their families (parents or relatives), unpaid, in mines and quarries from the age of 3. They start by performing small tasks such as lifting stones, supplying adults with tools, breaking stones and sifting gravel in order to support the family and eventually end up involved in all aspects of mining and quarrying. Children in artisanal mines and quarries also cook and clean for their families and other adult mine workers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- 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. 48
- Paragraph text
- HIV/AIDS has had a huge impact on all of society, not least those subject to child slavery in mining and quarrying. In central and southern Africa the scourge of AIDS has left many orphans. This situation - coupled with the fact that there is already a lot of pressure on the disintegrating traditional extended family support system - means that many orphans end up working unaccompanied in this sector.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Artisanal mines are often based in remote places which make it easy for armed groups to control. For instance, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, armed groups force both adults and accompanied and unaccompanied children to work in artisanal mines to extract minerals such as gold and coltan. Coltan is used in the manufacture of products such as mobile phones, laptops and rechargeable batteries. The minerals are then sold to fund the activities of the armed groups (A/HRC/13/63, para. 21).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- The lack of or insufficient legal framework, policies and institutions to combat child slavery and to support and protect children from slavery is a significant cause of child slavery in the mining sector. This is often compounded by a weak institutional framework whereby there is a lack of clarity about the roles and responsibilities of Government bodies and often a lack of sufficient human and financial resources to implement, where they exist, Government programmes.
- 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. 27
- Paragraph text
- The position followed by the Committee on the Rights of the Child when considering periodic reports from State parties is that, "any work carried out by children in conditions below those established by the United Nations Convention [on the Rights of the Child] or by ILO standards should be considered as economic exploitation" (report of the Secretary-General on status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, A/64/172, para. 9).
- 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. 13
- Paragraph text
- Employers also wield physical and psychological power over the children that they employ. Consequently, although unaccompanied children may be allowed to leave the mine or quarry, they are unlikely to leave their jobs as they have a real or imagined fear of the repercussions. The Special Rapporteur notes that the combined elements of coercion, fear, restriction on freedom of movement and complete dependence on the employer exhibit characteristics which amount to contemporary forms of slavery.
- 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
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- The availability of domestic help has contributed to women's empowerment, because it has allowed many women to reconcile their professional aspirations with their gendered social obligations towards their children and family. It is therefore a bitter irony that the women and girls who made such advances possible are often subjected to a form of exploitation that is gender-based at its heart.
- 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
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- Parents can also become complicit in the trafficking of their own children if they hand over their child to a third party knowing that the child will be exploited in domestic work. In its latest concluding comments on Pakistan, for instance, the Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed "concern at the growing number of children trafficked internally, sometimes sold by their own parents or forced into marriage, sexual exploitation or domestic servitude" (CRC/C/PAK/CO/3-4, para. 95).
- 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. 35
- Paragraph text
- The exploitation of children in domestic work can amount to domestic servitude. The 1956 Supplementary Convention on Slavery specifically outlaws "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" (art. 1 (d)).
- 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
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- There has been a series of improvements to legal frameworks on both an international and national level that represent best practice in combating contemporary forms of slavery. At the national level, a wide range of countries have passed comprehensive legislation prohibiting and sanctioning contemporary forms of slavery. For example, in 2007 Mauritania passed a law criminalizing slavery. Additionally, in Brazil, article 149 of the Penal Code establishes a sentence of between two and eight years' imprisonment for subjecting a person to forced labour, arduous or degrading working conditions or holding workers at workplaces through surveillance, debt bondage, restriction of movement and retention of personal identification documents or property. The sentence is increased by 50 per cent for cases involving children or discrimination based on religion, gender or race. Brazilian law also prohibits and penalizes other activities related to forced labour, including debt bondage. Nevertheless, owing to the variety of mechanisms used to subject individuals to slavery, many countries have also necessarily looked beyond traditional laws on forced labour and human trafficking. For example, some have established mechanisms to combat exploitative recruitment and hiring practices which increase the risk of contemporary forms of slavery. The Contract Act in Bangladesh, for example, establishes that all employment contracts must be made with the free consent of all parties without coercion, undue influence, fraud or misrepresentation.
- 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
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- In 1993, the Committee on the Rights of the Child devoted its second day of annual discussion to the economic exploitation of children (see CRC/C/20, para. 186-196). On this occasion, the indivisibility and interrelatedness of the rights of the child stipulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child were highlighted, as was the fact that they are all inherent to the human dignity of the child. Therefore, a holistic approach should be taken when looking at the implementation of the right enshrined in article 32.
- 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
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Domestic workers are often "physically invisible" to the general public. More importantly, much as in other gendered relationships, domestic work is deliberately made invisible to public scrutiny: A "private sphere" is socially constructed, where labour relationships are supposedly beyond State or social control. This thinking is reminiscent of archaic arguments that sought to condone domestic violence against women or children as a "private matter", rather than recognizing the crimes that such acts constitute.
- 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
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 97
- Paragraph text
- Governments should establish effective and accessible information and complaints mechanisms for victims such as an ombudsperson for children and allow for third parties to bring forward cases on behalf of children who have been victims of slavery. Governments should also provide victims of child slavery with adequate and unconditional assistance for their protection, rehabilitation and reintegration, including by funding and/or working with relevant international and NGOs.
- 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. 54
- Paragraph text
- Poor living and working conditions have an impact on the health and safety of children. As a result of unsanitary living conditions, children often suffer from diseases such as tuberculosis and diarrhoea.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Children working as domestic servants experienced a variety of abuses, including physical and sexual abuse, long working hours, isolation and little to no access to education. According to the University of Nairobi, "child domestics [experience] significantly more psychological problems than other children (both working and non-working children). Frequent headaches, eating problems, nightmares, tiredness and unhappiness were found to be very common amongst child domestics". These children were found to be extremely vulnerable to becoming victims of slavery.
- 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
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 93
- Paragraph text
- Governments should effectively implement all legislation that prohibits child slavery in mines and quarries by ensuring effective investigation, prosecution, and punishment that is commensurate to the crime committed. Governments should also proactively investigate and prosecute other crimes committed around mines and quarries, such as sexual exploitation of children. Compensation and adequate rehabilitation for victims of child slavery should also be provided for in the laws prohibiting 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)
- 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. 87
- Paragraph text
- In order to address poverty, social protection programmes that provide compensation to families for the loss of earnings from children's labour can be effective. Programmes such as Bolsa Familia in Brazil, conditional cash transfer programmes which provide direct cash transfers to poor families who keep their children in school and under regular medical supervision, have significantly contributed to the reduction of child labour. Between 2003 and 2007, Bolsa Familia had successfully raised 20 million people out of poverty, reducing poverty from 22 to 7 per cent.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- The mines and quarries in which children work are often informal and situated in remote areas of a country; they remain out of reach of the rule of law in communities commonly referred to as "frontier communities", where traditional social structures of society and ethical value systems have broken down. These communities are often characterized by violence, crime and substance abuse. The people living in these communities are usually very poor and economically and socially marginalized. Children growing up in this type of community are vulnerable to various types of violations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- While this is most obvious with regard to the enduring patterns of domestic slavery, most domestic workers will be confronted one way or another with discrimination. During the course of her missions to Ecuador (A/HRC/15/20/Add.3) and Brazil (A/HRC/15/20/Add.4), the Special Rapporteur noted that girls of Afro-descent were far more likely to end up in domestic servitude than more light-skinned Brazilians. A study found that 69 per cent of children in domestic work in Brazil classified themselves as "black", compared to 31 per cent who considered themselves "white".
- 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
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- There should be no time gap between identification of persons in debt bondage and their release on the one hand, and the start of the rehabilitation measures on the other. Effective rehabilitation and reintegration measures need to be in place to prevent relapse into debt bondage and need to be designed in consultation with released bonded labourers. Rehabilitation measures need to ensure a sustainable livelihood for freed bonded labourers, and access to rehabilitation needs to be provided. This requires the issuance of legal documents such as identity cards and birth certificates, which will also enable them to access social security and other government-run services. Children who are identified as being in debt bondage must be ensured access to education in order to support their full rehabilitation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- Alongside such legislation, Governments should take all possible steps to prevent and address discrimination, as a key preventative strategy against debt bondage. Anti-discrimination legislation should be in place, and programmes that reduce vulnerability to exploitation should be targeted to populations commonly affected by debt bondage. Within such efforts, specific attention should be paid to removing barriers to access to education among children from vulnerable groups. In addition, addressing gender inequalities in society at large will help to reduce the number of women in debt bondage. Ensuring that women are given the same opportunities as men and that they enjoy equal rights at work is a key step in preventing them from becoming trapped in situations of debt bondage.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- Even in countries in which authorities have the will and resources to combat contemporary slavery, they face the difficulty of locating victims. Contemporary forms of slavery often involve hidden populations, some of whom perform illicit work. Slavery often occurs in isolated areas and access can be challenged or compromised when workers are involved in illegal activities, when they are geographically isolated, or when they work in violent or politically unstable countries or regions. The challenge of accessing women and children can increase in countries with cultural norms that restrict them from having contact with outsiders or strangers, or their general freedom of movement. For example, the Special Rapporteur has reported that it is difficult to access forced child labourers working in mines and quarries located in remote areas (see A/HRC/18/30).
- 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
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph