United Nations Economic and Social Council Commission on Human Rights Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery 24th Session Geneva, 23 June - 2 July 1999 Child Trafficking in West and Central Africa In 1997 the representative of a Togolese non-governmental organisation (NGO) WAO-Afrique, came before this Working Group to draw attention to the problem of trafficking of children in West and Central Africa. We want to give you and update on more recent developments. As you will hear, it is with some satisfaction that we report that inter-governmental organisations have began responding to the challenge posed by child trafficking. Several international Conventions prohibit child trafficking. These Conventions have been ratified by almost all countries in West and Central Africa. The most ratified include the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) Forced Labour Convention no.29, 1930; the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and of Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, 1956; the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 (Article 35); and the OAU's African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (Articles 24 and 29). Child trafficking refers to the transport of a child from one place to another, whether within or across country-borders, where the trafficker experiences economic, or any other form of gain resulting from this movement. This process can be described as a transaction, regardless of whether or not money was exchanged at the time the child was handed over . Research by UNICEF has identified several types of trafficking in West and Central Africa. These include abduction of children for sale by traffickers at a later date, bonded placement, trafficking as a service, or trafficking for embezzlement, whereby the trafficker places the child in employment and benefits from receipt of the child's wages. Research by our partners and other NGOs indicates that trafficking routes in West and Central Africa reflect those used by the population themselves, from village to capital, capital to foreign country. Large numbers of children from Bénin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Togo, and are trafficked to Bénin, the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Nigeria. Socio-economic and demographic factors have played a significant role in the rise of the incidence of child trafficking. On the one hand, economic liberalisation under ECOWAS has led to a freeing up of trade in goods and labour across borders, leading to a concomitant rise in the illegal movement of children. On the other hand, debt and economic decline has placed millions below the poverty line, making children and their families more vulnerable to trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Population explosion in recent years has exacerbated the situation further, placing strain on dwindling natural and economic resources. Children in West and Central Africa are trafficked into several types of economic activity. Studies have shown that children are trafficked from Bénin to Gabon to be used as domestic servants, from Mali to the Côte d'Ivoire to work on agricultural plantations, from Togo to Gabon, Nigeria, the Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and also on occassions to countries in Europe for use as domestic servants, market traders, child beggars and prostitutes. National and international media carry stories of traffickers being arrested attempting to traffic children between West and Central Africa. More than 700 children were intercepted in Bénin, during the first seven months of 1997, in the process of being transported abroad for sale into forced labour. Reports continued to flow throughout 1998 on the illicit trade in children from Mali to Côte d'Ivoire to be sold to farmers for less than US$ 30, and the interception of children, some as young as eight years old, being trafficked from Togo to Gabon. More recently, two reports from January and June 1999, refer to the arrest of traffickers in Bénin, attempting to transport children to Gabon and Nigeria. The effect of trafficking on children is devastating. Children are in danger of being cut off from their roots, losing contact with their own family, sometimes permanently, being subjected to harsh working conditions, as well as physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Research by our partners in Bénin in 1998, found that even where children are rescued, they are likely to encounter feelings of alienation from their own family and culture and must undergo a long and difficult task of reintegration. Accurate data confirming the scale of the problem in West and Central Africa does not yet exist. Most governments are yet to realise their commitment to key human rights standards relating to the traffic of human beings, or to use existing domestic provisions, such as their penal codes, to eliminate this practice. None the less, initial steps have been taken by some governments to address the issue of child trafficking in their own country and at sub-regional level. Mali, with the co-operation of the Côte d'Ivoire, recently established a national commission to examine the incidence of child trafficking between the two countries. Bénin, in an effort to curb the illegal departure of many hundreds of minors from its shores, enacted new legislation in 1995, that regulates the travel of children under the age of 14. Authorities in Togo and Bénin have agreed to co-operate in the rehabilitation of child victims of trafficking. Notably, international agencies of the UN such as UNICEF and the ILO, international and national NGOs, are largely responsible for drawing the attention of governments to the problem of child trafficking in West and Central Africa. They have been actively involved in research, lobbying and advocacy, prevention and rehabilitation programmes. Anti-Slavery and its partners have conducted research in Bénin and Togo, and are currently working on a study on trafficking of children between Bénin and Gabon. At the end of last year a series of regional seminars were organised in different parts of Benin to report back on the findings and to identify ways of preventing the children¹s departure. UNICEF has conducted extensive research in several countries of the region, and there are plans by the ILO programme for the elimination of child labour (IPEC) to review and take action on child trafficking across the region. Similarly, these actors have convened sub-regional workshops to inform and sensitise governments and civil society to the dangers of this illicit activity. In addition, international and national NGOs have responded by providing rehabilitation services to abused and trafficked children whilst initiating the search for their parents; prevention programmes have also been implemented targeting the parents and communities of children vulnerable to trafficking. However, none of these efforts can compensate for systematic strategic planning at a national, sub-regional, regional and international level. We realise the Working Group may want to ask representatives of relevant African governments to explain what they are doing and we suggest the Working Group might adopt a recommendation that the governments concerned take some of the following initiatives: … all action by national governments should be set within a human rights framework, so that child victims of trafficking are fully protected, and cannot be treated as illegal immigration. … governments should ratify existing international human rights and labour standards if they have not already done so, including the timely ratification of the new ILO Convention 182, on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, that explicitly prohibits the sale and trafficking of children. … governments should be encouraged and supported internationally, in their efforts to draft and enforce relevant domestic legislation and to promote birth registration, so that it becomes possible to establish where children come from, in order to facilitate the return of trafficked children. … [G]overnments should co-operate with each other, as well as with international agencies of the UN, international and national NGOs in research and data collection on child trafficking in West and Central Africa....[G]overnments should co-operate with each other, as well as with international agencies of the UN, international and national NGOs in the design and implementation of programmes of action to eliminate the practice of child trafficking between West and Central Africa.… Co-operation between national and international law enforcement agencies (INTERPOL), responsible for detecting and intercepting child traffickers, as well as tracing the families of the trafficked children, should be strengthened.