Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2018, published 108th ILC session (2019)

Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) - Mozambique (Ratification: 2003)

Articles 3(a), 5 and 7(1) of the Convention. Sale and trafficking of children, monitoring mechanisms and penalties. The Committee had noted in its earlier comments that section 10 of the Trafficking Act of 2008, prohibits trafficking of persons for labour and sexual exploitation and section 5(a) makes it an aggravating circumstance of the crime, if the victim of the trafficking is a child under 18 years of age. It also noted the Government’s information on the training courses provided for police officers, customs and immigration officials and border police on how to identify cases of trafficking and how to protect victims of trafficking. However, it noted that the Government lacked procedures to identify victims of child trafficking and that the Ministries of Justice and Interior, including the police, had insufficient financial and human resources to improve their effectiveness in enforcing laws pertaining to trafficking in children.

The Committee notes the Government’s indication in its report that it is taking steps to better address this issue. It notes, however, the information contained in a UNICEF publication of 2016, entitled “Child and social protection: Current situation”, that Mozambique is a source, transit and to a lesser extent, destination country, for men, women and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking. The Committee therefore requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken to strengthen the capacities of the law enforcement agencies to combat the trafficking of children under 18 years of age and to ensure that thorough investigations and prosecutions of perpetrators of the sale and trafficking of children are carried out. The Committee also requests the Government to provide information on the practical application of the Trafficking in Persons Act 2008, including information on the number of infringements reported, investigations, prosecutions, convictions and penal sanctions applied in cases involving children under the age of 18 years.

Article 7(2). Effective and time-bound measures. Clause (a). Preventing the engagement of children in the worst forms of child labour. Access to free basic education. In its previous comments, the Committee noted the measures taken by the Government to improve the education system, such as the National School Meals Programme in order to improve the school enrolment and retention rates and to encourage attendance at school, in particular among girls. It notes that a significant number of children benefited from this programme. However, noting with concern that the net enrolment rate (NER) at the secondary level was 18.3 per cent in 2013, the Committee requested the Government to take the necessary measures to strengthen its efforts to improve the functioning of the educational system, particularly by increasing the secondary school enrolment, attendance and completion rates and decreasing the drop-out rates.

The Committee notes the Government’s information that one of the objectives of the newly adopted National Action Plan (NAP) to Combat the Worst Forms of Child Labour, 2017–22 is to improve the functioning of the educational system, with the target set to enrol 1 million children in primary education by 2019, construct 2,885 classrooms and provide school meals to 107,731 students. In this regard, the Committee, notes from the UNICEF statistics of 2017 that the NER in the primary level was 87.54 per cent and the number of out-of-school children was 728,531. Moreover, the gross enrolment rate at the secondary level remained low at 34.92 per cent. Considering that education is key in preventing the engagement of children in the worst forms of child labour, the Committee encourages the Government to intensify its efforts to improve the functioning of the educational system, particularly by increasing the primary and secondary school enrolment, attendance and completion rates and decreasing the drop-out rates. It requests the Government to provide information on the measures adopted, including the concrete measures taken within the framework of the NAP 2017–22, and the results achieved in this regard.

Clause (d). Reaching out to children at special risk. 1. Street children and begging. In its previous comments, the Committee noted the Government’s strategy with regard to children in difficult situations, including street children, which involves action programmes to locate and reunify them with their families, reintegrate them into community life, provide socio-economic support and income-generating projects for such families and communities, as well as social protection programmes for abandoned children and their families through the Social Action Services Programme adopted by Decree No. 52 of October 2011. It also noted the Government’s information that there were 176 such shelter centres in Mozambique which provide education, occupational training activities, health and psychosocial care to street children.

The Committee notes that work on the streets is prohibited to children under the age of 18 years as per Decree No. 67/2017 on the List of Work Considered Hazardous for Children. The Decree lists certain types of work on the streets that are harmful to children under 18 years, such as: carrying heavy loads; repairing automobiles without proper protection; sweeping, garbage collection and recycling without proper protection; providing street services such as shoe shining and street vending for more than seven hours; and night work. The Committee requests the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that the prohibition on hazardous types of work by children on the streets is effectively enforced and to indicate the number and type of violations detected and the penalties imposed. It also requests the Government to pursue its efforts to protect street children from the worst forms of child labour and to provide for their rehabilitation and reintegration. Lastly, it requests the Government to provide information on the number of street children and child victims of begging who have been rehabilitated and reintegrated through the action programmes implemented by the Government, as well as through the social protection programmes under the Social Action Services Programme of 2011.

2. Migrant children. The Committee notes that the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, in its concluding observations of 16 October 2018, expressed concern about the large number of migrant children exposed to hazardous working conditions in mines, construction sites and quarries, market vending or as domestic or sex workers and their vulnerability to trafficking and forced labour (CMW/C/MOZ/CO/1, paragraph 31(b)). The Committee recalls that migrant children may be particularly vulnerable to the worst forms of child labour and requests the Government to take effective and time-bound measures to ensure that these children are protected from the worst forms of child labour, and to provide information on the results achieved.

Application of the Convention in practice. The Committee previously observed that there were no available statistics relating to children engaged in the worst forms of child labour in Mozambique. Noting the absence of information in the Government’s report, the Committee once again requests the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that sufficient data on the situation of working children, including those involved in the worst forms of child labour in Mozambique, is made available. It also requests the Government to supply copies or extracts from official documents including studies and inquiries, as well as information on the number of investigations, prosecutions, convictions and penalties applied for offences related to the worst forms of child labour. To the extent possible, all information provided should be disaggregated by age and gender.