Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2019, published 109th ILC session (2021)

Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) - Iraq (Ratification: 2001)

Articles 3(a) and 7(1) of the Convention. All forms of slavery and practices similar to slavery. Sale and trafficking of children and penalties. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that the Anti-Trafficking Act No. 28 of 2012 provides for stringent penalties including life imprisonment and a fine for the offences related to the trafficking of children (section 6). The Committee noted that in the 2016 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) has highlighted the practice of trafficking in persons and enslavement of women and children of the Yezidi ethno-religious group by the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIS) (page 65). The Committee urged the Government to take the necessary measures to prevent the sale and trafficking of children under 18 years of age for forced labour and sexual exploitation and to report on them.

The Committee notes an absence of information in the Government’s report on this point. The Committee notes that according to the Iraqi observatory for human trafficking victims (founded in October 2018), children below the age of 16, represent two thirds of the victims, who are being used for financial gains, or being forced to work by their families, and by traffickers. While acknowledging the difficult situation prevailing in the country, the Committee once again urges the Government to take the necessary measures to prevent and combat the sale and trafficking of children under 18 years of age for forced labour and sexual exploitation. The Committee also requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken to ensure that thorough investigations and prosecutions of persons who engage in the sale and trafficking of children are carried out and that sufficiently effective and dissuasive penalties are imposed in practice, in accordance with section 6 of the Anti-Trafficking Law. It requests the Government to provide information on the number of investigations, prosecutions, convictions and penal sanctions applied in this regard.

Article 5. Monitoring mechanisms. 1. Trafficking. The Committee notes an absence of information on this point. The Committee requests once again the Government to indicate whether the inter-ministerial committee to combat the trafficking of children has become operational and if so, to provide information on the activities carried out by it and the results achieved.

2. Labour inspectorate. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that in June 2019, the labour inspection service launched a broad campaign in Baghdad and the governorates that included industrial areas and areas where the worst forms of child labour occur; 144 young people and children were recorded as working in both formal and informal employment in Baghdad and the governorates. During 2017 and 2018, the Ministry provided services to children and young people working in industrial enterprises in the formal economy and street children (the informal economy) and their relatives by providing them with loans on easy terms and social protection network, as a measure to eliminate child labour on the basis of the observations made by the inspection committees in the Department of Labour, the labour inspection service and the Child Labour Division.

The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the number of inspections conducted and on the findings with regard to the extent and nature of violations detected concerning children involved in hazardous work. The Committee also requests the Government to indicate the measures taken to strengthen the functioning of the labour inspectorate by providing it with adequate human and financial resources in order to enable it to monitor the effective implementation of the national provisions giving effect to the Convention, in all sectors where the worst forms of child labour exist.

Article 7(2). Effective and time-bound measures. Clause (b). Providing the necessary and appropriate assistance for the removal of children from the worst forms of child labour and for their rehabilitation and social integration. Sale and trafficking of children. The Committee previously noted the Government’s indication that a state-run shelter named “Bayt Al Aman” was established in Bagdad to provide support to trafficked victims, including children.

The Committee notes an absence of information on this point. The Committee requests the Government to take effective and time-bound measures to identify and protect child victims of trafficking and to provide information on the number of child victims of trafficking who have been rehabilitated and reintegrated by the state-run shelter.

Clause (d). Identifying and reaching out to children in special situations. Internally displaced children, orphans and street children. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that regarding street children, the Department of Labour, the Labour Inspection Service and the Child Labour Division in cooperation with the Ministry of Education has prepared a complete programme on this issue targeting the schools with the highest dropout rates in Baghdad to raise the awareness of children, their relatives and the education authority of the dangers of children leaving school and finding themselves in an unsuitable environment where they are at risk of economic or sexual exploitation. The Committee requests the Government to continue to take effective and time-bound measures to protect internally displaced children, orphans and street children as a result of the armed conflict against the worst forms of child labour. It requests the Government to provide information on the results achieved by the Child Labour Division, indicating the number of children who have benefited from these measures.