Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) - Senegal (Ratification: 2000)

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Articles 3(a) and 7(1) of the Convention. Worst forms of child labour and penalties. Sale and trafficking of children for economic exploitation and forced labour. Begging. With regard to its previous comments, in which the Committee expressed its concern at the persistent exploitation of talibé children and deplored the low number of prosecutions under section 3 of Act No. 2005-06, it notes the Government’s intention in its report to adopt a draft Children’s Code rapidly. This draft, under its section 118, provides for the creation of a complaints mechanism for children, entitled “Children’s Defender”. According to the provisions, the Children’s Defender may be contacted by different parties: the children themselves, their legal representatives, the medical and social services, or any other person or association informed of the violation of the child’s rights. The Children’s Defender is also empowered to act on her or his own initiative on being informed of violations of the rights of the child.

The Committee also notes the information in the report submitted by Senegal to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, published on 8 December 2022 (CRC/C/SEN/6-7, para. 68), according to which that Committee requested the National Statistics and Demography Agency to conduct a study “on the status of data collection on begging”.

The Committee notes with regret the absence of information on the number of children engaged in begging, and on the number of prosecutions filed under section 3 of Act No. 2005-06. Recalling that the penalties established are only effective if they are applied in practice, the Committee once again urges the Government to take the necessary measures without delay to ensure the effective enforcement in practice of section 3 of Act No. 2005-06 and the punishment of persons who use talibé children under 18 years of age for begging for economic exploitation. The Committee once again urges the Government to intensify its efforts for the effective reinforcement of the capacities of the officials responsible for the enforcement of the law and to ensure that the perpetrators of these acts, as well as State officials who fail to investigate such allegations, are prosecuted and that sufficiently dissuasive penalties are imposed in practice on those who are convicted. The Committee again requests the Government to provide statistics on the number of prosecutions, convictions and penalties imposed under Act No. 2005-06. It also requests it to provide information on progress regarding the report on “the status of data-collection on begging”.

Article 7(2). Effective and time-bound measures. Clauses (a) and (b). Preventing children from being engaged in the worst forms of child labour and the provision of assistance to remove them from these forms of child labour. Talibé children. Projects and programmes for the removal of children from the streets. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes the information in the Government’s report regarding the activities undertaken to support the social reintegration of children in street situations. The Ministry of Child Protection provided 24 families and 15 Koranic schools (daaras) with kits containing food, hygiene products and other products. Moreover, 60 families were enrolled in the National Family Security Grants Programme, and 15 daaras which came forward voluntarily were funded through micro-projects to accompany families in their return to the area they left from and to build their self-sufficiency.

The Committee also notes that besides the plan for the removal of children from the street, the Ministry of Child Protection has drawn up two different projects: the project to support, remove and rehabilitate street children, with a pilot phase to be developed in the Dakar region; and the programme to promote the removal and socioeconomic reintegration of street children, currently at the fund-raising phase. The Committee requests the Government to continue to reinforce the relevant programmes to be able to remove child victims of begging for exclusively economic purposes and ensure their lasting rehabilitation and social integration, particularly by ensuring effective follow-up to the children’s removal from the streets. The Committee also requests the Government to transmit information on the measures taken in this regard and to provide statistics on the number of talibé children withdrawn from the worst forms of child labour that have benefited from rehabilitation and social reintegration.

Project to modernize daaras. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes the information provided by the Government in its report, according to which the Ministry of Education, through the project to improve the quality and equity of basic education (the PAQEEB project) has developed strategies including: (1) implementation of the modern daaras curriculum, integrating memorizing the Koran, religious education and basic elementary school competencies; and (2) implementation of an investment programme aimed at the construction, rehabilitation and fitting out of daaras so as to create a physical and pedagogical environment propitious to good quality education.

The Committee also notes the information according to which other projects aim to promote implementation of the PAQEEB project by integrating support for daaras, in collaboration with international entities such as the Islamic Development Bank, the World Bank, UNICEF and the United States Agency for International Development.

However, The Committee notes with regret that the bill establishing the status of daaras, introduced first in 2010, then reintroduced in 2013 and approved by the Council of Ministers in 2018, has not yet been adopted. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the implementation of the project to modernize daaras through the above programmes, as well as the results achieved. Finally, the Committee again asks the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that the bill establishing the status of daaras is adopted in the near future and it requests the Government to provide information on the manner in which this bill, when it has been adopted, will contribute to the modernization of daaras and will protect talibé children from forced begging.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.