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The Committee notes with regret that no report has been received from the Government. It must therefore repeat its previous observation on the following matters:

1. Forced recruitment of children during armed conflicts. The Committee of Experts has previously noted the concern expressed by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child at the use of children by the state armed forces as soldiers or helpers in camps or in obtaining information. The Committee on the Rights of the Child also expressed its concern at the low minimum age of recruitment to the armed forces. According to these observations, there is also widespread recruitment of children by opposition armed forces and sexual exploitation of children by members of the armed forces (CRC/C/15/Add.133, paragraphs 24 and 71). The Committee also noted the evaluation report of the national action programme for the survival, protection and development of children for the 1990s (report produced in January 2001 as part of the follow-up to the World Summit for Children). This report refers to the situation of street children, child soldiers and the sexual and commercial exploitation of children (paragraphs 86 and 94). Child soldiers are between 12 and 16 years of age and are used as messengers, servants, lookouts or scouts. As camp followers of the combatants they are often easy targets, being untrained in protection techniques. The rebels allegedly enrol primary school children from the age of 12 years. Even though the minimum age for conscription in the armed forces of Burundi is 16 years, there are indications that children are used by soldiers for odd jobs.

The Committee notes that in March 2003 the ICFTU made comments on the application of the Convention, confirming the use of child soldiers by the armed forces. The Committee notes that the Government has not provided any information on the measures adopted to protect children against recruitment in the armed forces as soldiers or to perform supporting tasks for military personnel. The Committee expresses particular concern at the situation of these children. The Committee also notes the report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations on children and armed conflict, submitted to the United Nations Security Council in November 2002. At the request of the latter, the report drew up a list of 23 parties to armed conflict that recruit or use child soldiers, in violation of the international provisions protecting them. The Committee also notes that this list includes the Government of Burundi, PALIPEHUTU/FNL (Parti pour la libération du peuple Hutu/Forces nationales pour la libération) and the CNDD/FDD (Conseil national pour la défense de la démocratie/Front pour la défense de la démocratie).

Finally, the Committee notes that Burundi ratified the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), on 11 June 2002. As Convention No. 182 provides in Article 3(a) that the worst forms of child labour include "forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict", the Committee considers that the problem of the recruitment of children in armed forces may be examined more specifically in the context of Convention No. 182. The protection of children is strengthened by the fact that Convention No. 182 places the obligation upon States which ratify it to take immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour as a matter of urgency. While noting that in its reply to the comments of the ICFTU, the Government indicates that following the Arusha Peace Agreement and the Pretoria Ceasefire Agreement, the phenomenon of recruitment of the children in armed conflicts has almost disappeared and their socio-economic integration is continuing, the Committee requests the Government to provide more detailed information on the measures adopted to protect children against forced recruitment to serve as soldiers and to carry out supporting tasks for the armed forces in its first detailed report on the application of Convention No. 182.

2. For many years, the Committee has drawn the Government’s attention to the need to take measures to bring certain provisions of the national legislation into conformity with the Convention. The Committee noted in this respect that in 1993, a process of bringing the legislation into harmony with the Convention was initiated, but could not be completed due to the crisis experienced by the country. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that the national legislation considered contrary to the Convention and dealing with matters covered by the Ministry responsible for agriculture will be submitted for abrogation at one of the next meetings of the Council of Ministers. The Committee hopes that the Government will be in a position to report the adoption of specific measures to bring the provisions of the legislation referred to below into conformity with the Convention:

n  the need to set forth in the law the voluntary nature of agricultural work performed in the context of the obligations respecting the conservation and utilization of the land and the obligation to create and maintain minimum areas of food crops (Ordinances Nos. 710-275 and 710-276);

n  the need to formally repeal certain texts with respect to compulsory cultivation, porterage and public works (Decree of 14 July 1952, Ordinance No. 1286 of 10 July 1953 and Decree of 10 May 1957);

n  the need to amend Legislative Decree No. 1/16 of 29 May 1979 which establishes the obligation, under penalty of sanctions (one month of penal labour performed on one half-day a week), to perform community development work;

n  the need to amend sections 340 and 341 of the Penal Code which provide that in the event of vagrancy or begging a person may be placed at the disposal of the Government for a period of between one and five years during which time such person may be forced to perform work in a prison institution.

The Committee hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action in the very near future.