CMNT_TITLE

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

Other comments on C182

Observation

2023
2019

Direct Request

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Article 7(2) of the Convention. Effective and time-bound measures. Clauses (a) and (c). Prevent the engagement of children in the worst forms of child labour. Access to free basic education. The Government indicates in its report under the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) that it is committed to upholding the right of every person to basic education, regardless of gender, age, religion or disability. Accordingly, basic education will be open to all. Education at this level will be geared towards the holistic development of the individual for the positive realization of every person’s full potential and aspirations. The Education Sector Policy 2016–2030 is the first sector-wide policy written after the repositioning of the former Ministry of Education to focus on Basic and Secondary Education. Some of the initiatives to encourage school enrolment and reduce child labour include the establishment of new schools, construction of additional classrooms and the improvement, rehabilitation and maintenance of existing facilities. The Committee notes also the information provided by the Government in its report submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council in July 2019, according to which the School Improvement Grant (SIG) has been a positive stride towards the progressive introduction of free education. The SIG covers the cost of stationary, books and school uniforms for children from lower basic, upper basic and senior secondary education levels. The SIG is coupled with the bursary scheme for girls that also provides for uniforms and stationary especially for girls in the rural area. In addition, the Results for Education Achievement and Development (READ) Project supported by the World Bank through the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education provides free textbooks for both boys and girls in schools. A Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme has also been introduced to provide another form of education with minimum curriculum standards to children and youth who attend non-conventional Islamic schools. The Scheme has been introduced in 17 centres countrywide and aims to provide functional literacy and numeracy coupled with life and livelihood skills. These funds are supplemented by regional initiatives and incentives of various types, including special scholarship packages that cover a wide range of costs from fees, uniforms, and books to mentoring. The Government also engages in public sensitization programmes to encourage parents to make educating their female children, in addition to the male, a priority [A/HRC/WG.6/34/GMB/1, paras 127, 128 and 135]. The Committee further notes that, according to the Education Sector Policy 2016–2030, increased public expenditure on education has led to expanding access and enrolment at all levels of the formal education system, with girls representing over 50 per cent of enrolments in both lower and upper basic education. Policy objectives include increasing the basic education gross enrolment rates and the completion rates in basic education to 100 per cent by 2030, so that every child will have a minimum school career of nine uninterrupted years. However, the Committee notes that, as mentioned in such Policy, in addition to attracting children to school, greater efficiency continues to be required in order to retain a larger proportion of children in basic education. Even though repetition rates have dropped significantly, 26 per cent of 12 year old girls and 27 per cent of 12-year-old boys do not complete grade 6. Out of those who started grade 1 in 2015, 54 per cent are expected to reach grade 6 and only 43 per cent to reach grade 9. Considering that education is key in preventing the engagement of children in the worst forms of child labour, the Committee requests the Government to intensify its efforts to ensure access to free basic education to all children and to improve the functioning of the education system through measures aimed at increasing the school enrolment and attendance rates and reducing the drop-out rates of both boys and girls at the primary and secondary levels. It requests the Government to continue to provide information on the measures taken or envisaged in this regard, as well as on the results achieved.

Clause (b). Provide for the necessary and appropriate assistance for the removal of children from the worst forms of child labour, and for their rehabilitation and social integration. Child victims of commercial sexual exploitation. The Committee previously requested the Government to provide information on the implementation of the National Plan of Action to Combat Sexual Exploitation of Children (NPA-CSEC-II), as well as on the number of children prevented from engaging in or removed from that worst forms of child labour and the number of child victims of commercial sexual exploitation who have benefited from the rehabilitation and reintegration programmes of the Department of Social Welfare (DOSW).

The Committee notes the Government’s indication in its report that a series of meetings and sensitizations have been carried out at national, regional and local level, but no data is available. The Committee notes also the information provided by the Government in its combined report on the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights for the period 1994 and 2018, of August 2018, that in its efforts to effectively combat child sexual abuse and exploitation, the DOSW reviewed and updated its National Plan of Action Against the Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children 2011–2015 in order to strengthen the protective environment for children. The Child Protection Alliance, a child rights coalition in the Gambia, in partnership with the Gambia Tourism Board, has from 2010 to date, sensitized 151 stakeholders (taxi drivers, hotel workers, tourist guides, personnel of the Tourism Security Unit, small-scale entrepreneurs) in the tourism industry on the Code of Conduct of the Gambia Tourism Board for the Protection of Children, the Tourism Offences Act 2003 and the Sexual Offences Act, to ensure greater protection of children from sexual exploitation in tourism. The Gambia Tourism Board, in collaboration with the Child Protection Alliance, launched an electronic signboard with messages on the Gambia’s stance against child sex tourism at the arrival lounge of the Banjul International Airport. The Committee notes, however, that the Gambia’s National Human Rights Commission, in its submission to the Universal Periodic Review, indicates that the Gambia remained a source and destination country for the trafficking of children for sexual purposes [A/HRC/WG.6/34/GMB/3, para. 43]. The Committee therefore urges the Government to strengthen its efforts to ensure that child victims of commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking for that purpose are removed from these worst forms of child labour, rehabilitated and socially integrated. The Committee further requests the Government to provide information on the impact of the measures taken by the relevant governmental agencies, notably under the revised National Plan of Action to Combat Sexual Exploitation of Children, in preventing and combating the commercial sexual exploitation of children and trafficking of children for that purpose.

Clause (d). Identify and reach out to children at special risk. HIV and AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC). The Committee notes that the National Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS (2015–2019) aims to increase the percentage of orphans and vulnerable children under 18 years receiving educational and nutritional support from 57 per cent in 2013 to 80 per cent by 2019. A Steering Committee has been established to coordinate the support to OVC. The Committee also notes that the Government adopted a National Social Protection Policy (2015–2025) which foresees the implementation of measures needed to address the specific socio-economic vulnerabilities faced by children affected by HIV and AIDS. According to such policy, due to the impact of HIV and AIDS, the Gambia is home to many orphans and vulnerable children, including children living with HIV and street children. The Committee further notes the data available at the UNAIDS website, which indicates that there were 19,000 orphans due to AIDS aged 0 to 17 in 2018 in the Gambia. The Committee requests the Government to scale up its efforts to prevent the engagement of HIV/AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children in the worst forms of child labour. It also requests the Government to provide information on the results achieved through the implementation of the National Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS (2015–2019) and of the National Social Protection Policy (2015–2025).

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