VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDS #3435/01 3370453
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 030453Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8721
INFO RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 4073

UNCLAS ADDIS ABABA 003435 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR DRL/IL: TU DANG 
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR/ILAB: TINA MCCARTER 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF/E 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD PHUM SOCI USAID ET
SUBJECT: ETHIOPIA: UPDATE OF WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR INFORMATION 
FOR MANDATORY CONGRESSIONAL REPORTING REQIREMENTS 
 
REF: A) STATE 00158223, B) STATE 149662, C) STATE 143552 
 
¶1. Requested information about the worst forms of child 
labor in Ethiopia follows and is organized per reftel 
instructions. 
 
¶2. For further references, please contact Political/Economic Affairs 
Officer Kimberly Wright at: WRIGHTKE2@STATE.GOV 
 
¶3.  Incidence and Nature of Child Labor 
 
In 2005, approximately 58.1 percent of boys and 41.6 percent of 
girls ages 5 to 14 were working in Ethiopia. The majority of working 
children were found in the agricultural sector (95.2 percent), 
followed by services (3.4 percent), manufacturing (1.3 percent), and 
other sectors (0. percent). The number of working children is higher 
in the Amhara, Oromiya, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples 
(SNNP) and Tigray regions compared with other regions. According to 
the Ministry of Social and Labor Affairs (MOLSA), many Ethiopian 
children work for their families without pay. In both rural and 
urban areas, children often begin working at young ages, with many 
starting work at 5. In rural areas, children work in agriculture on 
commercial and family farms, and in domestic service. Children in 
rural areas, especially boys, engage in activities such as cattle 
herding, petty trading, plowing, harvesting and weeding, while other 
children, mostly girls, collect firewood and water. In urban areas, 
many children, including orphans, work in domestic service. Child 
domestic workers work long hours, which may prevent them from 
attending school regularly.  Many feel unable to quit their jobs and 
fear physical, verbal, and sexual abuse from their employers while 
performing their work. Children in urban areas work in construction, 
manufacturing, shining shoes, making clothes, portering, directing 
customers into taxis, petty trading, and herding animals. Estimates 
of the population of street children vary, with the government 
estimating it to be between 150,000 and 200,000 for the whole 
country, and UNICEF estimating it to be 600,000 children. In the 
capital city of Addis Ababa alone, there are an estimated 50,000 to 
60,000 street children according to the government, and 100,000 
according to UNICEF. Some of these children work in the informal 
sector in order to survive. The commercial sexual exploitation of 
children is increasing in Ethiopia, particularly in urban areas. 
Girls as young as 11 have reportedly been recruited to work in 
brothels, often sought by customers who believe them to be free of 
sexually transmitted infections. Girls are also exploited as 
prostitutes in hotels, bars, resort towns and rural truck stops. 
Reports indicate that some young girls have been forced into 
prostitution by their family members. Within Ethiopia, children are 
trafficked from rural to urban areas for domestic service, 
commercial sexual exploitation, and forced labor in street vending 
and other activities. Reports indicate that children have been 
trafficked from Oromiya and SNNP to other regions of the country for 
forced or bonded labor in domestic service. 
 
¶4. 
 
¶A. LAWS AND REGULATIONS PROSCRIBING THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR 
 
Ethiopia has ratified all eight core ILO conventions.  Ethiopia's 
Labor Proclamation (42/93) prohibits children below the age of 14 
from working.  The same proclamation limits conditions of work for 
children between the ages of 15 and 18. Children in the 15-18 year 
old age bracket are allowed to work so long as it is not hazardous 
to their health or developmental progress. Prohibited activities 
include transporting goods by air, land, or sea; working with 
electric power generation plants; and performing underground work. 
Young workers are prohibited from working more than 7 hours per day, 
between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., during weekly rest days, and on public 
holidays. The law states that children have the right to be 
protected against exploitive practices and work conditions and 
should not engage in employment that could threaten their health, 
education, or well-being. 
 
Age 15 is consistent with the age of primary education completion, 
while 18 years is roughly consistent with the age of secondary 
school completion.  Article 176 of Ethiopia's Criminal Code 
identifies minors as age 15 or younger, identifies age 18 as the age 
of legal majority, and notes that those between age 15 to 18 belong 
to an "intermediary age group." 
 
The Ethiopian Penal Code outlaws work specified as hazardous by the 
International Labor Organization (ILO) convention, but the labor law 
of Ethiopia does not define or specify the worst forms of child 
labor.  The GOE ratified Convention 182 on May 8, 2003.  As the 
Ethiopian constitution states that all international conventions and 
covenants ratified by Ethiopia are an integral part of the law of 
the land, the list of occupations listed by the ILO Convention also 
apply in Ethiopia. 
 
Children are prohibited from working in the following 
sectors:  transportation of passengers and goods by road, 
railway, air or water; work carried out on dockside and 
warehouse involving heavy weight lifting, pulling or pushing of 
heavy items or any other related type of work; work connected with 
electric power generation plants, transformers or transmission 
lines; underground work such as mines, quarries and similar work; 
construction work on high scaffolding; working in sewers and digging 
in tunnels; street cleaning; toilet cleaning; separation of dry and 
liquid waste materials and transportation of waste materials; 
working on production of alcoholic drinks and cigarettes; hotels, 
motels, nightclubs and similar service giving activities; grinding, 
cutting and welding of metals; work involving electrical machines to 
cut, split or shape wood, etc.; felling timber; and, work that 
involves mixing of chemicals and elements which are known to be 
harmful and hazardous to health.  Most forms of human trafficking 
have been criminalized under the new penal code; the trafficking of 
women and children carries a penalty of up to 20 years of 
imprisonment and a fine. The law also prohibits the compulsory or 
forced labor of children. The minimum age for conscription and 
voluntary recruitment into the military is 18 years. While MOLSA is 
charged with the enforcement of child labor laws, its efforts to 
provide oversight and resources have been inadequate. Some efforts 
have been made to enforce child labor laws in the formal industrial 
sector; however, this was not where most child labor occurred in the 
country. 
 
MOLSA, in collaboration with local police, is responsible for 
monitoring trafficking, while the Ministry of Justice is responsible 
for enforcing laws related to trafficking. In July 2006, the 
government convicted and sentenced a trafficker to 13 years in 
prison and imposed a fine. 
 
MOLSA noted that the Ethiopian government is in the process of 
developing a list of occupations considered to be the worst forms of 
child labor. 
 
¶B.  REGULATIONS FOR IMPLEMENTATION AND ENFORCEMENT 
 
Child labor issues are currently covered by a newly formed Ministry 
of Women and Children's Affairs.  Courts are responsible for 
enforcing children's rights.  Criminal and civil penalties may be 
levied in child rights violation cases.  According to MOLSA, a 
national strategy is being formulated to enforce child labor laws. 
Due to the absence of a national strategy, investigation and 
disposition of child rights violation cases is minimal.  In 2005, 
the Forum for the Street Children in Ethiopia reported that only one 
of 213 child rights cases had been adjudicated in a court of law. 
 
In 2006, MOLSA conducted a national workshop and established a 
committee to develop a national child labor policy.  Ethiopia is one 
of four countries participating in the 4-year, USD 14.5 million 
Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Ethiopia Together (KURET) project, funded 
by USDOL and implemented by World Vision in partnership with the 
International Rescue Committee and the Academy for Educational 
Development. The KURET Project aims to withdraw or prevent a total 
of 30,600 children from exploitive labor in HIV/AIDS-affected areas 
of these four countries through the provision of educational 
services. In 2006, the GOE indicated its support for KURET's 
Alternative Basic Education (ABE) centers by committing to pay part 
of their staffing costs. Ethiopia also participates in the 5-year 
USDOL-funded Reducing Child Labor through Education (CIRCLE 1) 
global project being implemented by Winrock International through 
2007, which aims to reduce exploitive child labor through the 
provision of educational opportunities. 
 
¶C.  SOCIAL PROGRAMS 
 
The GOE encourages children to attend school, but it is not/not 
compulsory.  In recent years, the government increased its budget 
for primary education.  A number of schools, particularly in rural 
and remote areas, have been under construction, while existing 
schools have been rehabilitated, to maximize capacity for 
enrollment. 
 
There are not enough schools, however, to accommodate 
Ethiopia's population of school age children. According to the 
Ministry of Education (MoE), 77.5 percent of school age children 
attended school in the 2005/2006 academic year. In 2006 91.3 percent 
of primary school age children attended school. The MoE goal is to 
reach 100 percent of children enrolled in primary education by 
¶2015. 
 
The Ministry of Education provided the following primary 
School completion rates for the 2006/2006 academic year: 
 
GRADE     GR 5    GR.8 
------------------------- 
 
BOYS      69.2%   50.1% 
GIRLS     56.0%   32.9% 
TOTAL     62.7%   41.7% 
 
Of the programs that have been implemented in 2006, the Agricultural 
Federation has designed a new manual, based on ILO curriculum models 
specific to child and women's  labor issues, featuring information 
about  HIV/AIDS. 
 
Another ILO/IPEC program has had some success addressing child labor 
issues on plantations. The Agricultural Federation and local 
administration has run stakeholder workshops which highlight the 
negative impact of child labor in plantation harvest work, while 
emphasizing the benefits of primary schooling.  Plantation owners 
responded well to the Federation message that child labor negatively 
affects Ethiopia's international branding and image in export 
markets. The Federation has noted increased regional government 
efforts to protect children from harvest labor exploitation. 
 
¶D.  COUNTRY POLICIES AIMED AT ELIMINATING WORST FORMS OF 
CHILD LABOR 
 
There is no particular policy in Ethiopia designed to ensure the 
effective abolition of child labor or to raise the minimum working 
age progressively, but there are various economic and social 
policies that have indirectly addressed the issue.  For example, the 
Ethiopian government initiated an education and training policy 
aimed at achieving universal enrollment in primary school by 2015. 
A new National Plan of Action (NPA) is in near final-draft form and 
seeks to include a component on improving the well-being of 
Ethiopian children.  Little information about the implementation and 
effectiveness of government policies involving the protection of 
children is available however at this time. 
 
¶E.  PROGRESS TOWARDS ELIMINATING WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR 
 
Child labor is widespread in Ethiopia. A 2001 ILO report estimates 
that Ethiopia has 18 million children (age 5-17) who comprise 33 
percent of the population; one-third of those children combine work 
and school, while one-half work without attending school.  MOLSA 
reports that 92 percent of children work in households without pay, 
while 3 percent are engaged in activities other than domestic 
chores.  On average, children work 33 hours per week.  Thirty-eight 
percent confirm that their work affects their schooling.  Two in 
three children indicate that they volunteer to assist with household 
work, while one in four children indicate they must work to 
supplement household income.  According to MOLSA, two out of five 
working children in Ethiopia are below the age of six. 
 
Child labor in Ethiopia is generally comprised of children working 
in subsistence farming alongside their parents in rural areas. 
(Note:  Eighty-five percent of Ethiopian population is engaged in 
subsistence agriculture. End Note.) The GOE does not perceive this 
as a child labor issue as much as a development problem, and 
therefore tries to tackle it through school construction and 
agricultural development. 
 
MOLSA's most recent child labor activity data was last generated in 
2001: 
 
Table 1. 
 
          ENGAGED IN    ENGAGED IN 
          PRODUCTIVE    HOUSE-KEEPING    NOT 
AGE       WORK          ACTIVITIES       WORKING 
------    ----------    -------------    ------- 
5-9            38.9%            35.4%      25.7% 
10-14          62.4             32.9        4.7 
15-17          67.5             29.7        2.8 
 
Table 2. 
 
EMPLOYMENT 
TYPE (CHILDREN 5-17)      MALE   FEMALE   TOTAL 
--------------------      ----   ------   ----- 
Domestic Employee          0.4      1.8     0.9 
Employee (not domestic)    4.1      1.3     3.0 
Self-Employed              2.2      4.1     3.0 
Unpaid Family Work        92.6     91.7    92.3 
Apprentice                 0.1      0.0     0.1 
Not Stated                 0.6      1.1     0.7 
 
Though the government lacks the resources to provide material 
assistance to trafficking victims, joint police-NGO child victim 
identification and referral mechanism operates in the capital. The 
Child Protection Units (CPU's) in each Addis Ababa police station 
rescued and collected information on trafficked children that 
facilitated their return to their families; the CPUs referred 240 
 
trafficked children to IOM and local NGOs for care in 2006. The 
child protection units also collect data on rescued children to 
facilitate their reunification with their families.  A USAID-funded 
center in Addis Ababa provides shelter, medical care, counseling, 
and reintegration assistance to girls victimized by trafficking. 
NGOs, such as the Forum on Street Children-Ethiopia, provide 
assistance to children engaged in commercial sexual exploitation, 
including such services as a drop-in center, shelter, educational 
services, skills training, guidance, assistance with 
income-generating and employment activities, and family 
reunification services. IOM runs a shelter for TIP victims in Addis 
and partners with ILO on child labor and child trafficking issues. 
Such assistance often accompanies interaction with the government in 
order to develop long-term policy and program objectives. 
 
YAMAMOTO