VZCZCXRO0481
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHFN #0012/01 0051243
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 051243Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY FREETOWN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0660
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0218

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 FREETOWN 000012 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DOL FOR ILAB (TINA MCCARTER), DEPT FOR DRL/IL (TU DANG) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD PHUM SOCI EAID SL
SUBJECT: SIERRA LEONE: WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR 
 
REF: STATE 184972 
 
¶1.  Per reftel instructions, Post submits the following 
update to its 2005 Worst Forms of Child Labor report. 
 
¶2.  Background:  Child labor is prevalent in Sierra Leone. 
Many children are employed in family businesses, subsistence 
farming, street trading, and domestic work.  Within the 
country, trafficking occurs when impoverished parents or 
relatives in rural areas send children to urban areas where 
many find work as domestic laborers or commercial sex 
workers.  Children also are sent to diamond mining areas 
where they are often sexually exploited or forced to work in 
mines.  Sierra Leone's legislative and policy environment is 
supportive of children's rights in many ways, but the 
Government lacks the resources to effectively enforce and 
implement key laws and policies. 
 
¶3.  A)  Laws and regulations proscribing the worst forms of 
child labor: 
 
-- The GoSL has yet to ratify ILO 138 and 182.  However, 
there is a bill before Parliament to ratify ILO 182. 
Additionally, the Parliament is presently debating a bill 
entitled, The Child Rights Act, 2006.  When passed, the bill 
will set the minimum age for general employment at 15 years, 
which is also the maximum required age for compulsory primary 
education.  Thirteen years will be the minimum age for light 
work, and only those 18 years and older can engage in 
hazardous work.  Hazardous work includes working on sea-going 
vessels, mining and quarrying, porterage of heavy loads, 
manufacturing industries where chemicals are produced or 
used, work in places where machines are used, and work in 
places such as bars, hotels, and places of entertainment 
where a person may be exposed to immoral behavior.  The bill 
will not allow children to work at night between the hours of 
2000 and 0600. One section of the bill provides protection 
for children from exploitative labor, which is defined as 
anything that deprives a child of his/her health, education 
or development. 
 
-- Sierra Leone passed the Education Act of 2004, which 
provides basic education for all children beginning at age 
six and makes it a criminal offense for a parent to neglect 
to send his/her child to school for basic education. However, 
enforcement for all child labor and compulsory education 
provisions is limited. 
 
¶4.  B)  Regulations for implementation and enforcement of 
proscriptions against the worst forms of child labor: 
 
-- The Ministry of Labor, Social Security and Industrial 
Relations is responsible for enforcing child labor laws. 
Inadequate staff capacity and funding woes continue to hinder 
the Government's ability to effectively monitor child labor 
issues, especially in the informal sector where a majority of 
children work. 
 
¶5.  C)  Social programs to prevent and withdraw children from 
the worst forms of labor: 
 
-- The Department of Labor will fund seven projects totaling 
$275,000 from 2005 to 2007 under the Winrock International 
Community-Base Innovations to reduce Child Labor through 
Education (CIRCLE) program.  These projects promote child 
protection issues and provide vocational skills and basic 
education training that seek to remove children from 
hazardous working conditions into an environment free from at 
risk conditions.  The projects also will establish monitoring 
committees and centers for victims, as well as create group 
micro enterprises.  NGOs have or will receive grants ranging 
from $25,000 to $71,000 for the projects, and in sum will 
target over 2,000 at risk children and nearly 200 parents and 
teachers. 
 
-- The Countering Youth and Child Labor Through Education 
(CYCLE) initiative, a four-year $6 million project funded by 
the Department of Labor and implemented by the International 
Rescue Committee in Sierra Leone and Liberia, focuses on the 
prevention of the worst forms of child labor.  From September 
2005 to March 2009, CYCLE will promote the reduction of 
exploitative child labor by improving accessibility to 
education for children engaged in exploitative or vulnerable 
child labor, by strengthening economic alternatives to child 
labor for families and communities, and by increasing 
awareness of the risks and loss of human potential for 
children engaged in child labor. The CYCLE project plans to 
move nearly 30,000 children in targeted communities in Sierra 
Leone and Liberia who are employed in worst forms of child 
 
FREETOWN 00000012  002 OF 002 
 
 
labor or who are at risk of being employed in the worst forms 
of child labor into educational programs. 
 
-- The Ambassadors' Girls' Scholarship Program for Sierra 
Leone is an annual fund of $200,000 that focuses on girls' 
retention and completion of primary education.  It is part of 
President Bush's five-year African Education Initiative that 
seeks to increase access to quality basic educational 
opportunities in Africa.  The program is in its second year, 
and will provide scholarships over five years for 3,000 
primary school students in regions of Sierra Leone 
registering the poorest girls' enrollment record. 
 
-- The law mandates primary school attendance for children 
age six to 12 and the government promotes a policy of free 
primary education.  Despite government policy on free 
education, there are many informal fees that many families 
cannot afford to pay. 
 
¶6.  D)  Comprehensive policy aimed at the elimination of the 
worst forms of child labor: 
 
-- The Government, with technical assistance from the 
UK-funded Justice Sector Development Program, has established 
a National Child Justice Strategy for Sierra Leone.  The 
Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender, and Children's Affairs 
will have responsibility for implementation of policies 
geared to assist children in conflict with the law, children 
who are victims of abuse and children who might be at risk of 
abuse and delinquency.  The strategy will also concentrate on 
bridging gaps between law and practice on children issues. 
One of the main considerations will be the establishment of 
safe homes or foster families for temporary placement of 
victims and channels and outlets for reporting child abuse. 
 
-- Officials from the Ministries of Labor (MOL), Education, 
Science and Technology (MEST), Social Welfare, Gender and 
Children's Affairs (MSWGCA) have been actively involved in 
sensitizing activities to increase awareness of child labor 
issues.  The Minister of Labor gave a keynote speech at the 
first ever celebration of World Day against Child Labor on 
June 12, 2006.  UN and national radio voluntarily broadcasted 
a program multiple times in the local language of a panel 
discussion with participants from numerous ministries on the 
worst forms of child labor. Numerous community sensitizing 
training sessions were held throughout the country in July 
and had over 600 participants. 
 
¶7.  E)  Progress toward eliminating the worst forms of child 
labor: 
 
-- A needs and resource assessment conducted by the 
International Rescue Committee for the CYCLE project in six 
targeted towns/villages and surrounding areas in early 2006 
found that 71.3 percent of 353 working children surveyed were 
engaged in exploitative child labor, which was likely to harm 
their health, safety and morals.  Of the 353 children, 30.2 
percent were engaged in dangerous or inappropriate work, 21 
percent worked without adult supervision, 29.8 percent 
engaged in work that resulted in serious work injuries, and 
17 percent used dangerous tools. 
 
Among surveyed children involved in the unconditional worst 
forms of child labor, the largest proportion were found to 
have been involved in mining (12.1 percent) and to a lesser 
extent in prostitution (1.9) percent.  However, this 
information likely significantly under-represented such 
cases. 
 
Children not living with a parent are twice as likely in 
surveyed communities to be in exploitative child labor or out 
of school. 
HULL