VZCZCXRO9850
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHAB #1219/01 3461241
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 121241Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY ABIDJAN
TO RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3818
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0600
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABIDJAN 001219 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR FOR ILAB TINA MCCARTER 
STATE PASS TO USTR 
STATE FOR DRL TU DENG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD PHUM SOCI IV
SUBJECT: COTE D'IVOIRE'S UPDATE ON THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD 
LABOR 
 
REF: A. SECSTATE 149662 
 
     ¶B. ABIDJAN 1180 
     ¶C. ABIDJAN 1084 
 
 ¶1.  (U)  Per reftel instructions, Post submits the following 
updated information on the elimination of the worst forms of 
child labor (WFCL) in Cote d'Ivoire.  POC for this report is 
Economic Chief Ervin Massinga. 
 
A) Laws and Regulations Proscribing the Worst Forms of Child 
Labor 
--------- 
¶2.  (U)  Ivorian laws concerning WFCL have not changed since 
2005, when the National Assembly's constitutional mandate 
expired.  Since then, the country has depended on 
Presidential and Prime Ministerial decrees for new 
legislation, but this approach has not permitted many new 
legislative projects, and no new labor or trafficking in 
persons-related decrees have been promulgated since 2005. 
 
¶3.  (U)  Ivorian law continues to set the minimum age for 
employment at 14 years.  However, this law applies to the 
formal workplace, and not to the millions of small farms and 
informal businesses in rural and urban areas.  Forced and 
compulsory labor continues to be prohibited under a 2005 
governmental decree, as is hazardous work for persons under 
the age of 18.  The minimum age for recruitment into the 
armed forces is 18; in 2007, for the first time, both the 
armed forces of the state of Cote d'Ivoire and the armed 
opposition "New Forces" have refrained from forcibly 
recruiting underage persons. 
 
¶4.  (U)  The government has improved its enforcement of child 
trafficking laws.  It continues to set up village-level watch 
committees as part of a child labor trafficking monitoring 
system. 
 
B) Regulations for the Implementation and Enforcement of 
Prescriptions Against the Worst Forms of Child Labor 
---------- 
¶5.  (U)  The government's Child Labor Task Force is 
implementing a national action plan to combat child labor and 
trafficking (reftel a).  Nine government ministries are 
involved in the effort.  The Ministry of Family and Social 
Affairs continues to conduct awareness campaigns targeting 
children at risk and agricultural regions that employ child 
labor, working in coordination with several international 
NGOs. 
 
¶6.  (U)  Laws applying to child traffickers have not changed. 
 While the law does not specifically prohibit trafficking in 
persons, traffickers may be prosecuted for kidnapping, 
mistreatment and/or torture of children.  Punishments for 
such crimes range from one to five years imprisonment. 
"Alienation of a person's freedom" is punishable by five to 
ten years in prison, with the maximum penalty if the victim 
is under 15.  Anyone found to have left or taken another 
person as a form of financial guarantee can be punished with 
a prison sentence of five years, and if someone is forced to 
perform labor against his/her will, the penalty is one to 
five years in prison. 
 
¶7.  Enforcement of such laws continues to be hindered. 
Budgeted resources devoted to programs are small, and 
international donors assistance levels are higher than those 
of the government itself.  However, there are indications 
that training efforts by the government, often facilitated by 
resources provided by international donors, are having an 
effect.  Local law enforcement officials and border police 
are reporting more successes in uncovering cross-border 
efforts to traffic children and are disrupting the associated 
trafficking networks.  The government does not publish a 
comprehensive list or study of trafficking cases detected and 
prosecutions; news of such cases are reported through the 
press. 
 
C)  Social Programs Designed to Prevent and Withdraw Children 
from the Worst Forms of Child Labor 
---------- 
¶8.  (U)  The government of Cote d'Ivoire cooperates with 
ILO-IPEC on the six-year, USD 9.25 million regional LUTRENA 
project designed to combat the trafficking of children for 
exploitative labor in West and Central Africa.  The project 
aims to withdraw and prevent 9,000 children from trafficking 
situations in the region.  Additional funding to the LUTRENA 
 
ABIDJAN 00001219  002 OF 002 
 
 
project for Cote d'Ivoire specifically has aided the National 
Committee for Combating Trafficking and Child Exploitation, 
which has been in the lead in implementing programs in the 
field to detect trafficking of children. 
 
¶9.  (U)  USAID and the international cocoa industry fund the 
Sustainable Tree Crops Program in Cote d'Ivoire.  This 
public/private partnership promotes farmer education against 
using WFCL.  Germany's development agency GTZ, along with a 
number of NGOs and corporations working independently, also 
have substantial programs designed to sensitize communities 
concerning WFCL.  A group of international cocoa firms 
working together conducted a campaign in April that involved 
holding workshops to explain the damage done by WFCL; 11,500 
cocoa farmers attended. 
 
D) Comprehensive Policy Aimed at the Elimination of the Worst 
Forms of Child Labor 
---------- 
¶10.  (U)  The government is in the midst of developing and 
implementing a nationwide program to monitor and combat the 
use of WFCL in at least 50 percent of the country, as 
outlined under the Harkin-Engle Protocol.  The National Child 
Labor Task Force published a preliminary diagnostic plan 
(reftel c) which found 22 percent of children in a test area 
within the cocoa-growing regions are involved in cocoa 
production, and a majority of them (over 80 percent) are 
subjected to at least one form of WFCL (overwhelmingly 
carrying heavy loads).  This finding is in line with previous 
reports on the subject. 
 
¶11.  (U)  The Ministry of Labor has produced a National Plan 
of Action to combat WFCL (reftel b).  The plan identifies a 
series of steps that must be accomplished, including 
strengthening the capacity of judges and law enforcement, 
reinforcing preventative action (sensitization campaigns) and 
the development of a plan to remove children from 
environments in which they are subjected to WFCL.  The plan 
is budgeted at USD 7.2 million and aims to reduce the overall 
incidence of child labor (including but not exclusively WFCL) 
by 2011. 
 
¶12.  (U)  The National Plan of Action and pilot diagnostic 
were published in September and November 30, 2007 
respectively.  The pilot diagnostic should be scaled up 
during the cocoa-harvest (December-March) to include 50 
percent of the country's cocoa growing regions, and a 
complete diagnostic is to be published in the spring of 2008. 
 
¶13.  (U)  Education is free through secondary school, but is 
not mandatory.  In practice, however, school books, uniforms 
and lunch fees make schooling cost-prohibitive for many poor 
families. 
 
E)  Is Cote d'Ivoire Making Continual Progress Towards 
Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor? 
--------- 
¶14.  (U)  The most recent comprehensive surveys continue to 
be ones performed in 2002 and 2003.  A preliminary study of 
efforts to monitor and eliminate WFCL, done by Tulane 
University's Payson Center (under a grant from the DOL) 
provided a partial snapshot of the multiple efforts to assess 
and end WFCL.  In its preliminary report, the Payson Center 
found that the objective of certifying the cocoa industry as 
entirely free of WFCL unrealistic, given the 1-2 million 
small family cocoa farms involved in cocoa productions, the 
poverty of their owners, and the social acceptance of 
children working with or alongside their parents and other 
relatives. 
 
¶15.  (U)  Anecdotal evidence from a number of U.S. and 
international NGOs indicate that sensitization efforts are 
having an impact.  Farmers are aware of the deleterious 
effects of WFCL on children, and the incidence of such labor, 
aside from carrying heavy loads (which approximately 90 
percent of children working in the cocoa industry do), is 
under 20 percent. 
NESBITT