R 151609Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY ABIDJAN
TO DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
SECSTATE WASHDC 4857
INFO USMISSION GENEVA

UNCLAS ABIDJAN 000037 
 
 
STATE FOR AF/W AND DRL/ILCSR-TDANG 
LABOR FOR ILAB-TMCCARTER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD PHUM SOCI USAID IV
SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR CHILD LABOR INFORMATION FOR TRADE AND 
DEVELOPMENT ACT (GSP) 2008 REPORT 
 
REF: 08 STATE 127448 
 
 
¶1. The information in this cable is in response to the 
questions under points A through E in paragraph 9 of reftel. 
 
¶2. A. Cote d'Ivoire has ratified International Labor 
Organization (ILO) Convention 138 regarding the minimum age 
for employment and ILO Convention 182 regarding the worst 
forms of child labor.  In February 2007, the Ministries of 
Family and Social Affairs and Labor and Public 
Administration, along with their NGO partners, proposed a 
bill outlawing child trafficking and the worst forms of child 
labor.  The bill awaits approval by the Council of Ministers. 
If approved by the Council, the bill must be voted on by the 
National Assembly before it becomes law. 
 
The minimum age for employment in Cote d'Ivoire is 14 and the 
minimum age for admission to hazardous work is 18.  Articles 
22.2 and 23.1 of the Labor Code, which was adopted on January 
12, 1995, forbid night work and hazardous work by children. 
Article 22.3 of the Labor Code provides that the rest period 
provided to workers under 18 must be at least 12 consecutive 
hours long.  Article 23.9 of the Labor Code provides that a 
child cannot be in a job that is recognized as being beyond 
the child's strength.  Article 337 of the Penal Code punishes 
facilitating the debauchery or corruption of minors. 
Articles 354 to 360 of the Penal Code punish sexual violence 
against children.  Article 362 of the Penal Code punishes 
violence against children under 15 as well as depriving 
children of food and care to the extent of threatening their 
lives.  Article 370 of the Penal Code punishes kidnapping of 
minors.  The minimum age for military recruitment and/or 
involvement in armed conflict is 18. 
 
Ministerial Decree 2250 of March 14, 2005 established a list 
of occupations the government considers the worst forms of 
child labor.  In the agricultural and forestry sector they 
are: logging, burning of fields, application of chemicals, 
application of chemical fertilizer, utilizing chemicals in 
nurseries, and carrying heavy loads.  In the mining sector 
they are: drilling and blasting, transporting stone fragments 
or blocks, crushing of stone, the extraction of ore using 
chemicals such as sodium cyanide and sulfuric acid and sulfur 
dioxide, and work in underground mines.  In the commercial 
and domestic service sectors they are: sale of pornographic 
material, work in bars, and garbage picking.  There are no 
penalties for violation of the prohibition on the worst forms 
of child labor. 
 
¶3. B. According to the Ministry of Civil Service and Labor, 
there are no legal remedies available to government agencies 
that enforce child labor and worst forms of child labor laws 
because there is no law specifically outlawing child 
trafficking and the worst forms of child labor.  Because no 
legal recourse exists to punish those who engage in the worst 
forms of child labor, violations are rarely investigated or 
addressed.  Although other laws exist which could be used to 
prosecute perpetrators (laws forbidding mistreatment of 
children, for example), judges lack training on applying 
these laws to child labor cases, and thus rarely convict 
offenders. 
 
On September 20, 2007, the Government of Cote d'Ivoire 
adopted a National Action Plan Against Trafficking and the 
Worst Forms of Child Labor that covers the period September 
2007 to December 2009.  The government promised to disburse 1 
billion 900 million CFA (USD 3.8 million) out of a total 
budget of three billion 200 million CFA (USD 6.5 million) 
over 3 years starting in 2008.  However, the government did 
not disburse any funds in 2008.  Aside from the National 
Action Plan, the government devotes minimal material or 
financial resources to the child labor problem and relies 
heavily on assistance from international donors and NGOs. 
 
Although regional labor inspectors routinely visit legally 
established companies at least once a year, no labor 
inspectors are solely dedicated to addressing child labor. 
The National Police have a training program for officers that 
includes training on child trafficking and the worst forms of 
child labor. The Deputy Director of the Juvenile Delinquency 
and Anti-Child Trafficking Unit of the National Police said 
that from June 2006 through March 2008, 624 officers have 
been trained on these issues. 
 
Because the Ministry of Justice does not keep any statistics 
on judicial cases brought to tribunals throughout the 
country, it is impossible to know how many offenders have 
been convicted or fined for child labor violations.  There 
are no systematic investigations of child labor violations. 
 
¶4. C.  The government has not directly provided 
awareness-raising and/or training activities for officials 
charged with enforcing child labor laws or worst forms of 
child labor laws.  However, the government has collaborated 
with organizations such as the International Cocoa 
Initiative, German aid agency GTZ, and ILO to provide such 
training to prefects, deputy prefects, police officers, and 
judges.  In 2008, using funding from GTZ, the Ministry of 
Labor and Civil Service continued to create and operate 
watchguard committees in the departments of Aboisso, 
Abengourou, Sinfra, and Oume.  In July 2008, the National 
Committee for the Fight Against Child Trafficking and 
Children's Exploitation created a committee in the region of 
Bondoukou, located in the northeast, and in the region of 
Daloa, located in the center-west, to coordinate the 
awareness-raising and monitoring carried out by the 
committees created in previous years at the department and 
village levels.  These regional committees were headed by 
prefects and the regional directors of the Ministry of Family 
and Social Affairs.  The committee in Daloa opened transition 
schools that permitted 107 destitute children (62 boys and 47 
girls) aged between 7 and 12, at risk of being trafficked, to 
be reinserted into regular schools. 
 
¶5. D.  Cote d'Ivoire's policy on child labor is elaborated in 
the National Action Plan Against Trafficking and the Worst 
Forms of Child Labor, which was adopted in September 2007. 
The plan was drafted jointly by the Ministry of Labor and 
Civil Service and the Ministry of Family and Social Affairs. 
The plan includes the building and rehabilitation of 10 
shelters nationwide.  The government has announced the 
creation of an inter-ministerial body to ensure follow-up of 
the implementation of the plan.  Action on the plan has 
stalled, however, as the Ministry of Economy and Finances has 
not disbursed funds needed to implement plan objectives. 
 
Cote d'Ivoire's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), 
dated December 11, 2008, notes that child labor is one of the 
results of poverty and that the lack of national 
labor/employment policies is one of the reasons why child 
labor persists.  The PRSP highlights the needs of street 
children, some of whom work as vendors.  The PRSP calls for 
increasing equal access to education, improving the quality 
of education, and making efforts to keep children in school. 
It calls for improvements in school infrastructure, staffing, 
and materials.  The PRSP also calls for greater efforts to 
protect and reintegrate street children, child laborers, and 
victims of trafficking as well as returning street children 
to their homes or identifying other appropriate care for 
them.  The PRSP states that funding should be made available 
to carry out the National Action Plan Against Trafficking and 
the Worst Forms of Child Labor. 
 
Education is free in law.  However, in practice, many parents 
do not send their children to school because they cannot 
afford registration fees, books, and/or uniforms. Education 
is not compulsory in law or practice. 
 
¶6. E. Children work predominantly in the agricultural sector. 
The large majority of them are from Burkina Faso, Mali, and 
other neighboring West African countries.  Children also work 
in the informal urban sector as apprentices, laborers, and/or 
domestic staff. 
 
Cote d'Ivoire is making slow, but steady progress on 
eliminating the worst forms of child labor.  Nearly all of 
the ministries implicated in the child labor issue have 
managed to step up their training and sensitization programs 
with the help of international partners.  One key blind spot, 
however, remains the Ministry of Justice, where much work 
remains to be done to ensure that offenders do not continue 
to escape prosecution for child labor-related offenses. 
 
 
NESBITT