VZCZCXRO2956
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHKI #0120/01 0321246
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 011245Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0108
INFO RWANDA COLLECTIVE
SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RUCXJAC/JAC MOLESWORTH JCDX RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 KINSHASA 000120 
 
SIPDIS 
PASS TO DOL/ILAB (LEYLA STROTKAMP, RACHEL RIGBY, TINA MCCARTER, PATRICK WHITE AND CHANDA LECKIE) 
DEPT FOR DRL/ILCSR (SARAH MORGAN) 
DEPT FOR DRL/ILCSR (TU DANG) 
DEPT FOR G/TIP (LUIS CDEBACA) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD KTIP PHUM SOCI CG
SUBJECT: DRC RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ON CHILD LABOR AND 
FORCED LABOR 
 
REF: 09 STATE 131995; 09 KINSHASA 83; 09 KINSHASA 50; 08 KINSHASA 629 
09 KINSHASA 977 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary:  In response to ref A, below is Post's submission 
of information on child labor and forced labor for the Department 
of Labor's Congressional reporting requirements under the 
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 (TVPRA) 
and the Trade and Development Act of 2000 (TDA).  End summary. 
 
 
 
Tasking 1/TVPRA 
 
--------------- 
 
 
 
¶2.  (U) In response to the TVPRA action request (Ref A), Post does 
not have any new information that clearly demonstrates child labor 
is no longer used in the production of copper, cobalt, coltan, 
gold, and diamonds.  As per Ref C, children under the age of 
eighteen continue to work as artisanal miners in the southern, 
central, and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  In 
addition to the goods cited in the DOL's draft list of goods, 
children are sometimes used in the mining of wolframite (tungsten 
ore) and cassiterite (tin ore) in the eastern provinces (Ref D). 
 
 
 
¶3.  (U) Though GDRC efforts to support its new National Committee 
to Combat the Worst Forms of Child Labor (NCCL) have increased over 
the last year, the government lacks the resources and capacity 
necessary to enforce child labor laws.  Many mining companies, 
including U.S.-based Freeport McMoRan, operate in the DRC with 
strict protections against child labor and several NGOs are working 
to address the socio-economic causes of the problem.  The vast 
majority of goods produced using child labor in the DRC exit the 
country via the informal market, however, and are therefore 
difficult to track or prevent. 
 
 
 
Tasking 2/TDA 
 
------------- 
 
 
 
2 A) Prevalence and Sect. Distribution of Exploitive Child Labor 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------------- 
 
 
 
¶4.  (U) As noted in Ref A, children in the DRC were involved in 
exploitive labor in domestic service and street vending.  During an 
October 2009 visit by DRL Foreign Affairs Officer, both the Chief 
of Staff at the Ministry of Labor and several NGO representatives 
confirmed the existence of the worst forms of child labor in DRC's 
mining sector (ref E).  They reported that children continue to 
work in mines and stone quarries where they are involved in 
breaking stones and often transport heavy loads for traders.  They 
also confirmed that children work as water sellers, domestic 
servants, and entertainers in bars and restaurants.  UNICEF 
reported that in mining areas in Katanga province, 8-to-10 year old 
girls called "canetons" (ducklings in French) are forced into 
prostitution by "madams" in order to make money.  According to the 
latest UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) of the DRC, 
24 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 14 are involved in 
domestic service or work for somebody outside their family for four 
or more hours per day.  The same survey indicated that eight 
percent of working children are not paid a salary and that twelve 
percent of children work for themselves. 
 
KINSHASA 00000120  002 OF 005 
 
 
¶5.  (U) The relatively high financial costs and loss of potential 
income because of education continue to push children into the 
informal labor sectors, because parents are unable to 
simultaneously pay school fees and give up the income their 
children may earn to help support the family.  Due to the GDRC's 
continued inability to pay teachers' salaries on time, the state 
has given communities (children and parents) added responsibilities 
to help pay teachers' salaries.  The USG continues to support 
programs to reduce the educational gap between boys and girls and 
to increase school attendance (Note:  For example, the U.S. 
Department of Labor has provided a 3 year grant of USD 5.4 million 
in 2007 to the Solidarity Center and Save the Children UK to combat 
child labor in the mining sector through educational opportunities. 
End note).  The Ambassador's Girls' Scholarship Program (AGSP) also 
contributes in addressing the problem of access to education by 
disadvantaged girls and boys.  AGSP provides support in the form of 
scholarships and mentoring; parent and community awareness program 
to promote girls' education, and HIV/AIDS awareness activities.  In 
FY 2009, AGSP organized mentor public recognition events and 
distributed 14,279 scholarships, including 12,612 girls and 1,667 
boys. 
 
 
 
¶6.  (U) Children continue to be recruited and used by armed groups 
for a variety of purposes.  While the GDRC continued to demobilize 
child soldiers in 2009 through the UN's disarmament, 
demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) and DDRRR programs, armed 
groups continued to recruit children as soldiers and porters 
throughout 2009.  The DDR program, supported in part by USAID, 
demobilized 5,000 child soldiers in 2008 and another 5,000 in 2009. 
UNICEF estimates that 3,000 children still need to be demobilized, 
down from 13,000 two years ago. 
 
 
 
2B)  Laws and Regulations 
 
------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶7.  (U) The GDRC has addressed child labor through the labor code, 
children's law, penal code, civil code and other laws.  The GDRC 
has also ratified both ILO Conventions 138 and 182, and has defined 
the worst forms of child labor in an August 2008 Minister of Labor 
decree as:  all forms of enslavement, trafficking, forced labor, or 
forced recruitment or use of children for prostitution, obscene 
dances, or production of pornographic materials; use or recruitment 
of children for the production or trafficking of illicit drugs; and 
any work that may have a negative impact on a child's health, 
security or dignity.  The Deputy Director of the National Committee 
to Combat the Worst Forms of Child Labor (NCCL), in a December 2 
meeting with US Department of Labor officers, explained that 
included within the definition of "worst forms of child labor" is 
work that is dangerous, damaging to health and prevents children's 
access to education.  He added that a definition of "hazardous 
work" is included in the GDRC Labor Code, however, the Labor Code 
does not list specific examples of "hazardous work." 
 
 
 
¶8.  (U) While there are plenty of laws addressing the child labor 
issue, the GDRC currently lacks the capacity and resources to 
enforce those laws. 
 
 
 
2C) Institutions and Mechanisms for Enforcement 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
 
 
¶9.  (U) The DRC's Ministry of Labor is the responsible body for 
investigating both hazardous child labor and forced child labor 
cases and employs ten inspectors in the mining region of Katanga 
 
KINSHASA 00000120  003 OF 005 
 
 
province (ref C).  The Ministry of Labor's Labor Inspector General 
Francois Kakanjika told Econoff on January 27 that the DRC 
currently employs 150 labor inspectors nationwide in addition to 
nine "labor controllers."  There is no dedicated child labor 
inspection service, however, and the GDRC has no capacity or 
resources to investigate and prosecute child labor violations.  In 
a December 2009 meeting with US Department of Labor Officers, the 
Deputy Director of the National Committee to Combat the Worst Forms 
of Child Labor (NCCL) stated that these labor inspectors often have 
no means of transport to places to perform their investigations, 
work under poor conditions and have little or no resources to carry 
out their work. He added that each inspector only files an annual 
labor inspection report, which does not specifically separate out 
child labor cases. The Ministry of Labor currently has no system 
for tracking child labor complaints.  The DRC has not yet reached 
the enforcement stage regarding hazardous and forced labor. 
 
 
 
¶10.  (U) The NCCL was scheduled to take over responsibility for 
hearing child labor complaints from the DRC's criminal courts in 
¶2009.  However, the Ministry of Labor's Chief of Staff Henriette 
Minchiabo reported that the NCCL was not aware of receiving any 
child labor complaints from the DRC's criminal courts in 2009. 
NGOs and the ILO have reportedly been active in pushing prosecutors 
to bring cases against violators of child labor laws, but the GDRC 
did not process any official child labor investigations in 2009. 
 
 
 
2D) Institutional Mechanisms for Effective Enforcement 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
 
 
2D, Section I:  Child Trafficking 
 
--------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶11.  (U) The Ministry of Social Affairs is responsible for 
overseeing and investigating child trafficking cases.  However, the 
Ministry does not have any specific enforcement program regarding 
child trafficking cases. 
 
 
 
2D, Section II:  Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
 
 
 
¶12.  (U) The Ministry of Gender Family and Children is responsible 
for overseeing and investigating commercial sexual exploitation of 
children (CSEC) cases.  However, the Ministry does not have any 
specific enforcement program regarding CSEC cases. 
 
 
 
2D, Section III:  Use of Children in Illicit Activities 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
 
 
¶13.  (U) The Ministry of Justice is responsible for covering and 
investigating cases involving the use of children in illicit 
activities.  However, the Ministry does not have any specific 
enforcement program regarding cases involving the use of children 
in illicit activities. 
 
 
 
2E) Government Policies on Child Labor 
 
KINSHASA 00000120  004 OF 005 
 
 
-------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶14.  (U) The GDRC has still not developed a national action plan to 
address exploitive child labor.  While the GDRC has created a 
National Committee to Combat the Worst Forms of Child Labor (NCCL) 
which is described in the next section below, it has yet to develop 
a national action plan/strategy to eliminate the worst forms of 
child labor. 
 
 
 
2F) Social Programs to Eliminate or Prevent Child Labor 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
 
 
¶15.  (U) The GDRC created the National Committee to Combat the 
Worst Forms of Child Labor (NCCL) in June 2006 (ref C).  The 
Minister of Labor nominated new members to the NCCL in September 
2008 from the GDRC, labor unions, professional organizations, NGOs, 
and civil society.  The Committee's goals are a) to develop and 
assure the implementation of a national strategy to eliminate the 
worst forms of child labor; b) capacity building for and 
coordination of different partner organizations that are involved 
in combating the worst forms of child labor; and c) the review and 
implementation of existing child labor laws and recommending new 
child labor laws.  The DRC has also established provincial 
committees in some provinces. 
 
 
 
¶16.  (U) The Ministry of Labor, with the support of the 
International Labor Organization (ILO), organized a workshop in 
October 2008 to discuss the NCCL and capacity building, but there 
are no resources for their new initiatives.  The NCCL currently has 
no budget. 
 
 
 
¶17.  (U) A credible NGO and the Chief of Staff at the Ministry of 
Labor reported that the NCCL is currently assessing the global 
state of child labor issues in the DRC, with the assistance of the 
International Labor Organization (ILO).  The ILO has already hired 
an independent consultant who drafted the assessment report which 
is being reviewed in Geneva and will be released to the GDRC soon. 
The DRC's UNICEF office has also launched a "Multiple Indicators 
Children Survey" which will be used to gauge the child labor 
program in the DRC. 
 
 
 
¶18.  (U) The next step in the NCCL program is for the DRC to 
develop a national strategy to combat the worst forms of child 
labor and afterwards submit a request for funding from the DRC's 
national budget.  After that, the Ministry of Labor will set up a 
data collection system for monitoring and tracking child labor 
cases.  The NCCL will subsequently launch a public awareness 
campaign about its child labor program at the local, provincial and 
national levels.  Finally, the DRC will begin vigorously enforcing 
child labor laws. 
 
 
 
2G) CONTINUAL PROGRESS 
 
---------------------- 
 
 
 
¶19.  (U) Comment:  The GDRC has made significant progress in 
reducing the number of child soldiers over the past few years. 
However, it still faces formidable obstacles in removing or 
preventing children from engaging in exploitive child labor.  GDRC 
ministries lack the resources and capacity to enforce child labor 
laws.  As in 2008, no child labor investigations were conducted in 
 
KINSHASA 00000120  005 OF 005 
 
 
¶2009.  Economic factors- specifically, the inability of parents to 
pay school fees or the need for children to support their families 
in order to make ends meet continue to be principal reasons for 
continued child labor in the DRC.  Post will continue to engage 
with the NCCL in their quest to develop a national action plan and 
work closely with NGOs dedicated to the eradication of child labor. 
End comment. 
GARVELINK