8/4/2019 Child Labour & Trafficking

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/child-labour-trafficking 1/8

 

1

Issue 5/10 20 Dec 2010

 AFGHANISTAN  –  Social Well-Being Child Labour and Trafficking

Co-authored by Erin Foster – Humanitarian Assistance and Social Well-Being Subject MatterExpert and Stefanie Nijssen – Assistant Knowledge Manager

The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief examination of child labour and trafficking in Afghanistan.Children remain income earners in many Afghan families and are vulnerable to a host of abuse and exploitation. Afghanistan has signed and ratified legislation to ensure the rights of children, however gaps between law and everyday life remain. Additional information is available at  www.cimicweb.org.1  Hyperlinks to original source material are highlighted in blue and underlined in the text.

O, CLICK HERE 

Children in Afghanistan are not immune to the socio-economic challenges that face the majority of the

population as they are often required to assist in offsetting their family income by working. This practice,however, has led to the exploitation of children and/or physical and mental consequences as well asvulnerability to human trafficking. According to data from the United Nations, children aged 0-14 years

old comprise 46% of the total population in Afghanistan with an estimated 30% of Afghan children aged5-14 years old engaged in child labour based on the 2010  ‗State of the World‘s Children‘ report issued by

the United Nations Children‘s Fund (UNICEF). As outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, itis a universal right for children to be protected from abuses. It is important then, to better understandwhat child labour is and how it has been defined and addressed within the context of Afghanistan.

UNICEF defines child labour  as work undertaken in excess of a limited number of hours prescribeddepending on the age of the child:

Children ages 5-11; one hour of economic work or 28 hours of domestic work per week;Children ages 12-14; 14 hours of economic work or 28 hours of domestic work per week;

Children ages 15-17; 43 hours of economic or domestic work per week.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines child labour as work that ―deprives children of theirchildhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.‖ Thisdefinition specifically refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous/harmful tochildren and/or interferes with their schooling by:

depriving them of the opportunity to attend school;obliging them to leave school prematurely; or

requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission ( AIHRC) monitors the situation of child labourin the country and published a report in 2006 that defined child labourers  in Afghanistan as thoseemployed under the age of 12, or those aged 12 to 14 engaged in hazardous work. The worst forms of 

1 A CimicWeb user account is required to access some of the links in this document. 

TO RATE OR COMMENT ON THIS PUBLICATION, CLICK HERE 

8/4/2019 Child Labour & Trafficking

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/child-labour-trafficking 2/8

 

2

child labour in Afghanistan are defined by AIHRC as ―exploitation of children, child trafficking, forcedemployment, coerced into illegal acts and exposure to hazardous work.‖ This study also found Afghan

children to be working in light, heavy and hazardous industries, though distinctions between light andheavy work are not always clearly defined. In 2009, the AIHRC reported that nearly 43% of childrenunder the age of 12 and 35% of children aged 12-15 years old fit the description of child labourers,including some in the worst child labour industries: carpet weaving, brick making and poppy harvesting. Carpet weaving is considered especially dangerous at it can lead to the development of respiratoryillnesses and bodily injury.

The US Department of Labor2 report ‗Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor 2009‘ also found thatchildren are being engaged in agriculture and coal mining in rural areas, active in street gangs in urbanareas and generally forced to work in opium production and trafficking. Afghan children were also foundto be subject to child trafficking for forced labour as soldiers, beggars or for sexual exploitation, domesticservice or debt bondage both within Afghanistan and in foreign countries such as Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In 2009 the Afghanistan Research andEvaluation Unit (AREU) released a study onthe causes of child labour in Afghanistan. The

study found that along with poverty, thehousehold composition and labour resources,

gender norms and the expectations of community members all influence parents‘ decision when it comes to sending their

children to work. It is not always the case thatpoor households in Afghanistan send their

children to work. AREU‘s research shows that

if the local education system is highly valuedin the community and a long term higher level

of earning is seen as a direct result of education, then parents may encouragetheir children to continue schooling. In otherexamples, AREU noted that work was seen

as a form of education that would allow children to immediately contribute to family finances as well askeep them safe by not walking back and forth to school, especially for girls in some communities who arerestricted to working in the home. UNICEF finds that girls are also subject to more unpaid work than boys(i.e. household chores) while orphans and children living away from parents are found to be some of themost vulnerable and at a greater risk of becoming subject to child labour and exploitation. Meanwhile, anOxfam briefing paper  on education in Afghanistan states that, despite a 350% increase in schoolenrolment since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, half of all Afghan children in 2006 —almost 7 million —were

not in school. 

In 2006, the National Strategy for Children ‗at risk‘   was developed by the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD) with support from the United Nations Children‘s Fund (UNICEF)to provide a comprehensive overview of   ‗who does what‘ for the provision of community-based child

protection and family support mechanisms. The MoLSAMD is the lead Ministry in Afghanistan to addresschild labour and the Plan of Action was intended to provide a framework of services provided to children,

2 See also the US Department of Labor,  Annotated Bibliography of Child and Forced Labor Information, Vol. 1, 2009. 

 Above: Two children do their homework while minding the

family watermelon stand. Photo: UNAMA, 2010.

8/4/2019 Child Labour & Trafficking

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/child-labour-trafficking 3/8

 

3

transition guidance to support community-based initiatives, assistance for developing new programmesand services as well as guidance for donor support to the child protection system. According to the

National Strategy, ‗at risk‘ children were identified as follows: 

Disabled children Street children Children in conflict with the law

Kidnapped children Trafficked children Child soldiers

Children deprived of parental care Forced marriage/early marriage Internally displaced/refugee children

Ethnic minority children Child drug users or sellers Abused children

Beyond the various committees and units that have been set up to address child labour and trafficking,the Provincial Department of Social Affairs is also responsible for monitoring and preventing child labour 

at the community level. In response to the specific needs of war-affected ‗at risk‘ children including childsoldiers, UNICEF established a demobilisation and reintegration programme  in 2004 that has nowassisted tens of thousands of Afghan children. UNICEF has also been providing support to communitybased schools  in remote areas, with emphasis being put on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border areas, for

the reintegration of out-of-school children. There is also a specific child protection cluster  facilitated bythe UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as well as countless programmes runby non-governmental organisations and community-led initiatives that attempt to address the protectionof children as part of the national strategy.

Children are not only exposed to and participate in child labour but they are also more vulnerable toexploitation as a result of the high demand for such work. Child trafficking is not only a violation of 

human rights, but also results in some of the worst forms of child labour for Afghan children. The UnitedNations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime supplemental Protocol to Prevent, Suppressand Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children defines trafficking in persons as:

―[t]he recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or  receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of 

power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation,

forced labour or services, slavery or practic es similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.‖  

In Afghanistan, the majority of trafficking victims are children according to the US Department of State‘s Trafficking in Persons Report 2010. Afghan children are typically forced into prostitution, labour andbegging as well as marriage and debt bondage. Research undertaken by the International Organization

for Migration (IOM) in 2003 and  2008 provides a more in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of human trafficking in Afghanistan. Generally, research found a lack of understanding about whattrafficking in persons is at all levels of society, especially in the identification and treatment of victims,and this gap continues to place children in danger.

The creation of a ‗National Plan to Combat Child Trafficking in Afghanistan‘ was undertaken in 2004, yetIOM research indicated a significant gap between the progressive plan and its implementation over time.The study also made a series of recommendations for the prevention of trafficking, the prosecution of traffickers and the protection of victims. The recommendations called for greater public awareness of issues related to trafficking and distinguishing it from human smuggling or kidnapping. IOM also calledfor training to be provided on trafficking legislation as well as the provision of assistance to male andfemale victims. The current referral mechanism for trafficking cases is based on the Ministry of Interior(MoI), Ministry of Women‘s Affairs (MoWA ) and the MoLSAMD identifying cases and then referring themto IOM for further action. Currently, the MoWA runs four shelters while IOM has opened one shelter for

8/4/2019 Child Labour & Trafficking

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/child-labour-trafficking 4/8

 

4

child victims of trafficking. Child survivors of trafficking are typically placed under the care of governmentsocial services, orphanages or NGO facilities, with land being granted by the Afghan government for the

construction of shelters for children.

Legislative Action and Trends in Child Labour and Trafficking in Afghanistan

 Afghanistan has signed on and ratified numerous international human rights declarations (see Annex 1and 2). However, in spite of the fact that Afghanistan‘s 2004 Constitution states that ―forced labour onchildren shall not be allowed,‖ the Afghan government has yet to draft national legislation that thoroughlyaddresses specific child labour and trafficking practices or enforcement.3 While Afghanistan‘s 1976 PenalCode  contains laws concerning kidnapping, it was not until 1987 that Afghanistan formalised labourcodes. The 1987 Labour Code  set the minimum age for work at 14 (13 with permission from a legalguardian), limited children under the age of 16 to working no more than 30 hours per week and statedthat those under the age of 18 were entitled to 30 days of recreational leave with pay every year.Nevertheless, adherence  to national labour laws during and after the presence of the Union of Soviet

Socialist Republics was scattered at best and was exacerbated with the Taliban rise to power in the mid-1990s. The volatility of the turn of the century rendered the acting government, be it Mujahedeen orTaliban, as largely unsuccessful at managing various aspects of government and resulted in widespreaddisrespect for the rule of law. Amidst a period of civil war, Afghanistan ratified the Convention on the

Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1994.4 This convention details the specific rights of the child and denouncesthe economic exploitation and trafficking of anyone under the age of 18. Article 32 of the CRC asserts the

right of children not to be engaged in work deemed to be ―hazardous   or to interfere with the child‘seducation, or to be harmful to the child‘s health.‖ 

Taliban rule was marked by a tremendousbacklash against the modernism promulgated by

the Communist government in the 1980s, leading

to a dramatic decreases  in boys‘ and girls‘ education levels and restrictive laws placed on

women‘s mobility. This resulted in many childrenleaving school to work for the family. A  HumanRights Report published in 2000 by the US StateDepartment found no evidence that Taliban-ruled  Afghanistan enforced labour laws and claimedthat many children worked to help support theirfamilies by herding animals, collecting paper andfirewood, shining shoes, begging, or collectingscrap metal among city street debris from theage of six. The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women also reported in 2000 that there were known cases of trafficking in women and

children. Although Afghanistan signed the UN Convention against Transnational Crime in 2000, it has notyet signed nor ratified the 2000 supplementary Protocol on Trafficking in Persons  which states thatratifying members shall ensure, at a minimum, there are national penal laws and policies in place to covercertain acts of economic and sexual exploitation (to include child labour and trafficking).

3 In keeping with the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan‘s pledged commitments to various ratified international agreements, thepresident enacted a new Juvenile Code in 2005, put forth by the Ministry of Justice. While this code was drafted to ensure the rightsand legal protections (stated under international agreements) for children who clash with the Afghan justice system, no such codeexists for child labour or child trafficking.4 Afghanistan signed onto the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. 

 Above: An Afghan boy making bricks. Photo: Pajhwok 2010

8/4/2019 Child Labour & Trafficking

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/child-labour-trafficking 5/8

 

5

Under a new government led by the Karzai administration in 2002, Afghanistan acceded the Optional

Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and childpornography. In 2005, the government attempted to attract children off the street and away from work by cooperating with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to establish vocational training centres. Thesame year the government also established the Commission on the Abolition of Child Trafficking and theChild Protection Commission as a step towards addressing the rights and needs of children at a nationallevel. The US State Department also pointed out a 2005 presidential decree mandating the death penaltyfor child traffickers convicted of murder. Furthermore, the MoLSAMD set up a transit centre in 2005, withthe assistance of the  AIHRC and UNICEF, to assist with the repatriation, reunification and reintegration of 317 children that had been trafficked to neighbouring countries.

While the 2006   Afghanistan National Development Strategy  only made provisions for child labourawareness-raising campaigns, the 2006  Afghanistan Compact reaffirmed Afghanistan and its internationalpartners‘ commitment to strengthen the Government‘s capacity to comply with and report on its human

rights treaty obligations by the end of 2010. As stated in the compact, both the Afghan Government andthe AIHRC, a permanent and independent human rights body set up under the 2004 Constitution, aretasked with human rights monitoring. Since receiving this task, the AIHRC has published several reportsrelated to the situation of children in Afghanistan within the context of human rights.5 In 2007, through

the use of Child Rights Volunteers trained by the AIHRC Child Rights Unit, approximately 203,000students were given presentations on child rights issues including trafficking and the right to education.

In 2008, the 2007 Labour Code went into effect, setting the minimum age for full-time employment at 18years old but permitting children aged 15 years and older to do light work. It also included a section thatdeems it impermissible for youths to be engaged in any type of work that is  ―physically arduous, or

harmful to health or carried out in underground sites.‖ 6 According to the AIHRC, an estimated 25% of children in Kabul worked in 2008, despite the constitutional ban and labour code. The AIHRC attributed

this persistence of child labour to the lack of existing law enforcement mechanisms.

Even though the specific offence of trafficking in persons did not exist in Afghanistan prior to 2009, about

370 persons were convicted of trafficking-related offences in 2005, increasing slightly to 393 convictionsin 2006. According to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the criminal justice system has used various articles from the Penal Code to prosecute some forms of trafficking inpersons, including the kidnapping of minors. Special units to combat human trafficking were also createdwithin the police departments of every province in Afghanistan in 2007 and a new Anti-Trafficking Sectionwas established as the coordinating body within the Criminal Investigation Directorate. UNODC notes,however, that these units so far have dealt mainly with kidnapping. In March 2008, the MoI took furthermeasures to address human trafficking in the country and created a six-person Counter Trafficking Unit and the Committee to Counter Child Trafficking, the latter of which includes an established referralmechanism. The new ‗Law Countering Abduction and Human Trafficking‘   was enacted by PresidentialDecree 52 on 14 July 2008. The law defines trafficking in persons as the:

 ―transfer, transit, employing, keeping, and or giving a person in one's control for the purpose of exploitation or taking advantage of weak financial status or helplessness by spending or taking money orinterest or other means of deception to gain the consent of the victim or the guardian of the victim. A trafficker is defined as someone who takes part in human trafficking in person or persuades, encourages,or provides facilities to others to commit human trafficking.‖  

5 The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has these reports publicised on its website. 6 According to Article 120 of the Labour Code a list of these types of jobs was to be prepared and approved by the Ministry of PublicHealth (MoPH) and MoLSAMD. 

8/4/2019 Child Labour & Trafficking

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/child-labour-trafficking 6/8

 

6

  A 2008 country profile report issued by the United StatesLibrary of Congress affirms that child labour and trafficking

remain common in Afghanistan, particularly outside of Kabul.  A 2009 US State Department report  on trafficking alsostressed that the conflation of the crimes of kidnapping andtrafficking has led to a poor understanding of trafficking andtherefore poses an impediment to intervention. A new studyreleased by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), ‗Combating trafficking in persons in accordance with theprinciples of Islamic law‘ , provides guidance about howinternational conventions on trafficking in persons can beapplied to national legal structures in line with Islamic legalrequirements. Although trafficking in persons isn‘t specificallymentioned in Islamic law, the various components and actsof trafficking in persons are prohibited.

In August 2009, the Afghanistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs(MFA ) launched its first report  on the Convention of theRights of the Child. In the report, the ministry recommended

  judicial and legal system reforms to ensure nationalcompliance with international standards of child rights and

the National Solidarity Programme. However, it was not until April 2010 that Afghanistan ratified both ILO Convention 182on the Worst Forms of Child Labour and ILO Convention 138

on the Minimum Age for Work . These conventions still needto be adopted into the national legislation of the country. In

an attempt to highlight the inconsistencies between national

legislation and international agreements, UNICEF called onthe Government of Afghanistan, in November 2010, to devise

a comprehensive Child Act  fully in line with the provisionsand principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Child labour and trafficking have been defined both at the international and national level for Afghanistan. The Government of Afghanistan is obligated to meet the needs of children in its country notonly with respect to the international and national legislation outlined above, but also in the commitmentsit has made to Millennium Development Goals 1, 2 and 4 (see CFC Social Well-Being Monthly Report  – The Millennium Development Goals), the Afghanistan National Development Strategy ( ANDS) and theNational Solidarity Programme (NSP). However, various studies and reports indicate an ongoing practiceof child labour in the country as well as continuing cases of trafficking in children. Concerted efforts nowneed to be made to monitor and support the implementation of legislation and action plans in order to

break the cycle of abuse and exploitation that persists for many Afghan children.

ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of 

Child Labour Each Member shall, taking into account theimportance of education in eliminating childlabour, take effective and time-boundmeasures to:(a) prevent the engagement of children inthe worst forms of child labour;(b) provide the necessary and appropriatedirect assistance for the removal of childrenfrom the worst forms of child labour and fortheir rehabilitation and social integration;(c) ensure access to free basic education,and, wherever possible and appropriate,vocational training, for all children removedfrom the worst forms of child labour;

(d) identify and reach out to children atspecial risk; and(e) take account of the special situation of girls.

-- Article 7 (§2)

ILO Convention 138 on the Minimum Age of Workers Each Member for which this Convention is inforce undertakes to pursue a national policydesigned to ensure the effective abolition of child labour and to raise progressively theminimum age for admission to employmentor work to a level consistent with the fullestphysical and mental development of young

persons.-- Article 1

The Civil Military Fusion Centre (CFC) is an Information and Knowledge Management organisation focused on

improving civil-military interaction, facilitating information sharing and enhancing situational awareness through the

web portal, CimicWeb. CFC products are developed with open-source information from governmental organisations,

non-governmental organisations, international organisations, academic institutions, media sources and military 

organisations. By design, CFC products or links to open sourced and independently produced articles do not necessarily 

represent the opinions, views or official positions of any other organisation. 

8/4/2019 Child Labour & Trafficking

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/child-labour-trafficking 7/8

 

7

 Annex 1. Child Labour  –  Relevant Legislation

Legislative Agreement Signed and Ratified Relevant Article

International Covenant on Economic, Social and

Cultural Rights 16 December 1966

24 January 1983 

(accession)

 Articles: 10 

International Covenant on Civil and PoliticalRights 16 December 1966

24 January 1983 (accession)

Convention on the Rights of the Child20 November 1989

27 September 1990 (signed)28 March 1994 

(ratified)

 Articles: 32, 33 

Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, ChildProstitution and Child Pornography 25 May 2000

19 September 2002 (accession)

 Articles: 3 

Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict 25 May 2000

24 September 2003 (accession)

Constitution of the Islamic Republic of  Afghanistan03 January 2004

26 January 2004 (signed & ratified)

 Articles: 49, 54 

ILO Convention 182 on Worst Forms of ChildLabour 

17 June 1999

07 April 2010 (ratified)

ILO Convention 138 on Minimum Age of Workers 26 June 1973

07 April 2010 (ratified)

8/4/2019 Child Labour & Trafficking

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/child-labour-trafficking 8/8

 

8

 Annex 2. Child Trafficking  –  Relevant Legislation

Legislative Agreement Signed and Ratified Relevant

 Article

Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions andPractices Similar to Slavery 07 September 1956

16 November 1966 (accession)

Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 25 October 1980

NOT SIGNED  

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 16 December 1966

24 January 1983 (accession)

Convention on the Rights of the Child

20 November 1989

27 September 1990 (signed)

28 March 1994 (ratified)

 Articles: 11, 

33, 35 

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of 

Discrimination against Women 18 December 1979

14 August 1980 

(signed)05 March 2003 

(ratified)

Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, ChildProstitution and Child Pornography 25 May 2000

19 September 2002 (accession)

 Articles: 2, 10 

United Nations Convention against TransnationalOrganized Crime 15 November 2000

14 December 2000 (signed)24 September 2003 

(ratified)

Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Traffickingin Persons, Especially Women and Children,supplementing the United Nations Conventionagainst Transnational Organized Crime 15 November 2000

NOT SIGNED  

Presidential Decree Number 52 enacting the Law onCombating Kidnapping and Human Trafficking 14 July 2008

14 July 2008