Guyana’s children continue to be engaged in child labour in agriculture and in the worst forms of child labour in commercial sexual exploitation, according to the United States Department of Labour (DOL), which also said there is no comprehensive policy to combat child labour since the existing social programmes do not fully address the problem.
The damning ‘Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labour’ 2014 report, which was released yesterday, said it was found that children continue to work in hazardous conditions, while the results from a 2011 child labour rapid assessment which was conducted with help from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has not yet been released. The report said that although the former government would have established the Commission on the Rights of the Child and a Ministerial Task Force on Combatting Trafficking in Persons, research has found no evidence of mechanisms to coordinate its efforts to address child labour including its worse forms.
According to the report, 23 per cent of Guyana’s children age 5 to 14 are working; while 94.5 per cent of them are attending school. Some 23.2 per cent of them are combining work and school. The report also said that the primary completion rate is 85.3 per cent.
The primary completion rate data is from 2012 and was published by UNESCO Institute for Statistics this year. Other data for the report came from the Understanding Children’s Work Project’s analysis of statistics from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey done in 2006-2007.
“Guyana’s legislation does not fully protect children from the worst forms of child labour, and the labour inspectorate lacks sufficient funding and capacity to carry out inspections,” the report said.
The report also made several recommendations which the new government will have to take into consideration if it wants to ensure that next year’s report is not as damning as the present one.
Contacted yesterday, Simona Broomes, Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection (which replaced the Ministry of Labour, Human Services & Social Protection referred to in the report), said in initial comments that the current administration cannot and will not challenge the report.
Adding that it would be discussed with her senior Minister Volda Lawrence and a more comprehensive reaction provided, Minister Broomes said government will address the issues raised in the report. The minister, whose office is located in the labour department of the ministry, said that while she was informed that workshops were held in the past to address the issue she has seen no comprehensive plan to tackle child labour.
“I find it to be a very disturbing and shameful situation that we have inherited from the past administration but we are going to turn it around,” the minister pledged. She said she is not shocked at the report as in her previous life as an activist who worked in the interior she would have witnessed children being put to work and exploited. Also disturbing to the minister is the fact that the ILO would have helped to fund a survey the findings of which have not yet been released. She said she finds this “very disrespectful to the people of Guyana.”
The report revealed that the then ministry admitted that the Guyana Govern-ment did not have a comprehensive written strategy for combatting and responding to child labour.
According to the 2014 report, girls as 12 years old are involved in commercial sexual exploitation in Georgetown and in the interior. “There are reports of young girls being subjected to commercial sexual exploitation in mining communities as a result of human trafficking,” the report said. And although the Constitution of Guyana guarantees free education, some primary schools continue to charge fees and have even attempted to prevent children from attending school for failure to pay. The fees referred to in the report would be the contingency fees charged by which both primary and secondary public schools. The report pointed out that the then Ministry of Education was forced to publicize guidance advising parents and educators that only Parent Teachers Associations have the authority to approve and collect fees from parents and that no child should be excluded from school for non-payment.
While Guyana has ratified all key international conventions concerning child labour and the Employment of Young Persons and Children Act prohibits night work in industrial undertakings and hazardous work for anyone under age 18, it does not fully protect adolescents aged 16 and 17 from engaging in such work. The Act only prohibits night work for minors employed in industry and provides an exception allowing adolescents over age 16 to perform certain work requiring continuity through day and night including gold mining reduction work and the production of iron, steel, glass, paper, and raw sugar, without provisions to ensure that their health, safety, and morals are fully protected or that they receive specific instruction or training in such activities.
And while Article 351 of the Criminal Law Offences Act prohibits the selling, publishing, and exhibiting of obscene material, the law does not explicitly outlaw child pornography. The report made reference to a state-owned newspaper publishing pornographic images of children last year. While the report did not name the Guyana Chronicle it is the only state-owned newspaper in Guyana and it had published stills from a video of two high school children engaged in a sex act, which it had later removed from its online version.
Insufficient funds
Meanwhile, the report stated that the then human service ministry had employed 18 labour inspectors last year, but funding levels for child labour prevention activities within the ministry were unavailable. It said that the inspectors would have participated in various training programmes related to child labour, including a child labour training workshop in Italy which was attended by two inspectors. Last year too, the ministry held a forum to discuss the implementation of systems to combat child labour and raise awareness throughout the country.
The report further stated that the then ministry had said that funds allocated were insufficient to carry out inspections and that there are sometimes delays in accessing the resources needed to carry out inspections in remote areas where law enforcement presence is low. While labour inspectors conducted 597 on-site labour inspections in 2014, the ministry did not assess any fines or penalties or charge any employers with violations related to child labour.
Meantime, the report said the government’s capacity to carry out prosecutions in the worst forms of child labour including human trafficking, is limited as with only 33 judges and magistrates, the courts have a backlog of cases and more than a two-year waiting period on all matters of law. “Furthermore, victims of human trafficking who are unidentified as such may be charged for committing crimes as a result of being subjected to human trafficking,” the report said.
The National Steering Committee on Child Labour had previously recommended policies and programmes to eliminate all forms of child labour. However, the body was dissolved in 2013 at the conclusion of the Tackle Child Labour through Education (TACKLE) project.
Last year, the government engaged in efforts to fight trafficking in persons, including in mining areas and the then human service ministry developed public awareness advertisements and posters, trained 100 representatives from civil society organisations and conducted activities in 30 schools. However, the report said, the scope of the government programmes to target the worst forms of child labour is insufficient to fully address the extent of the problem. “In particular, government resources provided to victims of human trafficking were inadequate in 2014,” the report said.
Recommendations
Actions recommended include extending protections for children working at night beyond those employed in industry; ensuring that the list of hazardous occupation and processes in Guyana fully protects all children under the age of 18 from engaging in such work; and ensuring that the law specifically prohibits the production, distribution and possession of child pornography.
In the area of enforcement it was recommended that funding information for the labour and inspectorate and criminal law enforcement be made publicly made available and that sufficient resources should be allocated in a timely manner to facilitate labour inspections, particularly in remote areas. It was also recommended that more resources be dedicated and this must include judicial personnel to investigate and prosecute court cases related to the worst forms of child labour and to ensure that human trafficking victims are not charged for committing crimes as a result of being subjected to human trafficking.
The government is also encouraged to coordinate mechanisms to combat child labour and to integrate child labour elimination and prevention strategies into the Strategic Plan on Children’s Rights and the National Education Policy and establish a comprehensive strategy for combatting child labour.
In the area of social programmes it was recommended that the government make publicly available the results of the Child Labour Rapid Assessment Survey and ensure that children are not prevented from attending school because of the inability to pay fees. It was also recommended that the government develop new initiatives and expand existing programmes to reach all children involved in the worst forms of child labour and increase funding to identify and assist victims of human trafficking. Government is also called upon to assess the impact that existing programmes such as the provision of school meals and uniforms, the child advocacy centre and the Board of Industrial Training may have on child labour.
