1. Child Labor in Mali
In 1998, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated that 52.5 percent
of children between the ages of 10 and 14 in Mali were working.1132 Child labor
occurs in the agricultural sector. Children also work as artisans and apprentices,
in the service and informal commercial sectors, as domestic laborers, in mining,
and in gold panning.1133 In towns and urban areas, children also work as street
vendors and beg for money and food.1134 In some instances, street begging comes
at the urging of Koranic teachers who send their students to urban areas to
collect money and food.1135
Young Malian girls from rural areas migrate to find work in urban areas. In
2000, some 4,000 girls reportedly left rural areas to work as child domestics in
urban areas, largely to support their families or pay for their dowries.1136
Mali is a point of origin for trafficked children, most of whom are sold into
forced labor on commercial farms or forced into domestic service in Cote d’Ivoire.1137 In many cases, children are picked up or intercepted by professional traffickers
at markets or while in towns.1138 Children working on plantations often work
12 hours per day without pay and are often abused physically.1139
Since the beginning of 2001, 500 children trafficked from Mali and Burkina Faso
have been intercepted by legal authorities in Côte d’Ivoire and returned to
their home countries.1140
2. Children’s Participation in School
In 1996, the gross primary attendance rate was 40.6 percent and the net primary
attendance rate was 29.4 percent.1141 In 1995,
girls comprised 39.7 percent of the gross enrollment in primary schools, while
boys comprised 58.1 percent. In terms of net enrollment, only 24.8 percent of
girls are enrolled in school as compared to 37.8 percent of boys in the same age
group. In the 1997/1998 school year, girls comprised 40 percent of gross
enrollment in primary schools, while boys comprised 60 percent.1142
Schooling rates also differ between urban and rural areas, and across different
regions of the country.1143 For the 6- to
15-year age group, school attendance is more than three times higher in urban
areas than in rural areas.1144
For those children who are in school, the quality of education is often inadequate.1145 The national student-teacher ratio is 70 to 1, with class size exceeding
80 students in rural schools.1146 Typical
primary classrooms lack equipment and materials, and teachers’ academic and
professional qualifications are usually low.1147
3. Child Labor Law and Enforcement
The Labor Code, adopted in 1996, sets the basic minimum working age at 14.1148 Children between the ages of 12 and 14 may work up to two hours per day
during school vacations with parental approval.1149 Children between the ages
of 14 and 16 may work up to 4 1 / 2 hours per day with the permission of the
Labor Inspectorate but not during nights, holidays, or Sundays. Children between
the ages of 16 and 18 may work in jobs that are not physically demanding.1150
Implementation of child labor regulations is erratic.1151
Although Labor Inspectors conduct surprise inspections and complaint-based
inspections, inspectors operate only in the formal sector due to a lack of
resources for enforcement.1152
The Constitution of the Republic of Mali prohibits forced or compulsory labor,
including that performed by children.1153
Articles 187, 188 and 189 of the Malian Criminal Code forbid trafficking in
children.1154
On July 14, 2000, the Government of Mali ratified ILO Conventions No. 182 on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor.1155
4. Addressing Child Labor and Promoting Schooling
a. Child Labor Initiatives
In June 1998, the Government of Mali signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
with the International Labor Organization’s International Program on the Elimination
of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC).1156 Since signing the MOU, the Government of Mali
has cooperated with ILO-IPEC in launching direct interventions to assist
children working in mines, wood working and metalworking, as mechanics, in
service sector establishments, and as domestic workers.1157
In 1999, Mali joined eight other countries involved in the first phase of the
ILO-IPEC regional project to combat trafficking of children for exploitative
labor in West and Central Africa, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor. The
project included assessments of the trafficking problem in the nine countries
and a subregional report synthesizing the main findings. Efforts were also
made to channel identified children to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
providing social protection and support services for victims of trafficking. A
second phase of this project, also funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, began
in July 2001, and involves providing rehabilitation services for children who
are victims of trafficking, raising awareness about trafficking, strengthening
local capacity to address the problem, and enhancing regional cooperation among
the nine participating countries to address trafficking.1158
A national forum on child begging was held in 1998 and resulted in a plan to
include Koranic teachers in the campaign to end child begging. A vocational
training program has also been established for the garibou in Mopti to
discourage begging. Many children, however, continue to be exploited and are
encouraged to beg.1159
b. Educational Alternatives
According to the Constitution of the Republic of Mali, Article 18, every citizen
has a right to an education, and public education is mandatory, free, and non-religious.1160 The Government of Mali recently implemented the Ten-Year Program for the
Development of Education (PRODEC). This program aims to establish parity
between boys and girls in terms of school recruitment and enrollment, expand the
use of national languages in education and improve the overall quality of
education.1161
The government has established a special unit to promote girls’ education within
the Ministry of Basic Education, and is implementing policies, which would allow
pregnant schoolgirls to continue their education.1162
The government has also tried to introduce or revitalize school canteens in
economically disadvantaged communities and improve the infrastructure by
building new schools and classrooms and refurbishing existing ones.1163
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has supported a program
called Basic Education Expansion to improve the efficiency of the educational
system. National, regional, and local offices have been established to administer
a girls’ education initiative, student testing has been initiated and institutionalized,
and a legal framework and decentralization policy has been defined and put in
place to foster private and community schools. A key feature of the government’s
Education Sector Program is an increase in the percentage of national budget
resources for education and accompanying intra-sectoral reallocations in support
of primary schooling.1164 In 1997, total
government spending on education as a percentage of gross national product (GNP)
was 2 percent.1165
5. Selected Data on Government Expenditures
The following bar chart presents selected government expenditures expressed
as a percentage of GNP. The chart considers government expenditures on
education, the military, health care, and debt service. Where figures are
available, the portion of government spending on education that is specifically
dedicated to primary education is also shown.1166
While it is difficult to draw conclusions or discern clear correlations between
areas of government expenditure as a percentage of GNP and the incidence of
child labor in a country, this chart and the related tables presented in Appendix
B (Tables 14 through 19) offer the reader a basis for considering the relative
emphasis placed on each spending area by the governments in each of the 33 countries
profiled in the report.
1132 World Development Indicators 2000 .
1133 Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child:
Mali , U.N. Document No. CRC/C/15/ Add.113. (Geneva: United Nations Committee
on the Rights of the Child, November 2, 1999) [hereinafter Concluding Observations
of the Committee on the Rights of the Child ].
1134 Ibid.
1135 Ibid.
1136 Committee on Rights of Child Begins Consideration of Report of Mali,
U.N. Document No. HR/CRC/99/48 (Geneva: United Nations Committee on the
Rights of the Child, September 28, 1999).
1137 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2000 (Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Department of State, 2000), 6f [hereinafter Country Reports 2000—Mali
].
1138 Combating the Trafficking of Children for Labor Exploitation in West
and Central Africa (Phase II): Mali Country Annex (Geneva: ILO-IPEC, December
2000) [hereinafter Combating the Trafficking of Children for Labor Exploitation
].
1139 Country Reports 2000 – Mali, at Section 6f.
1140 Ministry of Families, Women and Children. Combating Trafficking and
Economic Exploitation of Children in Côte d’Ivoire (Abidjan: Republic of
Côte d’Ivoire, July 2001).
1141 USAID, GED 2000: Global Education Database [CD-ROM], Washington, D.C.,2000
at http://www.usaid.gov/educ_training/ged.html.
1142 World Development Indicators 2000. There has been a marked increase
in enrollment rates in Mali since 1989. Data provided by the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID) shows primary school gross enrollment
rates rose from 22 percent in 1989 to 34 percent in 1994, a 60 percent increase,
with a 67 percent increase in girls’ enrollment. Sixth-grade completion rates
increased by 65 percent between 1989 and 1993. USAID, Basic Education Programs
in Africa—Mali Country Profile (www.usaid.gov/regions/afr/basiced/ mali.html),
August 14, 2001.
1143 Combating the Trafficking of Children for Labor .
1144 Mali – General Information at http://home-2.worldonline.nl/~sprunkys/mali.htm.
1145 Ibid.
1146 Ibid.
1147 Ibid.
1148 Child Labor in Africa: Targeting the Intolerable (Geneva: ILO-IPEC,
1998), 36.
1149 Country Reports 2000—Mali at 6d.
1150 Ibid.
1151 Ibid.
1152 Ibid.
1153 Ibid. at Section 6c.
1154 C ombating the Trafficking of Children for Labour Exploitation at
2.
1155 For a list of which countries profiled in Chapter 3 have ratified ILO
Conventions No. 138 and No. 182, see Appendix C.
1156 “Etat d’Execution du Programme National de Lutte contre le Travail des
Enfants au Mali” (Bamako: Ministere de l’Emploi. de la Fonction Publique et
du Travail, Ministry of Labor, Mali), 2000.
1157 Ibid.
1158 Combating the Trafficking of Children for Labour Exploitation .
1159 Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child
.
1160 Constitution of the Republic of Mali, Article 18 (http://confinder.richmond.edu/Mali.html#title1).
1161 Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child
.
1162 Ibid.
1163 Ibid.
1164 USAID Basic Education Programs in Africa .
1165 World Development Indicators 2000 .
1166 See Chapter 1, Section C, 5, for a fuller discussion of the information
presented in the box. See also Appendix B for further discussion, and
Tables 14 through 19 for figures on government expenditure over a range of years.
