I. Overview

Child labor in Côte d'Ivoire's export sector appears to be limited. However, there is documentation of children working at two small-scale gold and diamond mining operations, the products of which are exported through domestic and international firms or agents.

II. Child Labor in Export Industries

There are reports of child labor in Côte d'Ivoire's gold and diamond mines, as well as in the fish canning industry, a cleaning products company in Abidjan, and the government-owned sugar mills in the North.¹

Gold Mining

In September 1993 Defense for Children International (DCI) and UNICEF published a report documenting the use of child labor in the gold mines of Issia and the diamond mines of Tortiya. The United States imports small amounts of gold and diamonds directly from Côte d'Ivoire.²

Issia is located 210 kilometers from Abidjan in a difficult to reach forested area in the central-west region of Côte d'Ivoire. Gold is the principal mineral mined at Issia's non-industrialized small-scale mining operations. Adults and children alike are employed at the mines; the DCI/UNICEF study details the activities of approximately 800 female and male child miners. The average age of child workers is seven; the youngest may be three years old. The children work beside their parents. Children are involved in all the major steps of mining including digging and breaking the soil, transporting, and cleaning the rocks.³

At Issia, child workers are exposed to hazards and harsh working conditions. Children leave for work at six in the morning and walk distances ranging from three to seven miles through the dark forest to reach the mines. They work long hours in uncomfortable positions, are not given regular meals by their employers, and drink from contaminated water sources.⁴

Diamond Mining

The diamond mining site surrounds the town of Tortiya which is located 500 kilometers from Abidjan in the north of Côte d'Ivoire. All areas around Tortiya can be mined. Many people are occupied in the various tasks related to diamond mining. Some work through the night as well as the day. Diamonds collected in the mines are sold directly to agents of multi-national companies. The vast majority of the diamonds go to diamond processors, finishers, and retailers in Antwerp, Belgium.⁵

The DCI/UNICEF report estimated the number of child workers in diamond mining in Tortiya at approximately 350.⁶ Children primarily work with their family or in small work teams rather than independently.

The tasks involved in diamond mining are very similar to those in gold mining. The DCI/UNICEF report states that children are primarily involved in digging the hard rock and carrying it to the rivers to be washed. Digging requires the children to situate themselves in uncomfortable and dangerous positions and use very rudimentary tools. Once they have acquired enough rock, they carry it on their heads or in handcarts over long distances to the river to be washed.⁷ Most children, however, fetch food, cigarettes, and tools for the adult workers.

III. Laws of CÔTE D'IVOIRE

A. National Child Labor Laws

The minimum age for light agricultural work is set at 12; those aged 12 to 14 must have parental consent and may not work more than four and a half hours a day. The basic minimum working age otherwise is 14 for all activities except domestic work ¹², public performances, and (for girls) working in street stalls or using pedal driven sewing machines ¹⁶. The minimum age for light underground work and work on scaffolding is 16, and 18 for hazardous work involving machinery in motion, glass work, and trimmers and stokers on ships.

The Ministry of Labor effectively enforces child labor laws in the large enterprises of the formal sector, but not in the small enterprises of the informal sector.⁸

B. Education Laws

Côte d'Ivoire's laws establish compulsory education for children up to the age of 16. This law is not enforced, as evident in the fact that roughly 70 percent of Ivoirian children leave school at the age of 12 or 13. School costs including an entrance fee, books, uniforms, supplies, and transportation deter poor families from sending children to school.⁹

C. International Conventions

The Government of Côte d'Ivoire is a party to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.¹⁰ Côte d'Ivoire has not ratified ILO Convention No. 138 Concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment or ILO Convention No. 59 Concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Industry.¹¹

IV. Programs and Efforts To Address Child Labor

Ivoirians do not in general perceive child labor to be an issue that requires attention. The ILO, UNICEF, and the Ivoirian Human Rights League (LIDHO), have not found much public support or interest in the cause. The prevailing attitude in Côte d'Ivoire is that child labor is inevitable as long as children are needed to work on rural farms, and as long as urban children are forced to work in order to avoid starvation. The Ivoirian public is, however, concerned about the problem of street children and there are non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working with these children.

In general government policy is directed more towards protecting child workers than eliminating child labor. The Ministry of Social Affairs and some municipal governments have focused primarily on street children with programs that organize street children into cooperatives of small market sellers and shoe shine boys.¹² The Ministry of Health and Social Affairs has a program, funded by UNICEF, and implemented by the International Catholic Bureau for Children (BICE) and an Italian NGO called ABEL-LVIA, which places street children in apprenticeships for formal training. Critics maintain that the government should focus more effort on providing technical training and monitoring the apprenticeship system.¹³

In Côte d'Ivoire, NGO programs on child labor are limited and primarily focus on street children and child domestic servants. The Ivoirian Human Rights League (LIDHO) has a program to provide schooling for children working as domestics.¹⁴

¹ Ivoirian non-governmental organization representatives who met with a U.S. Department of Labor official alleged child labor in these industries. American Embassy-Abidjan, unclassified telegram no. 006538, June 7, 1994 [hereinafter Abidjan 006538].

² U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Merchandise Trade-Imports by Commodity (June, 1994). In 1993, the United States imported $28,000 in non-monetary gold and $2,973,000 in unworked diamonds imported directly from Côte d'Ivoire.

³ Gabin Kponhassia, Le Travail des Enfants dans les mines de Côte d'Ivoire (Defense for Children International (DCI) and UNICEF, 1993) 6-8 [hereinafter DCI/UNICEF Report].

⁴ Id. at 12.

⁵ Interviews with diamond agents in Tortiya by a U.S. Department of Labor official (June, 1994).

⁶ A visit by a U.S. Department of Labor official to Tortiya in June 1994 found that, out of the approximately 500 workers engaged directly in mining activities (many of whom were from Burkina Faso, Mali, and Mauritania), only five or six were children.

⁷ A Department of Labor official visited the Tortiya mines in May 1994 and found that children were carrying the earth to be washed and fetching food, cigarettes, and tools for the adult workers; DCI/UNICEF Report at 11-12.

⁸ Interview with Mr. N'Dri Konan Lazare, Directeur de l'Emploi et de la Réglementation du Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Fonction Publique, by Department of Labor official (June 3, 1994).

⁹ Abidjan 006538.

¹⁰ Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1993 (U.S. Department of State, February, 1994) 1403.

¹¹ List of Ratifications by Convention and Country (as at 31 December 1992) (Geneva: International Labor Organization, 1993).

¹² Interview with Mr. N'Dri, Sous-Directeur de la Protection et de la Promotion Sociale, Ministère de la Santé et des Affaires Sociales, by Department of Labor official (June 3, 1994).

¹³ Interview with Andre Akou, Côte d'Ivoire Country Director, African-American Labor Center (AALC), by Department of Labor official (June 2, 1994).

¹⁴ Abidjan 006538.