Selected Child Labor Measures Adopted by Governments
| Ratified Convention 138 2/2/2001
| X |
| Ratified Convention 182 |
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| Ratified Convention 182 3/23/2001 |
X |
| National Plan for Children |
X |
| National Child Labor Action Plan |
X |
| Sector Action Plan |
|
Incidence and Nature of Child Labor
The Colombian National Administrative Department of Statistics estimated that 10.4 percent of children ages 5 to 14 were working in Colombia in 2001.[993] Children are found working primarily in the informal sector;[994] the vast majority of children work in agriculture, commerce, industry, and services.[995] In rural areas, most working children participate in uncompensated family agricultural and mining activities, including in illegal gold, clay, coal, emerald, and limestone mines.[996] In urban areas, children are found working as domestic servants,[997] and also in the retail and services sectors, and in activities such as street vending and waiting tables.[998] Children also work in coca picking and other aspects of the drug trade.[999]
Children are involved in commercial sexual exploitation in Colombia.[1000] Commercial sexual exploitation of children is found especially in urban centers and in areas where there are large numbers of men who are separated from families due to work.[1001] Children are involved in commercial sexual exploitation either on the streets or in private establishments such as bars, brothels, or massage parlors, and tend to range in age from 13 to 17 years.[1002] Colombia is a source and transit country for girls trafficked for sexual exploitation.[1003] There are also reports of internal trafficking of boys for forced labor.[1004]
Children are recruited, sometimes forcibly, by guerrilla and paramilitary groups in Colombia to serve as combatants, and are used by government armed forces as informants.[1005] They are also used as messengers, spies, and sexual partners, and to carry out such tasks as kidnapping and guarding of hostages and transporting and placing bombs.[1006] There are reports that high rates of school dropout, due to various aspects of the armed conflict, increase children’s vulnerability to sexual exploitation, child prostitution, or recruitment into an armed group.[1007]
The Constitution requires children ages 5 to 15 years to attend school, and education is free in state institutions.[1008] In reality, school is not always available or accessible to school-age children.[1009] School dropouts have increased due to the armed conflict, and teachers have been targets of murders, threats, and displacement.[1010] In 2001, the gross primary enrollment rate was 109.6 percent and the net primary enrollment rate was 86.7 percent.[1011] Gross and net enrollment ratios are based on the number of students formally registered in primary school and therefore do not necessarily reflect actual school attendance. In 2000, the gross primary attendance rate was 139.5 percent (142.8 percent for boys, 136.1 percent for girls), and the net primary attendance rate was 92.8 percent (92.5 percent for boys, 93.1 percent for girls).[1012]
Child Labor Laws and Enforcement
The Constitution sets the minimum age for employment at 14 years, and the Minors’ Code defines special conditions under which children ages 12 and 13 are authorized to perform light work with permission from parents and labor authorities.[1013] Article 44 of the Constitution calls for the protection of children against all forms of exploitation, which includes economic and labor exploitation, and hazardous work.[1014] The Minors’ Code defines hazardous work and sets the minimum age for such work at 18 years.[1015] The Constitution also prohibits slavery and forced or compulsory labor.[1016]
Trafficking in persons within the country as well as across national borders for the purposes of exploitation, prostitution, pornography, begging, or forced labor is prohibited by law. Penalties range from 10 to 15 years imprisonment plus a fine, but can be increased if the victim is a minor.[1017] Law 548 of 1999 establishes that persons under the age of 18 cannot perform military service,[1018] and Article 22 of Decree 128 prohibits children from working in intelligence activities.[1019] Recruitment of children under 18 years by armed groups is punishable by 6 to 10 years in prison.[1020]
The Ministry of Social Protection (formerly the Ministry of Labor and Health),[1021] the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF), the Minors’ Police, the Prosecutor’s Office for the Protection of the Child and Family, and Family Commissioners are the entities authorized to implement and enforce the country’s child labor laws and regulations.[1022] According to the U.S. Department of State, the Ministry of Social Protection conducts child labor inspections, but the system lacks resources and is only able to cover a small percentage of the child labor force employed in the formal sector.[1023]
Current Government Policies and Programs to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor
The Government of Colombia’s National Development Plan 2002-2006 includes provisions to address child labor,[1024] and the Third Plan for the Elimination of Child Labor and the Protection of Working Youths 2003-2006 aims to increase awareness of child labor, to expand the number of institutions involved in combating child labor at local and national levels, and to strengthen legislative protections for children.[1025] With support from ILO-IPEC and Canada, the government is working to improve cooperation and coordination among national, regional, and municipal governments in combating child labor.[1026]
ICBF, in collaboration with UNICEF, the ILO, IOM, and the Ombudsman’s office, is conducting a campaign to prevent the involvement of minors in armed conflict. The program, launched in January 2004, includes awareness raising activities, formal education, and vocational training in conflict regions.[1027] ICBF also administers a reinsertion program for former child soldiers.[1028] The Colombian Ministry of Interior operates a program that finds housing for and provides grants and training to demobilized child combatants.[1029] The Government of Colombia also participates in a 3-year inter-regional ILO-IPEC project funded by USDOL that aims to prevent and reintegrate children involved in armed conflict.[1030] Government officials, along with representatives from UNICEF, UNDP and NGOs, received training on child rights and the importance of community involvement to prevent the recruitment of minors into the armed conflict.[1031]
IOM, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Fundación Esperanza, operates a migrant information center in Bogotá’s international airport whose services include assistance to trafficking victims.[1032] Colombia hosted a regional workshop in April 2004 to discuss best practices in the fight against commercial sexual exploitation of children,[1033] and a governmental inter-agency advisory committee meets every 2 months to discuss trafficking in persons. The committee’s activities include information campaigns, information exchange among government entities, trafficking hotlines for victims, and closer cooperation with Interpol.[1034] In July 2004, Colombian officials participated in a forum that resulted in guidelines to develop an inter-institutional and international protocol to guarantee protection to trafficking victims.[1035]
Until 2004, the government was participating in an ILO-IPEC regional project funded by USDOL to prevent and eliminate the involvement of children in domestic labor,[1036] and another ILO-IPEC project to combat the commercial sexual exploitation of children.[1037] In 2004, the government began participating in a new USDOL-funded ILO-IPEC regional project to combat children’s involvement in both domestic labor and commercial sexual exploitation.[1038] Colombia is also participating in a USDOL-funded ILO-IPEC project to prevent and eliminate child labor in small-scale mining,[1039] and cooperates with MINERCOL, the parastatal mining corporation, to combat child labor in the informal mining sector.[1040] The government also participates in a USD 3.5 million USDOL-funded education initiative in Colombia to improve access to quality, basic education for working children and children at risk of entering work.[1041]
Colombia’s National Development Plan 2002-2006 as well as the Education Development Plan 2003-2006 list increasing educational access, and improving educational quality and efficiency as their objectives.[1042] Through a loan from the World Bank, the government is working to improve educational quality and access in the country’s rural areas.[1043] The government also provides scholarships and cash grants for education to poor families, with support from the World Bank.[1044] ICBF oversees government programs on child welfare and protection, and provides funding to children’s programs implemented by non-governmental organizations.[1045] Through a programmatic structural adjustment loan from the World Bank, the government worked to establish explicit targeting policy and practices to expand poor children’s access to ICBF Assistance and Prevention programs.[1046] UNICEF’s work in Colombia focuses on promoting educational access and quality, and reducing dropout, as well as on protecting victims of the armed conflict.[1047]
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