Selected Child Labor Measures Adopted by Governments
| Ratified Convention 138 6/15/00 |
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| Ratified Convention 182 6/15/00 |
X |
| ILO-IPEC Member |
X |
| National Plan for Children |
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| National Child Labor Action Plan |
X |
| Sector Action Plan |
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Incidence and Nature of Child Labor
The Yemeni Central Statistics Office and Understanding Children’s Work (UCW) estimated that 12 percent of children ages 6 to 14 were working in Yemen in 1999.[4245] The vast majority of children work in agriculture without wages.[4246] Children living in rural areas are more than five times as likely to work than children in urban areas, and rural child workers constitute more than 90 percent of all child workers in Yemen.[4247] Children also work as street vendors, beggars, domestic servants, and in the fishing, leather, construction, and automobile repair sectors.[4248] Children are trafficked out of the country to work as street beggars, domestic help, or as camel jockeys in oil rich Gulf States.[4249] There are some reports that children are involved in armed conflicts in the country.[4250]
The Constitution guarantees free and compulsory education to all Yemeni citizens.[4251] Education is compulsory for 9 years for children ages 6 to 15 years.[4252] In 2001, the gross primary enrollment rate was 81.0 percent (64.3 percent for girls and 97.0 percent for boys).[4253] 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. Recent primary attendance rates are not available for Yemen.[4254] Child labor interferes with school attendance, particularly in the agriculture and domestic service sectors.[4255]
Child Labor Laws and Enforcement
In 2002, the Government of Yemen passed the Yemeni Child Rights Law, which set the minimum legal working age at 14 years.[4256] The law prohibits the employment of children under the age of 15 in industrial work. However, there are no restrictions, regardless of age, on children working in family enterprises.[4257] Yemeni law defines a young person as someone below the age of 15.[4258] Under the Labor Code of 1995, a young person may work up to 7 hours per day and must be allowed a 60-minute break after 4 hours of labor. A young person may work a maximum of 42 hours per week.[4259] An employer must secure the approval of a child’s guardian and notify the Ministry of Labor before employing a young person. The Labor Code prohibits hazardous working conditions for children. Overtime, night work, and work on official holidays are prohibited for young persons. Moreover, employers must grant every youth a 30-day annual leave for every 12-month period of labor completed. Neither the child nor the parent may waive this annual leave.[4260] The Labor Code further establishes the minimum wage for children to be not less than two-thirds that of an adult.[4261] The 1997 amendment to the Labor Code increased the fines to a minimum of 5,000 riyals (USD 28) and added a penalty of imprisonment for up to 3 months.[4262] Children under age 18 are prohibited from entering the government armed forces.[4263]
The Ministry of Labor’s Child Labor Unit is responsible for enforcing child labor laws.[4264] While there are laws in place to regulate employment of children, the government’s enforcement of these provisions is limited, especially in remote areas.[4265] The government also has not enforced the laws requiring 9 years of compulsory education for children.[4266] Yemeni law prohibits trafficking in persons.[4267] The government prosecuted two child traffickers in 2003.[4268]
Current Government Policies and Programs to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor
The Government of Yemen is proactively promoting policies to curb child labor by implementing policies outlined in its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, which was designed to complement and support the government’s efforts to alleviate poverty.[4269] With support from USDOL, the Government of Yemen is implementing a national program in cooperation with ILO-IPEC that aims to withdraw child workers from the worst forms of child labor, mainstream them into non-formal and formal education programs, provide them pre-vocational and vocational training, and offer them counseling, health care, and recreational activities.[4270] In 2004, the USDOL funded a new USD 3 million ILO-IPEC project to provide continued support for country activities to combat exploitive child labor in Yemen.[4271] Also in 2004, the government began participating in a new USD 8 million sub-regional project funded by USDOL to combat child labor through education in Lebanon and Yemen.[4272] In collaboration with the Mayor of Sana’a, ILO-IPEC began providing remedial education and vocational training in 2003 in a rehabilitation center for street children who are victims of child labor.[4273] The Ministry of Labor worked with trade unions, chambers of commerce, and the Ministry field offices to gather information about child labor throughout Yemen.[4274]
Although Yemen has the second lowest literacy rate for women in the Middle East[4275] and suffers from pronounced gender disparity in enrollment rates, the government is committed to improving overall basic education and bridging the gender gap. Gender disparity in enrollment rates in Yemen is 31 percent.[4276] The government’s abolition of primary school fees for girls was designed to eliminate one of the main obstacles to education.[4277] The Government of Yemen and the World Bank are implementing a Basic Education Expansion Project from 2000-2006 to give the highest priority to primary education, particularly focusing on increased access to education for girls in remote rural areas, improve the quality of basic education, build the Ministry of Education’s capacity to implement and monitor basic education reforms, and support other national education sector strategies.[4278] The Government of Yemen is receiving funding from the World Bank and other donors under the Education for All Fast Track Initiative, which aims to provide all children with a primary school education by the year 2015.[4279]
The Ministry of Education is taking steps to eliminate child labor by developing educational support programs, lowering school dropout rates of working children, and raising public awareness of the relationship between education and work.[4280] UNICEF has been working with the government to promote education through a number of programs, including support for the government’s Community School Project, which implements an integrated approach to address the gender disparity at the primary school level.[4281] USAID is supporting a USD 4.7 million project to increase access to and improve the quality of basic education at the school level.[4282]
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