Child Labor in Angola: Findings from the U.S. Department of Labor

Child Labor and Forced Labor Reports

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Angola

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2024 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor:

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Moderate Advancement

In 2024, Angola made moderate advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. The National Assembly approved an amendment to the Penal Code, which increases the maximum penalty to 8 years' imprisonment without parole for persons who practice child prostitution. The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights organized several workshops on child labor, including a workshop on the "Challenges for the Eradication of Child Labor and the Role of Social Assistance in Combating the Work and Exploitation of Minors." The Multisectoral Commission on the Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor hosted a roundtable discussion on child labor and a meeting of all the secretaries of state responsible for the implementation of the National Action Plan to Eradicate Child Labor. However, despite these efforts, Angola's laws on child trafficking for forced labor do not meet international standards, because the use of threats, violence, coercion, fraud, or abuse must be established for the crime of child trafficking to have occurred. Additionally, laws prohibiting the commercial sexual exploitation of children do not sufficiently meet international standards, because they do not criminalize the use, procuring, or offering of a child for pornographic performances. The 257 labor inspectors are also likely insufficient for the size of Angola's workforce of 13.7 million, and social programs do not provide adequate services to children subjected to certain worst forms of child labor, including commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.

**Statistics on Children's Work and Education**
Children	Age	Percent and Population
Working	5 to 14	15.1% (1,246,354)
Hazardous Work by Children	15 to 17	Unavailable
Attending School	5 to 14	69.4%
Combining Work and School	7 to 14	13.6%

**Overview of Children's Work by Sector and Activity**

Children in Angola are subjected to the worst forms of child labor, including in commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes as a result of human trafficking. Children also perform dangerous tasks in construction.
Sector/Industry	Activity
Agriculture	Farming, including plowing, harvesting, watering crops, and picking fruits and vegetables. Herding and grazing animals. Fishing, including artisanal fishing.†
Industry	Artisanal diamond mining. Construction,† including breaking† and loading stones onto trucks, carpentry,† building gravel roads, and transporting bricks. Working in animal slaughterhouses.†
Services	Street work, including vending,† working in shops and markets, washing cars and assisting with the parking of cars, shining shoes, begging, recycling metals and plastics, scavenging,† collecting garbage and scrap iron, and transporting heavy loads.† Domestic work.
Categorical Worst Forms of Child Labor‡	Forced labor in agriculture, factories, construction, fisheries, artisanal diamond mining, and domestic work. Commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes as a result of human trafficking. Use in illicit activities, including transporting of illicit goods across the border of Angola and Namibia, sometimes as a result of human trafficking; robberies; and drug trafficking.

† Determined by national law or regulation as hazardous and, as such, relevant to Article 3(d) of ILO C. 182.
‡ Child labor understood as the worst forms of child labor per se under Article 3(a)–(c) of ILO C. 182.

Children at Higher Risk

Congolese children enter Angola for work in diamond-mining districts; traffickers subject some to forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation in mining camps. Traffickers exploit girls as young as age 12 from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Angola in forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Traffickers take Angolan boys to Namibia and force them to herd cattle or transport illicit goods.

Barriers to Education Access

Children associated with the LGB community may not finish their compulsory education due to discrimination from classmates, teachers, and school administrators. In addition, although education is free up to the ninth grade, families often face difficulty in paying informal school fees, such as for textbooks, and some education officials sometimes request bribes for new admissions or passing grades. More than two million children do not attend school due to a lack of classrooms and teachers. Additionally, poor infrastructure, including the lack of sanitation facilities, disproportionately affects girls' attendance, especially at the secondary school level. Children, particularly of refugees, who lack of birth registration and identification documents, face difficulties accessing education after age 11, since they may attend school only up to the sixth grade without either of these documents.

**Laws and Regulations on Child Labor**

Angola has ratified all key international conventions concerning child labor. However, Angola's laws do not meet international standards on minimum age for work, because minimum age protections do not apply to children working outside formal employment relationships, or on prohibition of slavery, debt bondage, and forced labor, because laws prohibiting forced labor do not sufficiently criminalize practices similar to slavery or allow for prosecution for debt bondage.
Standard	Age	Meets International Standards	Legislation
Minimum Age for Work	14	✗	Articles 1, 10, 36, 37, 42, 43, and 318 of the Labor Law
Minimum Age for Hazardous Work	18	✓	Articles 3(w) and 39 of the Labor Law
Identification of Hazardous Occupations or Activities Prohibited for Children		✓	Article 39 of the Labor Law; Hazardous Work List
Prohibition of Slavery, Debt Bondage, and Forced Labor		✗	Articles 71(j-l), 175, 177, 178, 180, and 383 of the Penal Code
Prohibition of Child Trafficking		✗	Articles 71(j-l), 175, 177, 178, 180, and 196 of the Penal Code
Prohibition of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children		✗	Articles 71(j-l) and 195–198 of the Penal Code
Prohibition of Using Children in Illicit Activities		✓	Articles 4 and 7 of the Drug Trafficking Law; Article 168(1b and 1d) of the Penal Code
Minimum Age for Voluntary State Military Recruitment	18	✓	Article 11 of the Military Service Law
Prohibition of Compulsory Recruitment of Children by (State) Military		✓	Article 2 of the Military Service Law
Prohibition of Military Recruitment by Non-state Armed Groups		✓	Article 385(1c) of the Penal Code
Compulsory Education Age	14	✓	Articles 12, 27, and 31 of the Basic Law of the Education System
Free Public Education		✓	Article 11 of the Basic Law of the Education System

The law's minimum age protections do not apply to children working outside formal employment relationships, which is not in compliance with international standards that require all children to be protected by the law. Laws prohibiting forced labor are not sufficient as they do not criminalize practices similar to slavery or allow for the prosecution of debt bondage. Furthermore, the use of threats, violence, coercion, fraud, or abuse are required to establish the crime of child trafficking for forced labor. Although the National Assembly approved an amendment to the Penal Code increasing the penalty for persons who practice, promote, incentivize, or facilitate child prostitution up to 8 years' imprisonment without parole, prohibitions against the commercial sexual exploitation of children fail to criminalize the use, procuring, or offering of a child for pornographic performances. Therefore, the laws prohibiting child trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children do not meet international standards. Although the list of hazardous activities and occupations identifies 52 activities prohibited for children, it does not include diamond mining, a sector in which there is evidence of work conducted underground.

**Agencies Responsible for Child Labor Law Enforcement**

In 2024, labor and criminal law enforcement agencies in Angola took actions to address child labor. However, insufficient financial and human resource allocation hindered law enforcement efforts.
Organization/Agency \| Role & Activities
Ministry of Public Administration, Labor and Social Security: Enforces laws against child labor and coordinates the Multisectoral Commission on the Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor. Fines employers or sends cases to the Ministry of Interior, through the Criminal Investigation Service, for further investigation, and to the Attorney General's Office for prosecution. Employs labor inspectors in all 18 provinces to carry out inspections and joint operations with social services providers.
Ministry of Interior: Investigates and prosecutes cases of the worst forms of child labor through its Attorney General's Office. Enforces criminal laws and conducts operations and investigations related to the worst forms of child labor through its National Police. Its Criminal Investigations Service collaborates with the Juvenile Court on child labor, child trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, and illicit recruitment investigations.

**Enforcement Mechanisms and Efforts**
Overview of Enforcement Efforts	2024
Has a Labor Inspectorate	Yes
Able to Assess Civil Penalties	Yes
Routinely Conducted Worksite Inspections	Yes
Unannounced Inspections Permitted	Yes
Has a Complaint Mechanism	Yes
Imposed Penalties for Child Labor Violations	Yes
Conducted Criminal Investigations for Worst Forms of Child Labor Crimes	Yes
Imposed Penalties for Worst Forms of Child Labor Crimes	Unknown

In 2024, 257 inspectors conducted 9,370 worksite inspections, finding 5,363 child labor violations. However, it is unknown how many investigations into suspected worst forms of child labor crimes were conducted, nor whether there were any prosecutions initiated or perpetrators convicted.

**Key Mechanism to Coordinate Government Efforts on Child Labor**

Angola established a mechanism to coordinate its efforts to address child labor. However, the government faces challenges with aggregating and synthesizing data on human trafficking cases.
Coordinating Body \| Role & Activities
Multisectoral Commission on the Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor: Addresses all issues related to the worst forms of child labor and leads the drafting, implementation, and monitoring of national plans for the elimination of child labor, including the National Action Plan to Eradicate Child Labor. Led by the Minister of Public Administration, Labor and Social Security, and includes representatives from the National Children's Institute, the Ministry of Social Action, Family and the Advancement of Women, and six other government agencies. During the reporting period, several actions were undertaken by the commission, including a roundtable discussion on child labor at the Angola Technical University, debates, lectures, workshops, and a meeting of the Support Technical Group and all the secretaries of state that participate in the plan's implementation.

**Key Policies Related to Child Labor**

Angola established policies that are consistent with relevant international standards on child labor.
Policy \| Description & Activities
National Action Plan to Eradicate Child Labor (2021–2025): Prioritizes effective, immediate, and integrated measures promoting children's rights, including through eradicating child labor and its worst forms by 2025. Focuses on child development; social assistance; education; advocacy, accountability, and enforcement; raising children's voices; communication; and monitoring and evaluation. The plan includes specific objectives, including increasing access to education and vocational training, awareness raising, strengthening legal frameworks, and increasing children's participation. In 2024, the government continued to support the plan, including by training to relevant entities.
National Action Plan on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Persons (2020–2025): Outlines Angola's strategy to address human trafficking, including domestic human trafficking. Commits to activities to improve the prosecution, protection, and prevention components of combating human trafficking. During the reporting period, the government continued to implement the plan, including through consultations with NGOs to discuss human trafficking and activities such as lectures and workshops.

**Key Social Programs to Address Child Labor**

Angola funded and participated in programs that include the goal of eliminating child labor. However, these programs are inadequate to address the full scope of the problem in all sectors in which child labor has been identified, including in commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.
Program \| Description & Activities
Social Protection Programs:‡ In all provinces, the government operated vulnerable children’s centers that could assist child victims with food, shelter, education, and family reunification. The government reported funding two NGO-managed shelters for survivors of human trafficking. It also coordinated with a national network of NGO-operated counseling centers, children’s centers, and women’s safe houses, which survivors of human trafficking could access.
Birth Registration and Justice for Children:‡ Government-run program making birth registration free for all Angolan citizens. Although the program came to a close toward the end of the reporting period, reports indicate that some municipalities continued to benefit from the program, allowing hundreds to receive their first identification card. In November 2024, the government, in partnership with UNICEF, issued more than 31,000 identification cards to children ages 1 to 17 during a national campaign.
Mobile Schools and Free Meals for Children:‡ Ministry of Education program that provides education in mobile schools to children in transit who work with their parents in cattle herding in southern Angola. Equips some mobile schools with kitchens, facilitating free school meals.

‡ Program is funded by the Government of Angola.

**Suggested Government Actions to Eliminate Child Labor**

The suggested government actions below would close gaps USDOL has identified in Angola's implementation of its international commitments to eliminate the worst forms of child labor.
Area	Suggested Action
Legal Framework	Ensure that minimum age protections are extended to children working outside of formal employment relationships.
	Ensure that laws prohibiting forced labor criminalize practices similar to slavery and allow for the prosecution of debt bondage.
	Ensure that laws do not require the use of threats, violence, coercion, fraud, or abuse to establish the crime of child trafficking for forced labor exploitation.
	Ensure that the use, procuring, and offering of a child for pornographic performances is criminalized.
	Ensure that the law prohibits hazardous occupations or activities for children in all relevant sectors in Angola, including diamond mining.
Enforcement	Publish information on child labor law enforcement, including labor inspectorate funding and penalties collected.
	Publish information on criminal law enforcement, such as the number of investigations conducted and whether prosecutions were initiated, convictions obtained, and criminal penalties imposed.
	Increase the number of labor inspectors from 257 to 343 to ensure adequate coverage of the labor force of approximately 13.7 million people.
	Adequately fund the Ministry of Public Administration, Labor and Social Security to conduct inspections in sectors in which child labor is known to occur, including in the informal sector.
	Establish a digital tracking system for civil worst forms of child labor.
Coordination	Increase the government's capacity to aggregate and synthesize data on human trafficking cases.
Social Programs	Develop and expand existing social programs to ensure that all children have access to education and are not restricted by informal fees, lack of birth certificates, lack of teachers or classrooms, or poor school infrastructure.
	Enhance efforts to eliminate barriers and make education accessible for all children, including refugee children and those from the LGB community.
	Ensure that victims of child labor in rural areas have adequate access to social services, including social services centers and housing shelters.
	Institute programs to support children subjected to commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor and expand existing programs to address the full scope of the child labor problem.

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