The Ghana Police Service is to introduce child labour issues as a subject in the training curriculum of the Ghana Police College.

A statement issued in Accra and signed by Assistant Superintendent
of Police Freeman Tettey, Public Affairs Officer of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) said a training manual has been developed by a consultant from the Department of Social Work in collaboration with the University of Ghana and DOVVSU to commence the subject.

According to the statement most police personnel had little knowledge about cases relating to child labour.

Personnel of the Police Service are often at a loss as to steps
to take whenever cases of child labour are reported, hence the need to equip them with the legal framework for prosecuting offenders, causes and effect, said the statement.

The statement gave the assurance that the Police Service would try its
best to help eliminate child labour by building the capacity of its personnel through institutional development.

http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/200808/19972.asp

Ahmedabad, August 30 The Labour Department conducted a joint operation with Satellite police and rescued 12 children under the age of 12 from various establishments in the Satellite area where they were employed as child labourers, on Friday.

Nine out of the 12 children come from Rajasthan, one from Tamil Nadu and two from the city. K B Damor, Assistant Labour Commissioner, who headed the operation, said: “The Satellite area with many chai kitlis (tea stalls) and dhabas was under our surveillance for quite sometime. We received information about these children and planned an operation with the police.”

All the rescued children have been sent to the Child Care and Protection Home at Khanpur. Labour officials said they could have rescued many more children if many shop owners had not send the children away upon receiving the news of the raid.

The owners of the various establishments from where the children were rescued are now likely to be prosecuted. “We will prosecute all of them under the various provisions of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. The police have also assured us to keep a close watch in the area and prevent further instances of child labour,” said Damor. The Labour Department is also keeping a close watch on other areas in the city where there have been instances of child labour.

“We are keeping a close watch on the area around Pankore Naka. There are many jewellery units in the area where children from West Bengal work. We have rescued children from there earlier,” said a Labour Department official.

Dakar - More than a third of Senegalese children aged five to 17 work regularly, mostly as unpaid family labourers in rural areas, the country's national statistics agency reported on Monday.

Of the country's 3.7 million children in that age range, more than 1.3 million have worked regularly over the past year, according to a survey of nearly 4 000 houses by the Dakar-based National Agency for Statistics and Demography.
"The high volume of child workers ... can be inferred by household poverty levels, but also by the inability of the formal education system to adapt" and offer adequate opportunities for these children, the study's authors wrote.

More than eight out of 10 children work for free in family-run occupations such as agriculture, livestock rearing, forestry or fisheries.

The rest are employed in urban-based sectors including restaurants and manufacturing, with many working in the capital Dakar.

Others are in equally difficult circumstances, as street children and beggars, the agency said.

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2382266,00.html

Kathmandu, August 27: The United Nations has stressed on the need for strengthening laws in South Asia to protect child trafficking.

Launching a report on Preventing and Responding to Child Trafficking in South Asia, UNICEFs Child protection specialist Lena Karlsson said, child trafficking is a neglected form of human trafficking as children risk being picked out as undocumented migrants, juvenile delinquents or unaccompanied minors.

Though the governments of South Asia have developed national plans of action and also adopted laws to criminalise trafficking, legal frameworks needs to be strengthened to further protect children from all forms of trafficking and to assist child victims with legal and psychological support, the report states.

South Asian children are being trafficked for various forms of sexual exploitation such as prostitution, sex tourism, child pornography, paedophilia and labour exploitation in agriculture and industries.

Although India and Sri Lanka have put their signature in the Palermo Protocol, the first legal instrument to provide international definition of trafficking of human and children, none of the South Asian countries have actually ratified the protocol, Karlsson said.

The report emphasises on making judicial process child-friendly and protecting the privacy and psychological well-being of children.

According to an estimate some 1.2 million people have been trafficked worldwide annually and the child trafficking accounts for half of it.

The report also consists of a case study of regional anti-trafficking network established in three districts of Andhra Pradesh (India) - Anantapur, Chittoor and Kadapa - where anti-trafficking campaign has paid well.

According to the report, after the implementation of community based anti-trafficking project, adolescent girls have become increasingly aware of trafficking and other child protection risks.

"The girls, mostly from Muslim families, tribal communities and scheduled castes, belonging to these south Indian districts, have become more confident and have started demanding their rights, including right to education and vocational training," the report states. In Nepal, where children face threat of violence, abuse and exploitation, sensitisation programmes conducted by the para-legal committees with the assistance of UNICEF have raised awareness about risks, human rights and support structures among children and women, the report says.

KATHMANDU, Aug 30 - Inter-country adoption system in the country has encouraged child abuse including abduction and trafficking of children, according to a report released by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and Terre des Hommes (Tdh), an international NGO, on Friday.

The report revealed that only four out of every 100 children adopted in Nepal are adopted by a Nepali family, whereas many children put up for adoption are not orphaned but are separated from their families.

Of the some 15,000 children in orphanages or children’s homes, a significant number of admissions in these setups are a result of fraud, coercion or malpractice, according to the 62-page report.

The report suggests stopping inter-country adoption until the rights of children in orphanages are protected and their standard of care is raised.

UNICEF and the Tdh have welcomed the news that the government will ratify the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption (1993).

However, they stressed that the ratification and enactment of domestic legislation should take place before inter-country adoption procedures resume.

http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=158794