* For the year 2000, the ILO projects there will be 601,000 economically active children, 269,000 girls and 332,000 boys between the ages of 10-14, representing 24.18% of this age group. (ILO, International Labour Office - Bureau of Statistics, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, STAT Working Paper, ILO 1997)

* Little information is available on forced or compulsory labour. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women reported that there were some cases of trafficking in women and children. There were unconfirmed reports that some Taliban soldiers, often reported to be foreigners, abducted girls and women from villages in the Shomali plains, and these women were taken away in trucks from the area of fighting, and were trafficked to Pakistan and to the Arab Gulf states. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* Children as young as eight and nine years old have been reported to be in prostitution in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Taliban's law drives women to suicide", 27 May 1998, Julian West)

Children Used
in Crime

COMBINED NATIONAL STATISTICS

* Sources have claimed that children as young as 11 were members of the various armed groups. (CSUCS, Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001, 12 June 2001 citing Radda Barnen database quoting The Scotsman, 17/12/97)

* It is estimated that at least 108,000 children are involved in the fighting. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999)

* In recent years, with approximately 90% of children having no access to schooling, the proportion of child soldiers has risen from roughly 30% to at least 45%. (UN, Graca Machel, Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, 26 August 1996, citing Rachel Brett and Margaret McCallin, Children: The Invisible Soldiers, April 1996)

* In August 1999, a Taliban delegation visited all the main madrasas in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province appealing for students to join the Taliban's holy war. It is estimated that up to 5,000 students left their schools. According to the UN, the students who joined the Taliban at that time were aged between 15 and 35. (CSUCS, Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001, 12 June 2001 citing Galpin, R., "Teenage recruits swell Taliban ranks", The Guardian, 21/08/99)

* In August 1999, the United Nations estimated that up to 5,000 students aged 15 years and above, left their schools and joined the Taliban's holy war. (CSUCS, Asia Report, July 2000, citing P. Lobjois, "Pakistanis fiers de mourir en Afghanistan: recrutés par les taliban, ils pensaient combattre les Russes", Libération, 13 August 1999)

* The Annual Report of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan accused the Taliban of recruiting soldiers as young as 14 from religious schools in Pakistan. ("Taliban denies charge, it uses child soldiers", The Plain Dealer, 1 December 1999)

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Children between 6 and 14 years of age, often work to support their families by collecting paper and firewood, shining shoes, begging or collecting scrap metal from the street debris in the cities. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)