| Total
Child Labour |
NATIONAL STATISTICS
* In November
1999, the Minister of Social Affairs reportedly stated that 1 million
children participate in agricultural labour, and NGO's estimate
that up to 1.5 million children work. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001 citing the Minister of
Social Affairs)
* Ministry of Health
statistics notes there are some 2 million child workers between 6 and 15
years. (Human
Rights Watch, Country Reports, 2000)
* For the year
2000, ILO projects that there will be 752,000 economically active
children between the age of 10-14, representing 9.25% of this age
group. Of these children, 271,000 are girls and 481,000 are boys.
(ILO, International Labour Office - Bureau of Statistics, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, STAT Working Paper, ILO 1997)
* Nearly 78% of
working children are in the agricultural sector. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* 361,300 children
are economically active. (ILO, Yearbook
of Labour Statistics, 1998)
* In 1995, there
were 850,000 economically active children, 263,000 girls and 587,000
boys between the ages of 10-14, representing 11.22% of this age group.
(ILO, International Labour Office - Bureau of Statistics, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, STAT Working Paper, ILO 1997)
* A comprehensive
study prepared by the government's statistical agency in 1988 indicated
that 1,309,000 children between the ages of 6 and 14 are employed.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* Government
estimates show, of the 10.9 million children between 6-14 years,
1,309,000 or 12% are child workers. (US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children: Efforts to Eliminate
Child Labour, 1998)
*
The 1988 Government Survey showed 1.4 million children between the
ages of 6-14 work, which forms 7% of the total labour force. (US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994)
* In 1993, 16.5% of children in urban areas between the age of
6-14, and 40.4% of children in rural areas were found to be working.
(ILO,
Child Labour: What Is To Be Done?, June 1996, citing NPC, Survey
of Demography and Health, 1993)
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
*
There is extensive use of child labour in both rural and urban areas.
(Human
Rights Watch, Country Reports, 2000)
* Government studies
also indicate that the concentration of working children is higher in rural
areas compared to urban areas. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* Specific concern
is expressed regarding the very large number of children between 6 and
14 years of age who are enrolled in the labour force and therefore lack,
wholly or partly, the possibility to go to school. (UN
CRC, Concluding observations on Egypt, 1993)
|
| Child
Slavery |
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Children in carpet
factories are working under slave-like conditions.
(EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)
|
| Child
Trafficking |
- |
| Child
Prostitution and
Pornography |
NATIONAL STATISTICS
* The embassy
of the Republic of Egypt in Bangkok also reports that only 542 cases
of child sexual exploitation and violation occurred from 1993-1995
and that less than 20% of the victims of these crimes were children
under 18 years of age (ECPAT,
CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp)
GENERAL NOTES AND
OBSERVATIONS
* Although public
belief is that commercial sexual exploitation of children [CSEC]
is very rare because of religious teachings, the embassy of the
Republic of Egypt in Stockholm reports that the official estimates
of children involved in prostitution for the years 1995 and 1996
were 67 and 101 cases respectively. This amounts to 0.6% and 22%
of the total number of offences relating to child abuse. (ECPAT,
CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp)
* Child prostitution
is rare. (International
Save the Children Alliance, Children's Rights: Reality or Rhetoric?, 1999)
|
| Children
in Crime |
GENERAL JUVENILE
CRIME STATISTICS
* 226 children were detained
in 1989.
(International Save the Children Alliance, Children's Rights:
Reality or Rhetoric?, 1999)
|
| Child
Soldiers |
RECRUITMENT LAWS
AND REGULATIONS
* The minimum
age for conscription is 18 years. (Guy Goodwin-Gill and Ilene Cohn, Child Soldiers, The Role of Children in Armed Conflicts, A Study on Behalf of the Henry Dunant Institute, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994)
NOTES ON
GOVERNMENT FORCES
* There is no evidence
of any underage recruitment into the Egyptian armed forces. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999)
COMBINED NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
*
There are some indications of teenage involvement in armed opposition groups.
There are not likely to be under-18s in government armed forces due to a
surplus of candidates for military service. (CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001, 12 June 2001)
|
| Domestic
Child Servants |
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Children work as
domestics. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
|
Other
Hazardous
Child Labour |
ASSORTED
STATISTICS
* 45,000 children are working in small workshops.
(IWGCL, Working Children: Reconsidering
the Debates, 1998)
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Children work
as apprentices in auto-repair and craft shops, in heavier industries
such as construction, in brick-making and textiles, and as workers
in tanneries and carpet-making factories.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
SPECIFIC
SECTORS
*
Cotton leaf plantations -
In October 1999, Human Rights Watch conducted an investigation into
the use of child labour in Egyptian cotton pest management Although
the Child Law set the minimum age for seasonal agricultural employment
at 12 years, a majority of children engaged in leaf worm control
operations were below the age of 12, with a significant proportion
employed from the age of 7 or 8. They worked from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00
p.m. daily, with a one to two hour midday break, seven days a week.
Supervising groups of fifteen to thirty, foremen routinely beat
children with wooden switches whenever they perceived a child to
be slowing down or overlooking leaves. (HRW,
World Report 2001)
* Children may
have been exposed to toxic organophosphate and carbonate pesticides.
Such exposure can lead to pesticide poisoning that is both acute-with
effects such as dizziness, vomiting, or diarrhea-and chronic, including
disruption of the nervous, endocrine, or reproductive systems. In
the villages Human Rights Watch visited, children either resumed
work immediately after the fields were sprayed or following a twenty-four
to forty-eight hour hiatus, which may still have been inadequate
given the heightened susceptibility of children to pesticide intoxication.
(HRW, World Report 2001)
*Cotton
leaf plantations - In
Egypt, an estimated 1.2 million children took part in controlling
cotton leaf worm infestations during the summer months, by manually
removing damaged portions of leaves. (HRW,
World Report 2001)
*
Electrical Workshops - In September Ministry of Interior officials raided
16 electrical workshops in various Cairo neighborhoods and found 30 children
between the ages of 6 and 12 working there. In another case, authorities
found 4 children working in a Cairo restaurant that serves alcoholic beverages.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)
*
Leather Tanning - Children constitute about 25% of the labour force in
the leather tanneries of old Cairo. (US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children: Efforts to Eliminate Child Labour,
1998)
* Leather Tanning - An
ILO study notes that the average age of children working in leather tanning
industry was 11.7 years old, and worked 12.8 hours per day.
(US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994, citing Ahmed Abdalla, "Child
labour in Egypt: Leather tanning in Cairo", in ILO, Combating Child Labour,
1988)
* Street Children
- A 1997 study by the NGO network estimated that 1,000 children up to the
age of 16 years were living on their own in the streets, 42 % of whom were
under the age of 5. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
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