| Total
Child Labour |
NATIONAL STATISTICS
* In August
the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare estimated that 800,000
children are working countrywide. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001 citing Ministry of Employment
and Social Welfare)
* For the year 2000,
the ILO projects that there will be 310,000 economically active children,
172,000 girls and 138,000 boys between the ages of 10-14, representing
12.00% of this age group. (ILO, International Labour Office - Bureau of Statistics, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, STAT Working Paper, ILO 1997)
* 7.8% of 7-14-year-olds and 31.5% of 15-19-year-olds are economically active.
(US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
* 20% of child workers are under 10 years. (ILO,
Child Labour: What Is To Be Done?, June 1996)
* In 1995, there were 295,000 economically active children, 166,000
girls and 129,000 boys between the ages of 10-14, representing 13.27%
of this age group. (ILO, International Labour Office - Bureau of Statistics, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, STAT Working Paper, ILO 1997)
*
An ILO survey conducted in three rural districts between 1992 and
1993 concluded that 11% of school children are employed for wages
and another 15% without remuneration. (US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
LOCAL STATISTICS
* In August
the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare estimated that 18,000
children are working in Accra. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001 citing Ministry of Employment
and Social Welfare)
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* In practice, child
employment is widespread, and young children of school-going age often
perform menial tasks during the day in the market or collect fares on local
buses. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)
|
| Child
Slavery |
NATIONAL
STATISTICS
* At least 2,510 women
and girls are bound to shrines through the localised Trokosi system.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
*
Over 100 boys were reportedly contracted out to Lake Volta fishermen.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
GENERAL NOTES AND
OBSERVATIONS
* There have
been newspaper reports of children being sold into slavery for either
sexual exploitation or labour, such as 10- to 12-year-old boys toiling
in the service of fisherman in exchange for a yearly remittance
to their families. A June 1999, report described this practice as
rampant in 156 fishing villages along the Afram River and settlements
along the Volta Lake in the Afram plains. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)
* The Constitution
prohibits slavery, but it exists on a limited scale. Trokosi, a traditional
practice is a system in which a young girl, usually under the age of 10,
is made a slave to a fetish shrine for offenses allegedly committed by
a member of the girl's family. In rare instances, boys are offered. The
belief is that, if someone in that family has committed a crime, such as
stealing, members of the family may begin to die in large numbers unless
a young girl is given to the local fetish shrine to atone for the offense.
The girl becomes the property of the fetish priest, must work on the priest's
farm, and perform other labour for him. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
|
| Child
Trafficking |
NATIONAL
STATISTICS
* 500 children
trafficked from Togo to Ghana.
(Childline)
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
*
The country is both a source and a destination country for trafficked
children. A local NGO noted that law enforcement officials expressed
a "complete disregard" for child labour and trafficking
issues. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)
* Children are
trafficked to and from Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, and Nigeria for indentured
or domestic servitude, farm labour and prostitution. Children trafficked
from Burkina Faso transit Ghana on the way to Cote d'Ivoire. (US
Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001)
* It is reported that
Ghana is a sender, receiver and transit country with regard to trafficking
of children for sexual purposes, and a country where CSEC is increasing
significantly. This is facilitated by Ghana's soaring number of street
children who are the major victims.
(ECPAT,
CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp)
* Thai girls
are found to be working as prostitutes in Western African countries
such as Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Senegal.
("Thai
girls lured to sex trade in Africa", Bangkok Post, 24 August 1998)
|
| Child
Prostitution and
Pornography |
LOCAL STATISTICS
* According
to one report, there are approximately 125 brothels in Accra alone
where young girls are forced into prostitution (ECPAT,
CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp)
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
*
Children
are trafficked to and from Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, and Nigeria for
indentured or domestic servitude, farm labour and prostitution.
(US
Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001)
*
Child prostitution, although illegal, exists.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* In 'Troikas' custom, at times, girls are made sexual slaves. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)
* Thai girls are found to be working as prostitutes in Western
African countries such as Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Benin, Nigeria
and Senegal. ("Thai
girls lured to sex trade in Africa", Bangkok Post, 24 August 1998)
* Young girls are
tricked into prostitution in the belief that they will be housemaids.
(US Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children,
1996)
|
| Children
in Crime |
- |
| Child
Soldiers |
RECRUITMENT
LAWS AND REGULATIONS
* The minimum
age for recruitment is 18. (CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001, 12 June 2001 citing Initial
Report of Ghana to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN
Doc. CRC/C/Add.39, 19/12/95)
* The UN confirmed
in 2000 that there is no conscription in Ghana. (CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001 citing Report of the Secretary-General,
UN doc. E/CN.4/2000/55, op.cit.)
NOTES ON
GOVERNMENT FORCES
* There are
no indications of under-18s in government armed forces. (CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001, 12 June 2001)
* There is no evidence
of underage recruitment in Ghana. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing Social Service International)
|
| Domestic
Child Servants |
NATIONAL
STATISTICS
* In Ghana,
80% of girls working as domestics were between 10 and 14 years.
(UNICEF
Innocenti Digest on Child Domestic Work, May 1999)
LOCAL STATISTICS
*
A recent survey shows that there are at least 39 active 'trokosi'
shrines in the Volta and Dangme areas: 18 in the Tongu North (Adidome),
eight in the Tongu South (Sogakope), five in Ketu, three in Keta,
two in Dangme West and one in Akatsi district. In all, there are
over 1,000 'Trokosis'. (Santuah
Niagia, "Children forced to atone for the sins of parents", Dispatch
Online, 16 March 2000)
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
*
Children are trafficked to and from Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, and Nigeria
for indentured or domestic servitude. (US
Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001)
* NGO's report
that children as young as age 7 work illegally as domestic servants.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)
*
Teenage girls from rural areas are sent by relatives to work in the cities
as housemaids for little remuneration. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* In cross-border
trafficking, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo are known to be the
main providers of child domestic labour to the main urban centres
of countries like Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea
and the Congo. (UNICEF,
The Issue of Child Domestic Labour and Trafficking in West and Central
Africa, July 1998)
*
Under the Trokosi
system, a traditional practice that is particularly prevalent in
the Volta region, girls, usually under the age of ten, are enslaved
to fetish priests in atonement for some offence committed by their
families. They are subjected to forced labour and sexual abuse,
often bearing the priests' children. Even after release, a woman's
obligations to the shrine are life long and a replacement is expected
when she dies. It is estimated that some 4,500 girls are caught
up in that system
(ECPAT,
CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp)
|
Other
Hazardous
Child Labour |
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* NGO's report
that children as young as age 7 work illegally as porters, domestic
servants, "hawkers," rock-breakers in quarries, small-scale
miners, farmers, and fishermen. They are paid poorly, if at all,
and sometimes are molested or abused. They seldom receive sufficient
food or health care, and do not attend school. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)
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