| Total
Child Labour |
NATIONAL STATISTICS
* For the year 2000, the ILO projects that
there will be 63,000 economically active children, 30,000 girls
and 33,000 boys. Between the ages of 10-14, representing 15.39%
of this age group.
(ILO, International Labour Office - Bureau of Statistics, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, STAT Working Paper, ILO 1997)
*
In 1995, there were 52,000 economically active children, 25,000
girls and 27,000 boys between the ages of 10-14, representing 18.62%
of this age group. (ILO, International Labour Office - Bureau of Statistics, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, STAT Working Paper, ILO 1997)
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* Child advocacy and
human rights groups reported child labour, but the government denied that
it existed. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
|
| Child
Slavery |
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* The Constitution prohibits
forced labour including that performed by children; however, this was widely
ignored in rural areas where farmers were pressured into providing free
labour on 'community projects' that often benefited only local leaders.
The government denied allegations that unpaid labourers were forced to harvest
crops on President Taylor's private farm. There were reports of forced child
labour. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* Some former combatants,
including some in the security forces were accused of forcing children to
work. Early in the year, a child rights advocacy group released a report
on forced child labour in the south-eastern counties.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* Forced child labour
is prevalent in Sinoe county. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
|
| Child
Trafficking |
- |
| Child
Prostitution and
Pornography |
- |
| Children
in Crime |
- |
| Child
Soldiers |
NATIONAL STATISTICS
*
In Liberia, as many as 15,000 children, some as young as six, served as
soldiers. Many of these boys were considered 'hard-core combatants' - youths
who had been forced to commit atrocities against their own families or
villages as a show of loyalty to their commanders. (UNICEF,
Progress Of Nations 2000, New York, 2000)
* The UN has
estimated that up to 20,000 children, were among both government
and opposition forces during Liberia's seven-year civil war.
(CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001)
*
About 21% (4,306) of the combatants
who disarmed under the provisions of the Abuja peace accords were
child soldiers under the age of 17. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
GOVERNMENT
FORCE STATISTICS
*
As many as 500 children between the ages of 10 and 17 were seen
on a base doing combat drill and light rifle training of the government
armed forces. (Rädda
Barnen, Childwar database, citing CSUCS, Use of Children as Soldiers
in Africa, 1999)
RECRUITMENT
LAWS AND REGULATIONS
*
The minimum age for voluntary recruitment is set at 18 years. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999)
NOTES
ON GOVERNMENT FORCES
*
In 1999 the Liberian government stated its commitment to an age of
limit of 18 for participation in armed conflict, but the Armed Forces
of Liberia have continued to recruit minors, including children from
Sierra Leone. (CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001)
*
In 1999 Liberian authorities denied recruitment or abuse of children by
the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL). (CSUCS, Global Report
on Child Soldiers - 2001 citing statement by A. von Williamson at the African
Conference on the Use of Child Soldiers, Maputo, Mozambique, 19-22 April
1999)
*
According to officials of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), the armed
forces do not recruit any person below 18 years. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing UNICEF)
* It is believed that
children who continue to be recruited into the AFL, are treated in the same
way as they were in wartime. During the conflict, they have sometimes been
treated even more cruelly than adult soldiers. One child soldier reported
that he had been made to bayonet his pregnant sister in the stomach as a
way of instilling total loyalty. Boy soldiers were placed in special 'Small
Boys Units', where they were taught to kill without question. These units
were particularly feared by civilians for this reason. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing UNICEF)
*
During the African Conference on the Use of Children as Soldiers, the Liberian
authorities denied any recruitment of children under the age of 18 in the
Armed Forces of Liberia and any involvement in the abuse of children in
any manner and form. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing A. von Williamson, Liberian Government
Representative to the African Conference on Child Soldiers, 19-22 April
1999)
NOTES
FROM PREVIOUS ARMED CONFLICTS
* In the past,
all factions have recruited large numbers of children. There are no
precise figures in this regard, though it is believed that the current
armed forces are primarily composed of former National Patriotic Front
of Liberia's (NPFL) fighters. According to data collected during disarmament/demobilisation
in 1996-97, 18% of the NPLF soldiers were children. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing UNICEF)
* Of those aged
17 years and under, the majority, 69% were 15 to 17 years old, and
had served an average of four years; 27% of the remaining fighters
under 17 were between the ages of 12 and 14 years old. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing M. McKenna, "The reintegration of
child soldiers in Liberia" , UNICEF USA News, November 1998)
* Out of a total
number of 21,315 combatants who were demobilised, 4,306 were child
soldiers. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing UNICEF Liberia: Demobilisation and
reintegration of former child soldiers and other war affected youth,
October 1998)
* Liberia has its
own `small boy unit' ranging in age from 6 to 20. (UNICEF,
State of the World's Children, 1996)
* A quarter of
the combatants in the various fighting factions were children, some
20,000 in all. (UNICEF, State of the
World's Children, 1996)
* In the civil
war in Liberia, UNICEF estimates that 6,000 of the fighters or 10%
are children under 15. It is estimated that a total of 40,000 to 60,000
fighters were involved in the conflict. (Human
Rights Watch/Africa, Easy Prey: Child Soldiers in Liberia, September
1994)
* In 1990, children
as young as seven were seen in combat. (UNICEF,
State of the World's Children, 1996)
* In the late
1980s and early 1990s, using many thousands of child soldiers, factions
in Liberia fought a brutal seven-year civil war. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999)
|
| Domestic
Child Servants |
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* Refugee children
from conflicts in nearby Liberia and Sierra Leone can end up as domestic
workers in Guinea. They are not trafficked but displaced because of internal
conflicts. (Anti-Slavery
International, presentation to the Libreville Consultation, February 2000)
|
Other
Hazardous
Child Labour |
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* Children are engaged
in logging, mining and street-vending. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)
SPECIFIC SECTORS
* Street Children
- The number of street children in Monrovia and the number of abandoned
infants increased significantly following disarmament.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
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