Languages within the Ministry of National Education (i.e. Le Projet Trilinguisme de la
Direction de I’'Alphabétisation et des Langues Nationales). This project strives to
intervene in the daaras in order to offer the opportunity to the talibés of learning and
mastering three (3) languages (i.e. French, Arabic and a national language translated in
Arabic characters), in addition to vocational skills training.
29.With reference to the protection of talibés and other children on the street from physical
abuses, the Respondent State submitted that its Ministry of Interior has a specialised
police force, the Minors Brigade, whose mission is to protect morally threatened
children, to identify them and to ensure their reintegration, in collaboration with the other
structures. In addition, the Ministry of Health is developing numerous initiatives for the
development of the welfare of children, including /’Ecole Nationale des Travailleurs
Sociaux Spécialisés (ENTSS), which has, since 2005, introduced a training module on
the rights of the child. There is also the Support Cell to the Protection of the Child, which
is located at the Presidency to support different initiatives from state and civil society
structures.
30.The Respondent State also submitted that it has been striving to involve non-state
actors,
particularly local and
international
NGOs
(including
Community-based
organisations) to provide assistance, advocacy and prevention interventions. Moreover,
communities and families play a primary role in the protection of children, in order to
develop a common understanding of the existing structures, to create a public
consensus and to guide the taking of decisions at the national level.
31. Furthermore, the Respondent State pointed out that it has ratified various international
human rights treaties, particularly the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the
Child, and
ILO Conventions
on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour and
the Minimum Age Convention, namely the Conventions 138 and 182. These
international treaties have been domesticated in the State Party’s legislation in the
context of the 2001 Constitution, particularly through the enactment of the Code of
Criminal Procedures, which entrenches the best interests of the child. Other pieces of
legislations include the Penal Code": the 79-1165 Decree of 20 December 1975, which
prohibit punishment and physical abuse in schools and education centres which are not
conventional; the 2004-38 law of 28 December 2004, which has abolished death
penalty and applies to all children without exception, even to foreign and migrant
children; and the 2005-06 law of 10 May 2005, which criminalizes trafficking in persons,
including children, and similar practices, as well as
prohibiting forced begging.
*1 In particular, Articles 245-247 criminalize child begging; Articles 298 and 299, criminalize wounds and
blows/assault on a child who is below 15 years; Article 339 criminalizes the non-declaration to the civil status office;
and Article 350 criminalizes neglect. In addition, Decree No 64-088 of 6 February 1964 (JO No3664, page 283)
prohibits child begging in all its forms; the law of July 1975, inserted in the Penal Code in articles 245 and et seq.
prohibits begging; and the 2005-06 law of 29 April 2005 criminalises trafficking of vulnerable people and prohibits
forced begging .