services of those
children in need
of medical
care. Therefore,
Respondent State in violation of Article 14 of the Charter.
the Committee
finds the
E. Alleged violation of Article 15 (child labour)
57.The Complainants allege that the urban talibés are an identifiable group of children
vulnerable to be exploited for the worst forms of child labour. Accordingly they submit
that the number of hours the children spent per day begging, the beatings for not
bringing a sufficient quota of goods per day and the health and safety risks caused by
standing in busy streets is contrary to international laws which categorize child begging
as a practice of exploitive labour.*
58.Art 15 of the African Children’s Charter obliges State Parties to take legislative and
administrative measures for the formal and informal employment sector to protect
children from all types of economic exploitation and from performing any work that is
likely to be hazardous or to interfere with their physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social
development. Further the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Convention 182
under Art 1 and 9 requires States to ensure the effective abolition of child labour and
implementation of the Convention.
59.In the case at hand, contrary what is prescribed under the regional and international
instruments, the Committee notes that many marabous force the talibés to beg on the
streets for long hours—a practice that meets the ILO definition of a worst form of child
labor. The Committee is of the view that the forced begging, physical abuse, and
dangerous daily living conditions endured by these talibés violate domestic and
international law. Despite being party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the
African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and all major international and
regional treaties on child labor and trafficking, which provide clear prohibitions against
the worst forms of child labor, physical violence, and trafficking, Senegal has scantily
enforced the laws.
60. The Committee notes that in the last decade, the government
forced begging as a worst form of child labor and criminalized
begging for economic gain, but this adequate legislation has so far
action. No marabout was held accountable for forced begging,
severe physical abuse against the talibés.
has notably defined
forcing another into
led to little concrete
gross neglect, and
61. In view of this, the Committee believes that forced begging places children in a harmful
situation on the street and therefore meets the ILO’s definition of a worst form of child
labor. Moreover, the Committee notes that the forced begging and gross neglect is done
with a view toward exploitation, with the marabout receiving the child from his/her
parents and profiting from the child’s labor, which resulted in continuous suffering of
*° UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar
to Slavery, adopted
September 7, 1956, 226 U.N.T.S. 3, entered into force April 30,
July 19, 1979, art 1(d)
16
1957, acceded to by Senegal