Tanzania D/E/D>SEDEd͵&&Kzd^DHdKed/EhWK>/ZEWZD/D,D>ZSEDEd
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Tanzania D/E/D>sEDEd͵&&KZd^DhdKEd/EhWK>/zEWZd/d,d>zsEDEd In 2017, the United Republic of Tanzania made a minimal advancement to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. The government published regulations to define hazardous work for children in several sectors and, for the first time, explicitly prohibited hazardous tasks for children in the fishing industry. Despite these initiatives to address child labor, Tanzania is receiving this assessment because it continued to implement a policy and practice that delayed advancement in eliminating the worst forms of child labor. Since 1984, the government has regulated access to secondary education through the Primary School Leaving Exam. Students who do not pass the exam do not have an opportunity to re-take the exam, and must drop out of public school, preventing them from continuing their education. Students in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar complete primary education at the average age of 14. Children in Zanzibar who do not pass the exam can find themselves both out of formal education but still below the minimum age for work, which is age 15, leaving such children at increased risk of child labor. Although the government has expressed its intention to phase out the National exam by 2021, it has yet to initiate efforts or make preparations to do so. The government also explicitly supports the routine expulsion of pregnant students from public schools, making them more vulnerable to the worst forms of child labor. Children in Tanzania engage in the worst forms of child labor, including in mining, quarrying, and domestic work. Other gaps remain in the legal framework, including protections for child engagement in illicit activities and domestic work. I. PREVALENCE AND SECTORAL DISTRIBUTION OF CHILD LABOR Children in Tanzania engage in the worst forms of child labor, including in mining, quarrying, and domestic work. (1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6) Children also perform dangerous tasks in agriculture. (5) Table 1 provides key indicators on children’s work and education in Mainland Tanzania. Table 1. Statistics on Children’s Work and Education Figure 1. Working Children by Sector, Ages 5-14 Services Industry Children Age Percent 4.9% 1.0% Working (% and population) 5 to 14 29.3 (3,573,467) Attending School (%) 5 to 14 74.3 Combining Work and School (%) 7 to 14 24.6 Primary Completion Rate (%) 72.4 Source for primary completion rate: Data from 2013, published by UNESCO Institute for Agriculture Statistics, 2018. (7) 94.1% Source for all other data: Tanzania National Child Labour Survey (NCLS), 2014. (5) Based on a review of available information, Table 2 provides an overview of children’s work by sector and activity. Table 2. Overview of Children’s Work by Sector and Activity Sector/Industry Activity Agriculture Plowing, weeding, harvesting, and processing crops including coffee, sisal, tea, tobacco, and cloves (1; 3; 4; 8; 9; 10) Seaweed farming (1; 11) Production of sugarcane† (4) Livestock herding, including tending cattle (3; 6; 12) Fishing, † including for Nile perch (13; 5; 8; 11; 14; 6; 12) Industry Quarrying† stone and breaking rocks to produce gravel (1; 3; 4; 13; 5; 12) Mining,† including gold and tanzanite, and using mercury (3; 4; 13; 5; 8; 11; 15; 16; 17; 18) (19; 20; 21; 22) 2017 FINDINGS ON THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR 1 Tanzania D/E/D>sEDEd͵&&KZd^DhdKEd/EhWK>/zEWZd/d,d>zsEDEd Table 2. Overview of Children’s Work by Sector and Activity (cont) Sector/Industry Activity Industry Manufacturing,† activities unknown (4; 8; 11) Construction,† including digging, drilling, carrying bricks,† bricklaying, and assisting masons (3; 4; 11; 23) Services Domestic work,† including child care,† cooking, and washing† (3; 5; 24; 25; 26; 6; 12) Garbage collecting† (8) Street work, including vending,† shoe shining, small business, and scavenging† (3; 8) Work as barmaids† (27) Categorical Worst Commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes as a result of human trafficking or work in the tourism Forms of Child industry (3; 8; 11; 28; 6; 12) Labor‡ Forced begging (6) Forced labor in domestic work, agriculture, mining, fishing, commercial trading, quarrying, shining shoes, pushing carts, and working in factories and bars, each sometimes as a result of human trafficking (28; 29; 30; 31; 6; 12) † Determined by national law or regulation as hazardous and, as such, relevant to Article 3(d) of ILO C. 182. ‡ Child labor understood as the worst forms of child labor per se under Article 3(a)–(c) of ILO C. 182. The United Republic of Tanzania consists of Mainland Tanzania and the semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago. Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar have separate laws and regulations governing child labor and are presented separately when information differs between them. Tanzania is a source, transit, and destination country for child trafficking for forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Child trafficking is often facilitated by victims’ family members, friends, or intermediaries promising assistance or employment. (29; 31; 32; 6; 12) Girls are often trafficked for domestic servitude or commercial sexual exploitation, including along the Kenya border and in tourist areas. (29; 30; 6) Although most children are trafficked internally, children from Burundi and Rwanda are also trafficked to Tanzania for involuntary servitude. (33) Impoverished rural children and those orphaned by HIV/AIDS are particularly vulnerable. (32; 34; 6; 12) Children working in mining are exposed to many hazards such as mercury poisoning and entrapment when tunnels collapse, especially in smaller unlicensed operations. (35; 22; 21) Despite a recent policy shift to institute tuition-free primary education, families must still pay for books, uniforms, and school lunches, at costs that are prohibitive to some families. (36; 37; 38; 39) Barriers to education such as these can reduce children’s access to school and increase their vulnerability of child labor. II. LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR CHILD LABOR Tanzania has ratified all key international conventions concerning child labor (Table 3). Table 3. Ratification of International Conventions on Child Labor Convention Ratification ILO C. 138, Minimum Age ILO C. 182, Worst Forms of Child Labor UN CRC UN CRC Optional Protocol on Armed Conflict UN CRC Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography Palermo Protocol on Trafficking in Persons 2 BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL LABOR AFFAIRS Tanzania D/E/D>sEDEd͵&&KZd^DhdKEd/EhWK>/zEWZd/d,d>zsEDEd The government has established laws and regulations related to child labor (Table 4). However, gaps exist in Tanzania’s legal framework to adequately protect children from the worst forms of child labor, including the minimum age for work, access to public education, compulsory education age and the prohibition of using children in illicit activities. Table 4. Laws and Regulations on Child Labor Related Meets International Standard Age Legislation Entity Standards: Yes/No Minimum Age for Work Mainland No 14 Article 5 of the Employment and Labor Relations Act; Article 77 of the Law of the Child Act (40; 41) Zanzibar No 15 Article 6 of the Zanzibar Employment Act; Articles 2 and 98 of the Zanzibar Children’s Act (42; 43) Minimum Age for Mainland Yes 18 Article 5 of the Employment and Labor Relations Act; Article 82 Hazardous Work of the Law of the Child Act (40; 41) Zanzibar Yes 18 Articles 8–9 of the Zanzibar Employment Act; Article 100 of the Zanzibar Children’s Act (42; 43) Identification of Hazardous Mainland Yes Article 5 and First Schedule of Regulations of the Employment Occupations or Activities and Labor Relations Act; Article 82 of the Law of the Child Act; Prohibited for Children List of Hazardous Child Labor (4; 40; 41; 35) Zanzibar Yes Articles 8–9 of the Zanzibar Employment Act; Article 100 of the Zanzibar Children’s Act (42; 43) Prohibition of Forced Mainland Yes Article 25 of the Constitution; Article 80 of the Law of the Child Labor Act; Article 6 of the Employment and Labor Relations Act; Article 4 of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act (40; 41; 44; 45) Zanzibar Yes Article 7 of the Zanzibar Employment Act; Article 102 of the Zanzibar Children’s Act (42; 43) Prohibition of Child Mainland Yes Article 4 of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act (45) Trafficking Zanzibar Yes Articles 6–7 of the Zanzibar Employment Act; Article 106 of the Zanzibar Children’s Act (42; 43) Prohibition of Commercial Mainland Yes Article 138.2.b of the Sexual Offences Special Provisions Act; Sexual Exploitation of Article 4 of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act (45; 46) Children Zanzibar Yes Article 155 of the Penal Code of Zanzibar; Article 110 of the Zanzibar Children’s Act (42; 47) Prohibition of Using Mainland No Children in Illicit Activities Zanzibar Yes Article 7.2.c of the Zanzibar Employment Act (43) Prohibition of Military Recruitment State Compulsory N/A* State Voluntary Yes 18 Article 29 of the National Defense Act (48) Non-state No Compulsory Education Age Mainland No 14‡ Article 35 of the National Education Act (36) Zanzibar No 13 Free Public Education No * No conscription (48) ‡ Age calculated based on available information (36) Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar’s non-union matters are governed by distinct territorial jurisdictional laws, leaving each territory to determine its own child labor laws. (1; 44) The minimum age for work laws in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar do not meet international standards because they do not extend to all working children, including children engaged in domestic work. (40; 42; 43) In 2017, Mainland Tanzania published regulations for the Employment and Labor Relations Act that defined hazardous work for children in many sectors. For the first time, the government explicitly prohibited hazardous tasks for children in the fishing industry. (49; 35) However, Mainland Tanzania’s hazardous work list for children does not specify weeding and processing as activities that are dangerous agricultural tasks in the production of tobacco, cloves, coffee, sisal, and tea.