Human Trafficking in [Mauritania] [other countries]Street Children in [Mauritania Child Prostitution in [Mauritania] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children Islamic The Islamic
Republic of Mauritania is located in NW Africa [map] and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (W), by Western Sahara
(NW & N), by Algeria (NE), by |
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CAUTION: The following links and accompanying
text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in UNICEF - The Big Picture U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children perform a wide range of urban informal activities, such as
street work and domestic work, as well as work as cashiers, dishwashers in
restaurants, car washers, and apprentices in garages. In addition, some children living with
marabouts, or Koranic teachers, are forced to beg, sometimes for over 12
hours a day. In 2002, a WFP survey of
out-of-school children in Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 CHILDREN - Attendance was required at
school for six years, but full implementation of universal primary education
was not scheduled to be completed until at least 2007, primarily because of
lack of financial resources needed to provide educational facilities and
teachers throughout the country, especially in remote areas. The 2002-03
official attendance rate was steady at 92 percent.
Education was free through university level. Classes were fully integrated,
including boys and girls from all social and ethnic groups. Children of slave
families were allowed to attend school. Local NGOs estimated that there
were up to 400 street children,
largely as a result of poverty and of the urbanization of formerly nomadic
families. The former government implemented a program to assist families with
street children and to
encourage their school attendance. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2001 [45] While noting the increase in
the number of schools and classrooms, the Committee is nevertheless concerned
that only approximately 60 per cent of children attend school and that there
are great gender and regional disparities. It further notes with concern the
high drop-out and repeating rates; the inadequacy of the school curriculum;
the high teacher-pupil ratio, especially in the capital, [49] The Committee is concerned
about the high number of children engaged in labor, in particular children
working in agriculture, in the informal sector and in the street, including
the talibés who are exploited by their teachers. BROKEN FAMILIES - a child may have been rejected
by a stepfather or stepmother. This is
a very frequent problem. In POLITICAL CAUSES - Children separated from their
families because of border closures.
This is what happened in Committee
On Rights Of Child Starts Consideration Of Initial Report Of Mauritania Primary education was obligatory
from the age of 6 years and a law imposed penalties against parents who
failed to send their children to school.
Orphans and street children were not rejected within the Mauritanian
society, the delegation said. Orphaned
children were generally taken in by the extended families and other
institutions. Children could only
become street children following the erosion of the family and the African
traditional system. Committee On The Elimination Of Racial Discrimination - Consideration Of Reports 141. This problem, which is a
recent one in Mauritanian society, is still very limited because traditions
of solidarity continue to exist and because certain services, such as
education and health, are provided free of charge. Another reason, however,
is that there are no declared cases of children born out of wedlock. 142. In order to prevent the
growth of this phenomenon, the social affairs sector has established a
program of monitoring, assisting and protecting children in difficulties. The
program has five components: locating street children at night-time;
providing them with shelter and lending them a sympathetic ear; placing
delinquent minors in rehabilitation centers; placing children whose immediate
reintegration in the family cannot be contemplated in open children's homes;
and social and vocational integration with the support of the 143. This program currently covers
800 children and adolescents and has enabled 23 per cent of them to return to
their families, 30 per cent to be educated in open-system homes, 10 per cent
to receive training in a trade and 37 per cent to be educated under
supervision in a closed environment. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC §
107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use |
Human Trafficking in [Mauritania] [other countries]Street Children in [Mauritania Child Prostitution in [Mauritania] [other countries]