Relevant International and National Law

The abuses perpetrated against the talibés represent violations of international and national law. The various abuses suffered by the talibés qualify under international human rights law as a practice similar to slavery, a worst form of child labor, and, in hundreds if not thousands of cases per year, child trafficking. In addition, abuses suffered by the talibés violate rights guaranteed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam. Senegal has passed several laws to harmonize its domestic law with international human rights standards, but there has been a complete lack of will to apply these laws.

Child Servitude or Slavery

The UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery (Supplementary Convention) defines practices similar to slavery as:

Any institution or practice whereby a child ... is delivered by either or both of his natural parents or by his guardian to another person ... with a view to the exploitation of the child ... [or] his labour.[316]

Children are routinely delivered by parents or guardians to a marabout. The central question is whether the practice involves “a view to the exploitation of the child.” The use of “a view” in the definition indicates that exploitation need only be one of the purposes for the child being delivered. As the evidence of abuses and concomitant benefits for marabouts described in this report makes clear, exploitation is certainly one of the marabout’s motivations when receiving the child in the majority of urban residential daaras. Therefore, the threshold is met.[317]

To combat these practices similar to slavery, the Supplementary Convention requires states parties to “take all practicable and necessary legislative and other measures to bring about progressively and as soon as possible the complete abolition or abandonment of [these] institutions and practices.”[318] Senegal has failed to take such measures to protect the talibés.

Slavery, servitude, and forced labor are also prohibited by article 8 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.[319] Article 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights prohibits “all forms of exploitation and degradation,” including slavery.[320]

Worst Form of Child Labor

Article 3 of International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 182 defines the worst forms of child labor to include:

“(a) all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as ... forced or compulsory labour;

...

(d) work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.”[321]

As discussed above, the practice of forcing children to beg easily qualifies as a practice similar to slavery. In addition, the work—which requires long hours on the street, puts children at risk of car accidents and diseases, and often encourages stealing when a child cannot obtain the quota—qualifies as a worst form of child labor under subsection (d).

Senegal, a party to ILO Convention 182, has indeed defined the practice of forced begging, including specific mention of forcing talibés to beg, as a worst form of child labor.[322] However, the ILO’s Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR), which oversees states parties’ compliance with ILO conventions, including the Worst Forms Convention, noted in 2009 Senegal’s failure to enforce its own legislation:

[A]lthough the legislation is in conformity with the [Worst Forms] Convention ... the phenomenon of child talibés remains a concern in practice. The Committee expresses concern at the use of these children for purely economic purposes. It requests the Government to take the necessary measures to give effect to the national legislation on begging and to punish marabouts who use children for purely economic purposes.[323]

While the committee’s recommendation for accountability is important, the committee’s language may leave many situations that violate the Worst Forms Convention untouched. Few marabouts can be said to use talibés for “purely”—if one defines purely as “only”—economic purposes, as there is generally some, even if minute, educational purpose. At a minimum, accountability must exist for marabouts who principally use talibés for economic purposes or who, as the children’s de facto guardian by accepting them into their care, fail to ensure that their most basic rights are fulfilled.

In contrast to Senegal, the Bissau-Guinean government has not defined forced child begging as a worst form of child labor.

Child Trafficking

The United Nations Trafficking in Persons Protocol (Trafficking Protocol), article 3, states:

(c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons”....[324]

Under international law, threat, coercion, deception, and other means are not necessary to meet the threshold of trafficking when a child is involved. Every talibé interviewed by Human Rights Watch was transported or received by the marabout. Therefore, to be defined as trafficking under the protocol, the marabout must receive the child “for the purpose of exploitation.” In article 3(a), the Trafficking Protocol defines exploitation as including, at a minimum, “practices similar to slavery”[325]—which the talibés’ situation has been shown to meet.

However, as compared to the Supplementary Convention, which required only “a view to exploitation,” the Trafficking Protocol’s requirement that the child’s movement be with “the purpose of exploitation” appears to be a higher standard.[326] Even this threshold is almost certainly met in tens of cases documented by Human Rights Watch, in which marabouts lied to family members to keep a child in the daara, brutalized talibés who tried to run away or asked to be returned home, and deceived parents about the conditions in the daara. A strong case can likewise be made that in daaras where marabouts impose the highest quotas and the longest hours of begging—largely neglecting Quranic education—the principal purpose is exploitation.

The requirements for satisfying the child trafficking definition are therefore fully met in many cases, and largely met in others, leaving Human Rights Watch to conclude that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of cases of child trafficking by marabouts of talibés. The situation in some daaras, where begging is coupled with serious studies, is more ambiguous under the Trafficking Protocol.

Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam

The Cairo Declaration, to which Senegal is a supporter, outlines human rights and related responsibilities deemed in line with the Quran and Sharia. Its provisions regarding education and exploitation would appear to interpret the abuses endured by talibés as counter to the tenets of Islam:

• Article 7(a) affirms that “every child has rights due from the parents, the society and the state to be accorded proper ... education and material, hygienic and moral care.”[327] For many talibés, the lack of food and healthcare provisions, even when extremely sick, represent a denial of this right.
• Article 7(b) affords parents the right to choose the form of education for their children, so long as they take into consideration the child’s best interests,[328] but article 9(b) states that “Every human being has a right to receive both religious and worldly education.”[329] At present, a number of Senegalese children are failing to receive either a religious or worldly education, but merely spend long hours begging on the streets.
• Article 11 explicitly forbids the oppression and exploitation of others.[330]

International Treaties on Children’s Rights

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (African Children’s Charter) lay out the principal responsibilities of the Senegalese and Bissau-Guinean governments under international law in protecting and fulfilling the rights of the child.

The Senegalese government is clearly violating its obligations under the CRC with respect to at least some talibés’ rights to life,[331] health,[332] physical and mental development,[333] education,[334] recreation and leisure,[335] protection from economic exploitation,[336] and protection from sexual abuse.[337]

Article 19 of the CRC also requires the state to protect the child from “all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child (emphasis added).[338] General Comment No. 8 by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the body responsible for interpreting the convention, made clear that the requirements outlined in article 19 apply to corporal punishment in all settings, including schools.[339] As outlined in this report, the physical abuse that many marabouts inflict on talibés is severe and is unquestionably a violation under article 19. The state has an obligation to protect these talibés, including through improved legislation, regulation of the daaras, and accountability.[340]

As well as including provisions similar to those in the CRC, the African Children’s Charter includes several important additional provisions:

• Article 29 requires states to take “all appropriate measures to prevent” the trafficking of children and “the use of children in all forms of begging.”[341]
• Article 21 calls on states to take “all appropriate measures to eliminate harmful social and cultural practices” that affect the well-being and development of the child, focusing particularly on those “prejudicial to the health or life of the child.”[342] The practice of Quranic education—or even boarding a child in a daara—is not in itself harmful; indeed, the modern practice often marked by exploitation is far removed from the traditional cultural practice. However, this article makes clear that the Senegalese and Bissau-Guinean governments cannot hide behind the “cultural” nature of the practice when they fail to act.
• Article 20 defines the duties of parents toward their children, including: “(a) to ensure that the best interests of the child are their basic concern at all times; [and] (b) to secure, within their abilities and financial capacities, conditions of living necessary to the child’s development.”[343]

The CRC, African Children’s Charter, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights all contain provisions requiring states parties to ensure that education leads to the full development of the child.[344]

Finally, article 29 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights states, “The individual shall ... have the duty ... to preserve the harmonious development of the family and to work for the cohesion and respect of the family.”[345] When marabouts forbid talibés to have contact with their families, or when marabouts lie to families regarding the well-being of their children, they violate this duty.

Domestic Legislation Relevant to the Talibés

Several Senegalese laws are likewise relevant to the protection of the talibés, including those governing forced begging, trafficking, abuse, and neglect.

Anti-Trafficking Law

In 2005, the Senegalese government passed Law No. 2005-06, which outlawed the practice of forced begging. Article 3 of the law states:

Whosoever organizes the begging of another in order to benefit, or hires, leads, or deceives a person in order to engage him in begging or to exercise pressure on him to beg ... will be punished by imprisonment of 2 to 5 years and a fine of 500,000 to 2,000,000 francs [US$1,160 to $4,350]. The execution of the sentence will not be stayed when the crime is committed against a minor....[346]

The marabouts of almost all the talibés interviewed by Human Rights Watch are forcing children to beg for their financial gain. At the time of this writing, the Senegalese government has failed to punish a single marabout for violating the provisions of this law, despite its daily occurrence in cities across Senegal.

In addition to criminalizing forced begging, the 2005 law formally harmonized Senegalese domestic law with the Trafficking Protocol and made trafficking punishable by imprisonment of between 5 to 10 years and a fine of 5 to 20 million francs ($11,630 to $46,520).[347]

Senegalese Penal Code Provisions

Article 298 of the Senegalese penal code criminalizes physical abuse and willful neglect of children, stating:

Whosoever willfully injures or beats a child under the age of 15, or who willfully deprives a child of food or care as to endanger his health, or who commits against a child any violence or assault, except minor assaults, will be punished by imprisonment of one to five years and a fine of 25,000 to 200,000 francs ($54 to $435).[348]

The penal code prescribes a heightened penalty—up to 10 years imprisonment—if the abuser is a parent or any other person having authority over the child or acting as the child’s guardian.[349] Marabouts, as de facto guardians, would qualify under this elevated standard. While the penal code exempts “minor assaults,” the vast majority of marabouts described in this report perpetrate physical abuses that cannot be considered minor. The abuse inflicts severe physical harm, as well as terror, on the children, the vast majority of whom are under 15 years old and therefore covered under the statute. Neglect, through the willful deprivation of food or care, is likewise a common occurrence in many urban residential daaras as documented in this report.