publications

VI. Conclusion

Girl domestic workers in Guinea work long hours for little or no money, and are routinely deprived of adequate sleep, rest, food, health care and education as well as social contacts and loving care from their parents or guardians. Those complicit in this negligence and abuse include parents who send the girls to domestic work and do not keep in close contact; intermediaries who do not check on the child’s well-being; and extended family members and non-relatives who employ or host the girls as domestic workers, but fail to fulfill their duties as guardians and employers.

The government has not yet developed a satisfactory policy to address the serious abuses girl domestic workers experience, and hence fails to protect the girls. At present, there are few efforts to enroll child domestic workers in primary school, allowing them to become independent through education. There is virtually no national child protection system in Guinea; national NGOs do important child protection work but cannot fill this huge gap, and currently operate without a proper legal framework which could itself lead to abuses and other human rights violations. Exploitation and violence against child domestic workers routinely goes uninvestigated and unpunished. Situations which amount to physical and sexual abuse, labor exploitation, trafficking and forced labor are often not defined as such and therefore not necessarily considered crimes. The new Guinean government has pledged to improve the living conditions of ordinary people, in particular youths. It has also announced that justice will be a key to a better future. The government should translate this commitment into reality by adopting concrete steps to ensure greater protection and opportunities for the hundreds of thousands of girl domestic workers in Guinea and in the region.