Human Trafficking in [DRC] [other countries]Street Children in [DRC] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [DRC] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] The The Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a source and destination country for men,
women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual
exploitation. Much of this trafficking occurs within the country’s unstable
eastern provinces and is perpetrated by armed groups outside government
control. Indigenous and foreign armed militia groups, notably, the Democratic
Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the National Congress for the
Defense of the People (CNDP) and various local militia (Mai-Mai), continue to
abduct and forcibly recruit Congolese men, women, and children, as well as
smaller numbers of Rwandan and Ugandan children, to serve as laborers
(including in mines), porters, domestics, combatants, and sex slaves. CNDP
troops, dressed in civilian clothes and fraudulently promising civilian
employment, conscripted an unknown number of Congolese men and boys from
Rwanda-based refugee camps, as well as dozens of Rwandan children from towns
in western Rwanda, for forced labor and soldiering in the DRC. The failed
“mixed” brigade experiment, which attempted to combine full CNDP battalions
into single brigades with other battalions answering to FARDC command and
control, ended in September 2007. This process abruptly brought into the
FARDC ranks an estimated 200 children, including girls, who were not
demobilized during the reporting period. In December 2007, the terrorist
rebel organization, Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), intensified its operations
in the DRC’s Dungu Territory, abducting civilians. An estimated 300 women and
children remained with the LRA in DRC’s Garamba National Park. More than
1,000 Congolese women remained in Uganda after being forcibly transported
there as sex slaves or domestics by departing Ugandan troops in 2004. An
unknown number of unlicensed Congolese miners remain in debt bondage to
supplies dealers for tools, food, and other provisions. Some reports suggest
that Congolese children were prostituted in brothels or in camps by loosely
organized networks. Congolese women and children were reportedly also
trafficked by road to South Africa for sexual exploitation. Congolese girls
were also believed to be trafficked to the Republic of the Congo for
commercial sexual exploitation. A small number of Congolese children are also
reportedly trafficked to Uganda via Rwanda for agricultural labor and sexual
exploitation. Reports suggest some members of Batwa, or pygmy groups, were
subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude. - U.S. State Dept
Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2008 [full country report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have been
culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Survivors'
Rights International - Press Release: June 2, 2004 EQUATEUR PROVINCE: Eyewitnesses reports from different parts of Equateur indicate both transient soldiers and resident DRC government FAC (Forces Armee Congolaise) soldiers looting and destroying property; confiscating and occupying homes and schools; conscripting and brutalizing males for forced labor; raping women and girls; and abducting women and girls for prolonged periods of sexual slavery. ***
ARCHIVES *** U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs CURRENT
GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND PROGRAMS TO ELIMINATE THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR - The Ministry of Family Affairs and Labor began to
implement an action plan against sexual exploitation of persons, and the
Government has attended regional meetings on trafficking and sought to
coordinate with neighboring governments to address the problem. Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports
on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – There
was no information available on reports from late 2004 that persons were
recruiting children in Internal trafficking for forced
labor and forced sexual exploitation occurred and child prostitution were
reported. The majority of reported trafficking occurred in the northeast and
east. In eastern parts of the country,
armed groups operating outside government control continued to kidnap men,
women, and children and force them to provide menial labor and sexual
services for members of armed groups
In addition armed groups abducted children to serve as combatants in
areas under their control. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2001 [64] The Committee is deeply concerned at the direct
and indirect impact of the armed conflict on almost all children in the State
party. The Committee is concerned at the deliberate killing of children by
armed forces of the State party, armed forces of other State parties that
have participated in the conflict and by other armed groups, and by the
continuing impunity for such acts constituting very serious violations of
children's rights. The Committee is concerned at, inter alia, the recruitment
and use of children as soldiers by the State party and by other actors in the
armed conflict, including children under 15. The Committee notes with
appreciation the creation of a special bureau for the demobilization and
re-integration of child soldiers (DUNABER), but is concerned about the
effectiveness of this bureau. [66] The Committee joins the State party in expressing
concern at the prevalence of child labour, especially in informal sectors
which frequently fall outside the protections afforded by domestic
legislation (see paragraph 87 of the State party's report). The Committee is
deeply concerned at the use of children to work in the Kasaï mines, in
locations in Lubumbashi and in other dangerous work environments. [68] The Committee is deeply concerned by information,
including for example in the State party's report, of the trading,
trafficking, kidnapping and use for pornography of young girls and boys
within the State party, or from the State party to another country, and that
domestic legislation does not sufficiently protect children from trafficking. Survivors'
Rights International - Press Release: June 2, 2004 EQUATEUR PROVINCE: Eyewitnesses reports from different parts of Equateur indicate both transient soldiers and resident DRC government FAC (Forces Armee Congolaise) soldiers looting and destroying property; confiscating and occupying homes and schools; conscripting and brutalizing males for forced labor; raping women and girls; and abducting women and girls for prolonged periods of sexual slavery. Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 5 Civil Liberties: 6 Status: Not Free Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide Preventing the
Use of Child Soldiers: the Role of the International Criminal Court THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE
CONGO - It has been
reported by UNICEF that as many as one-third of the DRC’s children have been
forced to take up arms. According to the United Nations, the armed
forces using child soldiers within the DRC are: the DRC Government
Forces (FAC), the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC), the Congolese Rally
for Democracy (RCD), the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD)-National, the
Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD)-ML, Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC),
Lendu Militias, Patrick Masunzu’s forces, Ex-FAR/Interahamwe, and Mai Mai
militias. Congo,
Democratic Republic of the (DRC) GOVERNMENT FORCES - The Congolese Armed Forces
(FAC) continued to have children in their ranks despite commitments to
demobilization. "We were told to kill people
by forcing them to stay in their homes while we burned them down," says
15-year-old Kalami, a six-year veteran serving in one of the armed groups in
the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. "One day, my friends and I
were forced by our commanders to kill a family, to cut up their bodies... My
life is lost. I have nothing to live for." I met Manja just after he had
walked in alone out of the rain. He carried nothing with him but a sleeveless
nylon jacket and his memories. Sham
demobilisation hides rise in Congo's child armies Armed groups in the Democratic
Republic of Congo have stepped up their recruitment of child soldiers in
expectation of the civil war continuing despite the peace accord, Amnesty
International says. Boys and girls as
young as eight are being mobilised in their thousands to murder and plunder
-undermining the hope that after five years the conflict is winding down, its
report, Children at War, says. The
Use of Child Soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo President Kabila of the Democratic
Republic of Congo has used child soldiers to support his military since 1996.
As the rebel leader of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation
of Congo (ADFL), he recruited thousands of young child soldiers, known as
"Kadogo," or "the little ones," to support his military
campaign against the Mobutu government. Despite pledges from the Congolese
government to demobilize children from the FAC since the end of the 1996-1997
war and the establishment of several fledgling demobilization programs, the
Kabila government has continued to recruit children as young as seven years old
for military service. While no reliable statistics were available regarding
the number of child soldiers, the total number is likely to be at least
several thousand. In a new report released today
Amnesty International (AI) criticized demobilization of child soldiers in
eastern Congo as timid and ineffective, claiming that among certain rebel
groups demobilization is merely a public relations ploy that often ends in
the re-recruitment of those recently demobilized. The
Protection Project - Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) [DOC] FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE
TRAFFICKING INFRASTRUCTURE - Sexual violence was used as a weapon of war by nearly all the
factions involved in the conflict in the eastern DRC. Groups frequently and
systematically raped women and girls in order to terrorize communities into
accepting their control or to punish them for giving real or supposed aid to
opposing forces. Combatants abducted women and took them to base camps, where
they were forced to be sex slaves or domestic servants. Rape and other sexual
crimes were not carried out solely by armed groups in the DRC; police,
government authorities, and common criminals were “taking advantage of the
prevailing climate of impunity and the culture of violence against women and
girls.” All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
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Human Trafficking in [DRC] [other countries]Street Children in [DRC] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [DRC] [other countries]