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Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children

In the first decade of the 21st Century                                                                     gvnet.com/streetchildren/Togo.htm

Togolese Republic (Togo)

This small, sub-Saharan economy is heavily dependent on both commercial and subsistence agriculture, which provides employment for 65% of the labor force. Some basic foodstuffs must still be imported. Cocoa, coffee, and cotton generate about 40% of export earnings with cotton being the most important cash crop. Togo is the world's fourth-largest producer of phosphate.

Economic growth remains marginal due to declining cotton production, underinvestment in phosphate mining, and strained relations with donors.  [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Togo

CAUTION:  The following links and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Togo.  Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false.  No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE

Students

If you are looking for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this page and others to see which aspect(s) of street life are of particular interest to you.  You might be interested in exploring how children got there, how they survive, and how some manage to leave the street.  Perhaps your paper could focus on how some street children abuse the public and how they are abused by the public … and how they abuse each other.  Would you like to write about market children? homeless children?  Sexual and labor exploitation? begging? violence? addiction? hunger? neglect? etc.  There is a lot to the subject of Street Children.  Scan other countries as well as this one.  Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions.  Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources that are available on-line.

Teachers

Check out some of the Resources for Teachers attached to this website.

*** FEATURED ARTICLE ***

Child Trafficking in Togo: A Way Out

Livina Nkiruka Agwunobi,  14 September 2004

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 2 October 2011]

Sometimes, children are left to the lender as a pawn for a borrowed sum.  Immediately, these children are taken away from the parents, their problems start.  They face problems of physical abuse, sexual abuse, child labor, and are generally neglected.  Most of them lose contact with their parents and relations and when they could not contain the exploitation, they run away to the street and become street children.

While on the street, they feel that they have got the freedom, but exploitation continues. They are sexually abused and are targets for those looking for cheap labour. They are faced with worries about their needs: food, shelter, water, clothing, and medical. Their mental reasoning is distorted.

 

*** ARCHIVES ***

Human Rights Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006

2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61597.htm

[accessed 11 February 2020]

CHILDREN - The government provided education in state schools, and school attendance is compulsory for both boys and girls until the age of 15. According to a September UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) report, approximately 79 percent of children aged 5 to 11, mostly boys, attended school. In that age group, approximately 83 percent of boys and 74 percent of girls started primary school, but only an estimated 51 percent of boys and 22 percent of girls reached secondary school.

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – Boys were trafficked for agricultural work in Cote d'Ivoire and domestic servitude and street labor in Gabon. They were fed poorly, clothed crudely, cared for inadequately, given drugs to work longer hours, and not educated or permitted to learn a trade.

Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 28 January 2005

www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/togo2005b.html

[accessed 30 December 2010]

[63] The Committee welcomes the ratification by the State party party’s ratification of ILO Conventions No. 138 concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment in 1984 and No. 182 concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor in 1984 and 2000 respectively and the strategies implemented to prevent and combat child labor. Nevertheless, it remains concerned at the high large number of children working in the informal sector, in factories, as domestic servants, and on the streets.

[66] The Committee welcomes the adoption on 18 March 1998 of Act No. 98/008 on drugs control of 18 March 1998,and the setting up in 1996 of the National Anti‑Drug Committee (CNAD) and in 2000 of the National Anti‑Drugs Plan. However, the Committee remains concerned by about the high large number of children, in particular street children, using and selling drugs.

[68] The Committee is concerned by at the high large number of children living and working on the streets, and by at the vulnerability of these children to various forms of violence, including sexual abuse and economic exploitation, economic exploitation, and at the lack of a systematic and comprehensive strategy to address the situation and protect these children, and at the very poor registration and tracing of missing children by the police.

Information about Street Children - Togo [DOC]

This report is taken from “A Civil Society Forum for Francophone Africa on Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Street Children”, 2-5 June 2004, Senegal

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 31 July 2011]

Estimates range from as few as 500 to as many as 3,000 in the capital Lome alone. Even less is known about the proportion of girls within this population, as they are far less visible than boys.  It is not uncommon to see children 7-years-old in the streets, and most of the children report living there for periods of at least 3 years, usually more.

All material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.  PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES.  Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Street Children - Togo", http://gvnet.com/streetchildren/Togo.htm, [accessed <date>]