Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The United States (USA) has said Zimbabwe made minimal advancement toward ending child labor in 2021. In a report seen by Pindula News, the U.S. Department of Labor said gold is among goods produced with child labor or forced labour in Zimbabwe. Other goods are sugarcane and tobacco. Reads the report in part:
In 2021, Zimbabwe made minimal advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. The National Assembly began consideration of amendments to the Labor Act, which would increase penalties for child labor violations.
The government, with the United Nations, also launched an updated Sustainable Development Cooperation Assistance Framework, prioritizing increased educational access and social protections for girls and other groups vulnerable to child labor. However, Zimbabwe is assessed as having made only minimal advancement because it implemented a practice that delays advancement to eliminate child labor.
Evidenced by a pattern of threats and intimidation of worker organizations and trade unionists, high-level officials within the Government of Zimbabwe and the ruling political party interfered with a delegation representing worker and civil society organizations to investigate concerns of child labor occurring at a commercial farm, sending party activists to the farm to threaten and intimidate the delegation.
Children in Zimbabwe are subjected to the worst forms of child labor, including in commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes as a result of human trafficking, and forced labor in mines and on farms. Children also engage in child labor in agriculture, including in the harvesting of sugarcane and tobacco. The government did not publicly release information on its labor and criminal law enforcement efforts for inclusion in this report, and law enforcement agencies lack resources to enforce child labor laws.
Download: USDOL 2021 Findings on the Worst Forms Of Child Labor – Zimbabwe
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