About 160 million children were subjected to child labour at the beginning of 2020, with a 9 million additional children at risk due to the impact of COVID 19. A great number of them are engaged in hazardous work that directly endangers their health, safety and moral development such as work at the mining site.
According to the international labour organization, at least one million children aged 5yrs to 17yrs work in gold mines around the world. Between January and April 2021, 14 artisanal miners died in the mining fields in East Cameroon. Also, the incidence of hazardous work in countries affected by arm conflict is 50% higher than the global average. Cameroon currently is faced with armed conflicts in the Far North (Boko Haram), Northwest and Southwest (Anglophone Crisis) and humanitarian crisis caused by the conflicts in its neighbouring East (Central Africa Republic) which broke out in December 2012 producing about 260,000 refugees living in Cameroon.
This study evaluates the impact of mining activities on children within the mining site and it’s neighbouring population by exploiting the standards between the national, regional and international legal framework designated for the protection of children’s rights. It exposes the risks in mining which constitutes a violation to the rights of a child creating awareness on the urgent need to protect children at the mining site and its neighbouring population and foster development.
Related resources
“I must work to eat” - COVID-19, Poverty and Child Labour in Ghana, Nepal and Uganda
Taller de Vida's Art Therapy for the Reintegration of Children in Armed Conflict
