AFGHANISTAN

PUBLIC POLICY
POLICY
AFGHANISTAN
PUBLIC
RESEARCH
ORGANIZATION
RESEARCH
ORGANIZATION
www.appro.org.af

Policy Brief
October 2016

www.appro.org.af

Child Labor in Afghanistan

About APPRO:

Background

Afghanistan Public Policy Research

Organization (APPRO) is an independent social research organization with
a mandate to promote social and
policy learning to benefit development and reconstruction efforts in
Afghanistan and other less developed countries through conducting
applied research, monitoring and
evaluation, and training and mentoring. APPRO is registered with the
Ministry of Economy in Afghanistan
as a non-profit, non-government organization. APPRO is headquartered
in Kabul, Afghanistan, with offices in
Mazar-e Shrif (north), Herat (west),
Kandahar (south), Jalalabad (east),
and Bamyan (center). APPRO is also
the founding organization of APPROEurope, registered in Belgium.

According to Afghanistans Labor Law,

the minimum age for employment
is 18. Children between the ages of
15-17 can be legally employed only
if the work is not harmful to them,
requires less than 35 hours per week,
and represents a form of vocational
training. Under the law, children aged
14 and younger are not allowed to
work.1 In 2011 the government signed
an Action Plan with the United Nations
to prohibit the recruitment and use of
children under the age of 18 by Afghan
National Security Forces, including the
Afghan National Police, Afghan Local
Police and Afghan National Army.2 The
government also listed 29 occupations
and working conditions prohibited for
children. In 2014, Afghanistan moved to
eliminate the worst forms of child labor.
In addition, Afghanistan has ratified
the Palermo Protocol on Trafficking in
Persons to combat child trafficking.

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may be downloaded from:
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However, as with many other rights-related areas of legislation, laws and

conventions prohibiting child labor
in the country are widely ignored
because of the demand by exploitative
employers for cheap labor and the dire
need among poor families for regular
income.
An estimated 25 percent of Afghan
children continue to work full or part
time.3 In South Asia, including
1 See for example: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/
ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/afghanistan
2 See for example: https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Afghanistan-Fact-Sheet-May-2016.pdf
3 Los Angeles Times (April 19,2014). In Afghanistan,
Childhood is Often a Fulltime Job, available from:

Afghanistan, 12 per cent of children

aged 5 to 14 are engaged in work that
is potentially harmful to their health
and social development.4 Research
by APPRO and others indicate that
children in Afghanistan often work long
hours in the carpet industry, metal
industry, brick kilns, mines and agriculture.
Children also work on streets as
vendors, shoe shiners, and beggars.
The illegal recruitment of children
by elements within government
security forces continues while armed
opposition groups openly and systematically recruit children for a variety
of purposes ranging from cheap
or free labor to foot soldiers, and
being subjects of physical and sexual
violence. The main drivers of child
labor are as rising poverty, unemployment, economic opportunism of the
employers, and an absence of the rule
of law.
Recent Evidence
According to findings from APPROs
ongoing Afghanistan Rights Monitor
(ARM), child labor is on the rise in
the country with numerous negative
outcomes. Working children are forced
to combine the burdens of keeping
down a job with education, potentially causing many children to drop
out of school from time to time and
ultimately stop attending school all
together. According to a recent report
by Human Rights Watch, only half of
http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-afghanistan-child-workers-20140420-dto-htmlstory.html.
4 See for example: Monitoring the Situation of Children and Women. http://data.unicef.org/child-protection/child-labour.html

An estimated 25
percent of Afghan
children continue
to work full or part
time.

Child labor not only

causes damage to
a childs physical
and mental health
and development,
it also results in
a generation of
adults who have
grown up in abusive
conditions and have
been deprived of
basic needs, such as
access to education
and healthy conditions of nurture and
development.

As with many other

rights-related areas
of legislation, laws
and conventions
prohibiting child
labor in the country
are widely ignored
because of the
demand by exploitative employers for
cheap labor and the
dire need among poor
families for regular
income.

Afghanistans child laborers attend school.

and criminals of tomorrow.

There is little public awareness of laws

pertaining to child labor and no discernible
efforts to monitor employers adherence
to the law. Some forms of child labor, such
as traditional apprenticeship arrangements
in crafts such as carpentry, mechanics, and
carpet weaving allow children to continue
their education and social development
while they learn a skill. These occupations
for children might be justifiable in the Afghan
context. Other trades that require physical
labor as well as difficult and unsafe working
environments such as brick making, mining,
and heavy construction work afford little
or no protection for childrens rights. These
sectors are exploitative and deprive children
of safety, education, and social development.
These occupations can result in illness, injury,
or even death due to hazardous working
conditions and poor enforcement of safety
and health standards. In addition, working
children can be subject to physical and
sexual abuse in unregulated and unprotected
environments.

Recommendations

Child recruitment into the armed conflict

is estimated to have doubled in 2015 over
the previous year. Its increase is especially
notable in the provinces of Kabul, Herat,
Nimroz, Kunduz and Khost. Lack of education
of parents, poverty, and unemployment are
forcing children into active war. This includes
the recruitment of children by the police
in some areas, particularly by the Afghan
Local Police whose funding is part of the
national security budget. These children are
extremely vulnerable to physical and sexual
abuse. Some armed opposition groups are
said to use children to attack police and or
as sexual baits for entrapping senior security
officers.
While the risks of physical and sexual abuse
and denial of education are strong negative
consequences of child labor at the individual
level, there are also significant impacts of
child labor at the societal level. Child labor
not only causes damage to a childs physical
and mental health and development, it
also results in a generation of adults who
have grown up in abusive conditions and
have been deprived of basic needs, such as
access to education and healthy conditions
of nurture and development. It is probable
that some of these children will become the
abusers of the next generation of children,
many of whom will become sexual predators
2

Gain Better Understanding of the

Drivers of Child Labor: No amount of
legislation on its own is going to put a
stop to the exploitation of children in
the labor market. Concurrent with legislation, there is need for a better understanding of the dynamics of different
workplaces that employ children. This
will require dedicated assessment,
research, and ongoing monitoring of the
current conditions of working children,
including distinguishing between traditional apprenticeship arrangements for
working children and exploitative child
labor.
Ensure Childrens Rights in Apprenticeships: Working closely with employers
and parents, efforts should be made
to ensure rights for children working
as apprentices in recognized and
legitimate trades. These rights should
include access to formal and practical
(on-the-job) training, protection in the
workplace against heavy physical work
and physical injury, availability of a
monitoring system that could be used
by children faced with physical and
sexual harassment, and access to sufficient food and adequate sanitary provisions. These efforts should be aligned
with trade-based vocational training
and apprenticeship programs being
supported by international donors.
Protect Childrens Rights in Unregulated, Informal Workplaces: In unregulated, often not fully legitimate occupations, protecting childrens rights will be
particularly difficult. The exploitation of
children in unregulated trades can be
tackled through the implementation of
general laws governing workplaces. This
would include surprise inspections by
government officials from the Ministry
of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and
the Disabled and the prosecution of
employers who exploit children. This
type of law enforcement, however, is
likely to succeed only if it is backed up
by the political will of the government
and has the support of the parents and
the community more broadly.
Incentives to Neutralize Poverty as a
Root Cause of Child Labor: Establish a

Some forms of
child labor, such as
traditional apprenticeship arrangements in crafts
such as carpentry,
mechanics, and
carpet weaving allow
children to continue
their education and
social development
while they learn a
skill.

The main drivers

of child labor are
as rising poverty,
unemployment,
economic opportunism of the
employers, and an
absence of the rule
of law.

Only half of Afghanistans child laborers

attend school.
- Human Rights
Watch, 2016

system of incentives to dissuade poor

or unemployed parents from sending
their children to work, especially to the
exclusion of schooling. This could include
stipends, work opportunities for parents
and other adults in the family, and assistance with obtaining legal, paid work
for the children on the condition that
they attend school. Efforts should also
be made to increase parents awareness
of childrens rights and their own legal
obligations toward their children. Awareness raising should include legal provisions about child labor, consequences of
non-compliance, and information about
the 29 types of labor that are prohibited for children by the Government of
Afghanistan.
Monitor the Relationship Between Child
Labor and School Dropouts: Schools
must assume a more dedicated role in
ensuring that children do not drop out of
school to be employed as child laborers.
All cases of truancy should be investigated by the Ministry of Education and
cases of dropouts should be reported
to the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs,
Martyrs and the Disabled, with repercussions tied to the system of incentives for
families.
Enforce Legal Age in Employment: Many
of the legal provisions governing child
labor are age-based. Efforts to increase
access to birth registration information
must be strengthened throughout the
country through digitization of registration, for example, as a means to verify
the age of children being recruited into
workplaces. Employers should be able to
objectively prove the ages of the children
working for them.

Protect Children From Being Drawn Into

Armed Conflict: To prevent the recruitment of children into armed conflict,
especially by police forces, age verification guidelines must be implemented
during recruitment. There must also be
investigation and prosecution of cases
of the recruitment and use of children
in armed conflict. Donor agencies,
especially military aid donors, must put
pressure on the Government of Afghanistan to crack down on the recruitment
of children into police units.
In the case of children being used as
foot soldiers and or for sexual abuse,
every effort must be made to denounce
this practice based on teachings from
Islam through ongoing nationwide
awareness campaigns.