recommends the government of Senegal to increase the accessibility of
confidential and youth friendly health services, improve the accessibility of
contraceptive services and promote sexual and reproductive health
education targeted at adolescents, with a view to prevent early pregnancies
and sexually transmitted diseases.
40. Further, the Committee is alarmed by the low rate of exclusive breastfeeding
for the first six months and recommends that the state party strengthen its
awareness-raising efforts on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding of
children up to the age of 6 months to ensure a child's survival, healthy
growth and development.
H. Protection of the Child against child labor
Child labor and exploitation
41. The committee notes with appreciation that the state party has laws and
policies against child labor and exploitation. However, the committee
remained concerned that children in Senegal continue to engage in child
labor in agriculture and in the worst forms of child labor in forced begging.
42. While arrests and prosecutions of Quranic teachers for child abuse,
exploitation, and forced child begging have increased slightly in recent
years, the committee notes with concern that the justice institutions, such as
the police, and prosecutorial offices, often still fail to investigate and
prosecute allegations of such abuses, and charges and prosecutions
against marabouts continued to be dropped or sentences mitigated by the
judiciary. Further, while welcoming the state party’s several projects to
improve the lives of children attending the Koranic schools, the Committee
is concerned about the slow progress in finalising and adopting the law
establishing legal status and regulations for daaras or Koranic schools.
43. The committee, while appreciating the state party program to remove
children from the streets, remains concerned that many of these children
were later returned to the same Quranic teachers who had forced them to
beg.
44. The committee thus recommends the state party to:
a.
Increase enforcement of existing legislations that criminalize
child trafficking, forced begging and abuse, and investigate and
hold accountable marabouts who transgress these laws;
b.
Formally engage relevant sectors of the Ministry of Justice in the
government program to remove children from the street aimed at
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