312. Within the context of the fight against child labour, trafficking and child trafficking,
Mali has adopted a national programme to fight against child labour, including its action
plans for the elimination of child labour and also signed cooperation agreements with some
neighbouring countries in order to effectively deal with child trafficking and cross-border
trafficking of children.
313. Actions have also been taken to fight against begging among children but these actions
fall below expectations.
314. Mali has also instituted a travel document serving as authorisation to travel for children
below 18 years. The Government has established community surveillance agencies in the
departure zones of children in order to support actions by the government in fighting against
trafficking and child trafficking.
315. The Ministry of Justice which is the department responsible for human rights issues,
through its courts and judicial service staff, carries out this protection mandate regarding the
rights recognised under the Charter and by Malian legislation.
316. Regarding the organisation of the judiciary, juvenile courts have been established to rule
on breaches committed by minors, which action provides greater guarantees for their rights.
317. Furthermore, there is a specialised detention centre for minors at Bollé, which hosts
juvenile detainees and more specifically minor children. The establishment of this centre
helps to avoid a situation where minors are detained in the same place and under the same
conditions as adults.
318. A similar structure for women detainees also exists at Bollé and its objectives are to
ensure better protection for the rights of women. But at this juncture, it must be indicated that
underage girls are detained under the same conditions as adult women.
319. But the implementation of the law on criminal responsibility of minors and the
establishment of courts for minors and texts creating and organising detention centres is
below expectation, mainly as a result of inadequate independent mechanisms for monitoring
and control, the lack of information on the part of the population and professionals and the
dearth of courts for children and the non-existence of specialised detention centres in the
regions.
320. A law was adopted in 2011 by the National Assembly on judicial reorganisation in Mali.
This law is intended to address the issue of inadequate number of juvenile courts by
increasing the number from one (1) i.e. the one in Bamako) to 53 throughout the country.
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