Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) - Hungary (Ratification: 2000)

Article 5 of the Convention. Monitoring mechanisms. Trafficking. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s information with regard to measures taken in order to increase crime prevention, such as the preparation, in 2006, of a methodological guide book by the Crime Prevention and Victim Protection Department of the National Police Headquarter (ORFK), which instructs crime prevention experts on the crime of human trafficking and methods of recruitment, or the conducting of presentations on preventing and reducing human trafficking related crimes which, in 2011, were attended by 29,752 persons through 1,458 classes. The Committee also notes the Government’s information that, during the reporting period of 1 June 2010 to 31 May 2012, the police did not register any trafficking cases where the victims were below 14 years of age. Moreover, only three victims of trafficking aged between 14 and 17 years were detected in 2011, and four in the first half of 2012. The Committee encourages the Government to continue to take measures to strengthen the capacity of the law enforcement bodies responsible for detecting and combating the trafficking of children and to ensure that thorough investigations and robust prosecutions are carried out for persons who engage in this offence. It requests the Government to continue providing information on the progress made in that regard.

Article 7(2). Clause (d). Identifying and reaching out to children at special risk. Roma children. The Committee previously noted that the Government Action Plan for 2008–09 on the Decade of Roma Inclusion Programme (adopted by Decision No. 1105/2007 (XII.27)) comprises tasks in the field of education, employment, access to health care, housing, equal treatment and non-discrimination. The Committee, however, also noted that the Committee on Economic and Social Rights, in its concluding observations of 16 January 2008, expressed concern about the high number of Roma children segregated in separate schools, and at the high drop-out rate among Roma students at the secondary level (E/C.12/HUN/CO/3, paragraph 27). The Committee also noted that the UN Human Rights Committee, in its concluding observations of 16 November 2010, took due note of the adoption of the parliamentary resolution on the Decade of Roma Inclusion, but nonetheless expressed concern at the widespread discrimination and exclusion of the Roma in various fields such as education, housing and health (CCPR/C/HUN/CO/5, paragraphs 3 and 20).

The Committee notes the Government’s indication that it prepared the National Strategy of Social Integration (NSSI) in December 2011, which is a ten year project that includes the integration of the Roma as one of the priority areas of intervention, in line with the Roma Framework Strategy adopted by the European Union Council on 24 June 2011. The NSSI gives special priority to helping disadvantaged children, especially Roma children, to gain access to quality schooling, and aims to achieve several key objectives with regard to education, such as the strengthening of support services within and outside schools in order to prevent dropouts, or the creation of grants and bursaries for disadvantaged children, including Roma children, to make them more successful in school. The Committee requests the Government to pursue its efforts, within the framework of the Decade of Roma Inclusion Programme and the NSSI, to protect Roma children from the worst forms of child labour, particularly through initiatives to facilitate their access to education. It once again requests the Government to provide information on the impact of the measures taken in this respect, particularly with regard to increasing school attendance and completion rates and decreasing school drop-out rates among Roma children.

Part V of the report form. Practical application of the Convention. The Committee previously noted the detailed information in the Government’s report from the Hungarian Occupational Safety and Health and labour inspectorate on cases of violations related to young persons, and noted the Government’s statement that the overwhelming majority of these cases did not relate to the worst forms of child labour. The Committee also noted the Government’s statement that there had been no recorded criminal cases of the forced labour of minors or the trafficking of children.

The Committee takes note of the table provided by the Government in its report which illustrates the number of criminal offences related to the Convention that have been registered by the police from 2010 to the first half of 2012. According to this table, 58 children under the age of 13 years, and 76 children between the ages of 14 and 17, were found to be victims of crimes relating to the abuse of illegal pornographic material between 2010 and the first half of 2012. In the same years, only seven victims of trafficking between the ages of 14 and 17 were detected. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing information on the nature, extent and trends of these worst forms of child labour, the number of children covered by the measures giving effect to the Convention, the number and nature of infringements reported, investigations, prosecutions, convictions and penal sanctions applied. To the extent possible, all information provided should be disaggregated by sex and age.