Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) - Trinidad and Tobago (Ratification: 2003)

Articles 3, 5 and 6 of the Convention. Worst forms of child labour, monitoring mechanisms, programmes of action and application of the Convention in practice. Trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, and illicit activities. The Committee notes from the Government’s report that the Counter Trafficking Unit (CTU), responsible for the reporting and handling of trafficking cases, reported 13 instances where minors were victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation between 2019 and 2023. The Government adds that, for the same period: (1) 13 persons were charged; (2) all matters are pending trial; and (3) there have been no convictions.

The Committee further notes, from the 2023 concluding observations of the United Nations Human Rights Committee on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), the adoption of the National Plan of Action against Trafficking in Persons 2021–2025. However, the CCPR also expressed concerns about: (1) gaps in the identification of victims of trafficking in persons; (2) the low number of investigations, convictions and sanctions for perpetrators; and (3) reports that officials, including law enforcement officers, are complicit in trafficking in persons (CCPR/C/TTO/CO/5, 1 December 2023, paragraph 33). The Committee urges the Government to strengthen the capacity of the law enforcement officials to ensure that thorough investigations and prosecutions of perpetrators of child trafficking are carried out and that sufficiently effective and dissuasive penalties are imposed in practice, including against complicit law enforcement officers. It requests the Government to provide information on: (i) the convictions and penalties applied, including in the 13 cases of trafficking for sexual exploitation of children pending before the courts; (ii) the specific measures taken to ensure the protection of victims and the preservation of essential evidence required for the judicial process; and (iii) the specific measures taken within the framework of the National Plan of Action against Trafficking in Persons 2021–2025 to combat trafficking in children as well as the results achieved.

Articles 3(d) and 4(1). Determination of hazardous work. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that the National Steering Committee for the Prevention and Elimination of Child Labour established four Sub-Committees to oversee critical activities to prevent and protect children from labour exploitation, including a Sub-Committee responsible for overseeing the development of a hazardous work list. The Government indicates that, with the technical assistance of the Office and following consultations with tripartite partners, the Sub-Committee responsible for overseeing the development of a hazardous work list has commenced activities to draft a list of hazardous types of work to be prohibited to children under 18 years of age. While it takes note of the Government’s information, the Committee notes with regret that it has not yet adopted a list of hazardous types of work, despite ongoing efforts since 2004. The Committee therefore urges the Government to take all the necessary measures to ensure the adoption of the list of hazardous types of work prohibited to children in the very near future. It once again requests the Government to provide a copy of that list once it has been adopted.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.