Observación (CEACR) - Adopción: 2024, Publicación: 113ª reunión CIT (2025)

Convenio sobre las peores formas de trabajo infantil, 1999 (núm. 182) - Ecuador (Ratificación : 2000)

Articles 3(a) and (b) and 7(1) of the Convention. Worst forms of child labour and penalties. Sale and trafficking of children and use, procuring or offering of a child for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government, in its report, that highlights various measures adopted to protect children and adolescents from trafficking, including: (1) the adoption of the Basic Act against trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants of 16 February 2023, one of the aims of which is to strengthen State action in investigating and prosecuting trafficking offences; (2) strengthening the Registration System for Cases of Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants (REGISTRATT) in accordance with the powers established in the Basic Act against trafficking in persons and the smuggling of migrants; (3) the development and implementation of the Action Plan against Trafficking in Persons 2019–2030; (4) strengthening the National Investigation Unit against Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants of the national police, which delivers decentralized services in Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca and Machala to investigate and repress the offence of trafficking in persons; and (5) continuous training relating to trafficking in persons for public officials and private sector workers, those in civil society, academia, and security and law enforcement agents. The Committee notes this information. However, it regrets that the Government has not provided information previously requested on the prosecutions initiated, the convictions handed down and the penalties imposed as a result of investigations into trafficking of children for sexual exploitation or forced labour, which had been pending. The Committee therefore requests the Government to adopt the necessary measures to ensure the effective application of the Basic Comprehensive Penal Code and the Basic Act against trafficking in persons and the smuggling of migrants, particularly with respect to trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children. It also once again requests the Government to provide information on the number and nature of the violations found, investigations and proceedings conducted, and convictions and penalties imposed.

Articles 6 and 7(2). Programmes of action and effective and time-bound measures. Clause (d). Identifying and reaching out to children at special risk. Children in street situations. The Committee notes that the Government has not provided the information requested on the Monitoring and Evaluation System of the Action Plan against trafficking in persons 2019–2030 (PACTA), one objective of which is the elimination of hazardous work, begging and street situations of children and adolescents. It nonetheless notes the Government’s information that: (1) the Child Labour Elimination Service provides comprehensive and specialized care to children and adolescents involved child labour through individual, family and community-level interventions. It also assists children aged 5 to 17 involved in hazardous work such as fishing, agriculture, mining, informal trade, recycling and begging; (2) in 2024, there are plans to assist 2,640 children, adolescents, older persons and persons with disabilities in a situation of begging, in 33 care units deployed throughout the country; and (3) the Campaign for the Prevention, Care and Protection of Persons involved in Begging and Child Labour is being carried out, aimed at raising awareness of the risks, hazards and rights violations to which persons in situations of begging, including children, are exposed. The Committee requests the Government to pursue its efforts to: (i) eliminate child labour and begging by children in street situations, including in the framework of the Monitoring and Evaluation System of the Action Plan against trafficking in persons 2019–2030 (PACTA); and (ii) protect children in street situations from the worst forms of child labour, and provide for their rehabilitation and social integration. It requests the Government to provide detailed information on the measures adopted to this end, including on the results achieved, particularly the number of children who have been removed from the streets and rehabilitated and socially integrated.

Article 7(2). Effective and time-bound measures. Clauses (a) and (b). Preventing the engagement of children in the worst forms of child labour, removing them from these forms of labour and ensuring their rehabilitation and social integration. Child trafficking. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that: (1) the higher incidence of child trafficking in provinces such as Pichincha, Guayas and Manabi led to strengthening the investigative capacities of the Special Investigation Unit against Trafficking in Persons and Migrant Smuggling of the national police (UNAT) in these provinces; (2) the Child Labour Elimination Service provides quality specialized comprehensive care for children and adolescents in situations of child labour, including its worst forms, through ongoing individual, family and community-level interventions to restore rights that have been violated; (3) this intervention process for the restoration of rights is 18 months long, and may be extended to 24 months, further to an evaluation; it includes identification, analysis and intervention, and full delivery of public or private services for the health, education and recreational and extra-curricular activities of children and adolescents; (4) from 2022 to 2024, a total of 11 child victims of human trafficking for the purposes of child labour have been rescued; and (5) as part of the operationalization of the Inter-institutional Action Protocol for the Comprehensive Care and Protection of Victims of Trafficking, a total of 44 victims up to 17 years old were assisted by the special protection services of the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion (MIES), in the specialized institutional support units for victims of trafficking. The Committee requests the Government to pursue its efforts to combat child trafficking and adopt measures to protect those who are victims thereof. It also requests the Government to provide more detailed information on the number of children who have been freed from trafficking, rehabilitated and integrated into society, as well as the types of services they have received for their integration. Lastly, with a view to effectively combating this serious offence, the Committee requests the Government to investigate the root causes of the higher incidence of trafficking in children and adolescents in provinces such as Pichincha, Guayas and Manabi and to provide information in this respect.

Clause (d). Identifying and reaching out to children at special risk. Children of indigenous peoples. With reference to its previous comment, the Committee regrets to note that the Government has not provided information on access to the bilingual education system. It also notes the concern expressed by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, in his report on his visit to Ecuador in 2024, that in 2021, between 83 and 85 per cent of indigenous children were in multidimensional poverty, making them the most impoverished population group in the country (A/HRC/56/61/Add.2, 2 April 2024, paragraph 18). The Committee once again reminds the Government that indigenous children are more vulnerable to child labour and its worst forms and, therefore, it requests the Government to take the necessary and time-bound measures to protect them from these worst forms of labour. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken in this regard and the results achieved. Recalling that education is fundamental in preventing the engagement of children in the worst forms of child labour, the Committee also requests the Government to provide information on the specific measures adopted to ensure access for these children to free basic education, especially to facilitate their access to the bilingual education system, and the results achieved.

Article 8. International cooperation and assistance. Trafficking of children. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government that: (1) the Ministry of the Interior has strengthened the National Investigation Unit against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling by reinforcing and decentralizing its services in border areas of the country (Guayaquil, Machala, Tulcan, Quito), which are responsible for profiling victims or possible victims of trafficking in persons; (2) following the tenth meeting of the Quito Process (an initiative of 13 Latin American countries to share information and coordinate a regional strategy to address the crisis of Venezuelan refugees and migrants), Protocols for the Assistance and Protection of Trafficking Victims were adopted, with the participation of delegations from Argentina, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Mexico, Paraguay, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay; and (3) video-surveillance cameras with facial recognition have been set up on the northern border, which raise alerts when detecting possible victims or perpetrators of the offence of trafficking in persons in Tulcan. There are plans to set up the same system at the different points of border control.

The Committee also notes that according to the Government’s seventh periodic report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC): (1) the Ministry of the Interior, with the support of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has developed a methodology for the initial assessment of the trafficking and recruitment of children and adolescents by criminal groups and transnational criminal organizations; and (2) with the support of the Office of the Ombudsman of Colombia, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Inter-Institutional Coordinating Committee for the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants and for Victim Protection, it has provided comprehensive care to victims of these crimes, including their rescue, transfer and admission to shelters and the subsequent investigation (CRC/C/ECU/7, 13 February 2024, paragraph 178). While noting the Government’s efforts, the Committee notes that it has not provided information on the specific measures to combat child trafficking or on the results of the above-mentioned measures. The Committee therefore requests the Government to continue to make efforts at the regional and international levels to combat child trafficking and to detect and intercept child victims of trafficking at the borders. In this respect, it once again requests the Government to provide information on: (i) the measures adopted in this respect, particularly to combat trafficking of children and adolescents; and (ii) the results achieved, including statistical data, on the number of children intercepted at the borders and returned to their countries of origin, disaggregated by sex, age and nationality.

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