US embassy cable - 05MANAGUA2140

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 MANAGUA 002140 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR DRL/IL LAUREN HOLT, USDOL/ILAB FOR TINA 
MCCARTER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID, EIND, ELAB, ETRD, PHUM, SOCI, NU 
SUBJECT: NICARAGUA UPDATE OF CHILD LABOR INFORMATION FOR 
MANDATORY REPORTING REQUIREMENTS 
 
REF: A. STATE 135338 
 
     B. 04 MANAGUA 2368 
     C. 03 MANAGUA 3312 
 
1. This cable is submitted in response to reftel A request 
for information on Government of Nicaragua child labor 
practices for compliance with Trade and Development Act 
provisions.  Because post submitted reports in response to 
similar DOL tasking cables in 2003 and 2004 (reftels B and 
C), and because relatively little has changed in the child 
labor situation in Nicaragua in the last two years, post is 
sending updates only in this cable.  As requested in reftel, 
copies of all original data sources will be sent to DOL via 
diplomatic pouch. 
 
SPECIFIC EDITS AND UPDATES TO THE 2004 CHILD LABOR REPORT 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
2. The following information contained in DOL's draft 2004 
Child Labor report on Nicaragua should be updated as follows: 
 
--As of May 2005, minimum wages were between 769 cordobas 
(USD 44) per month in agriculture and 1838 cordobas (USD 110) 
in banking and construction. 
 
--The National Coalition against Trafficking in Persons 
includes, and is led by, the Ministry of Government, which is 
responsible for law enforcement in Nicaragua and controls the 
police.  There is no Ministry of "State" in Nicaragua. 
 
--The National Police have an anti-migrant smuggling unit 
that also handles anti-trafficking in persons efforts.  The 
police do not have a unit dedicated solely to trafficking in 
persons. 
 
--The anti-trafficking in persons office that opened in the 
Ministry of Government in July 2004, in addition to serving 
as a reference library and a primary point of contact for 
actors in the anti-trafficking campaign, has also taken on 
anti-trafficking policy coordination roles for both the 
Ministry of Government and the national anti-trafficking 
coalition. 
 
LAWS AND ENFORCING REGULATIONS TO PREVENT THE WORST FORMS OF 
CHILD LABOR 
--------------------------------------------- --------------- 
 
3. According to Ministry of Labor officials, since the 
significant reforms to Nicaragua's child labor laws carried 
out in October 2003 (reftel C), there have been no major 
changes in laws affecting child labor. 
 
MECHANISMS TO ADDRESS COMPLAINTS 
-------------------------------- 
 
4. Statistics from the Ministry of Labor on labor inspections 
and information on cases of illegal child labor remain 
limited.  The Ministry of Labor carried out 999 general labor 
inspections (out of a total of 1514 that were planned) in 
2004.  These general labor inspections included inspections 
of locations where children are known to work in Nicaragua, 
including agriculture, mines, and fishing.  A total of 1268 
follow-up inspections were scheduled and 487 were actually 
carried out.  Separately, the ministry carried out 453 (out 
of 485 planned) health and safety inspections countrywide. 
Ministry of Labor officials informed poloff in July that the 
National Commission for the Progressive Eradication of Child 
Labor (CNEPTI) is in the process of analyzing the results of 
its 2001-2005 action plan to reduce child labor, as well as 
drafting its national plan for the next five years.  They 
said that CNEPTI is also working on a list and analysis of 
the most dangerous forms of child labor existing in 
Nicaragua, and that both this list and the new five year plan 
to combat child labor should be complete by the end of the 
year.  Ministry officials added that their institution 
remains active in providing seminars and other forms of 
training for employers, unions and others on child labor 
issues.  They also said that the Ministry is working closely 
with UNICEF in an effort to increase the number of labor 
inspections in areas where child labor is known to occur. 
 
5. Unlike in previous years when the Ministry of Labor was 
unable to provide any detailed information on cases of child 
labor encountered during its inspections, the ministry's 
annual statistical report for 2004 does contain some specific 
child labor information.  The ministry found 56 specific 
cases of labor carried out by minors during its regular labor 
inspections.  54 of the 56 cases were agricultural, and they 
were virtually all found in northern Nicaragua, where there 
is a long history and a culture of child agricultural labor, 
particularly in the areas of coffee, tobacco, lumber, 
ranching, and mining.  In these cases, the ministry found a 
total of 121 infractions of child labor laws, affecting a 
total of 2102 minors.  114 of these infractions were in the 
agricultural sector.  The most common infractions included 
excessive working hours, contract violations, health and 
safety issues, and the failure to make legally-required 
social security payments. 
 
SOCIAL PROGRAMS TO PREVENT CHILD LABOR 
-------------------------------------- 
 
6. The ILO/IPEC is working with the GON and local and 
international NGOs to carry out a wide variety of programs in 
Nicaragua to combat child labor.  Most of these programs are 
funded by the governments of the United States, Spain, Canada 
and Holland.  Some of the more significant of these projects 
are described below.  In a July 11 meeting with poloff at the 
Ministry of Labor, Lydia Midence, the Executive Secretary of 
CNEPTI, and senior Ministry of Labor officials complained 
that the ILO/IPEC has tended to freeze out the Ministry of 
Labor (and the GON more generally) as it carries out its 
programs to combat child labor in Nicaragua.  Midence said 
that the regional ILO/IPEC office in San Jose and the local 
office in Managua "completely ignore" the Ministry of Labor 
and do nothing to involve it in anti-child labor programs 
funded by USDOL.  They said that without institutional 
involvement of the Ministry of Labor, the ILO/IPEC programs 
are unsustainable over the long term and that the ILO/IPEC 
seems to be trying to create its own parallel institutions 
rather than work with the Nicaraguan government.  Midence and 
her colleagues said that this ILO/IPEC attitude also prevents 
the Ministry from providing independent verification of the 
success or failure of the programs.  According to the 
Ministry of Labor, the ILO/IPEC approach also leads to 
considerable waste of resources and duplication of efforts. 
They said that their cooperation with other organizations, 
including UNICEF and Save the Children, is much better, and 
they held up the USDOL-funded "Cumple y Gana" labor project 
as an example of how programs to promote labor rights work 
better when they are implemented in close cooperation with 
the Ministry of Labor. (NOTE: ILO/IPEC officials have told 
poloff that they do work with the Ministry of Labor to the 
extent possible on their full range of projects.  END NOTE.) 
 
7. On July 13, poloff met Cecilia Sanchez, a child labor 
specialist at the Ministry of the Family (Mifamilia) to 
obtain an update on the ministry's efforts to eradicate child 
labor in Nicaragua.  Sanchez provided poloff an overview of 
Mifamilia's Comprehensive Attention Program for At-Risk 
Children and Adolescents (PAINAR).  The PAINAR program is 
designed to address many problems facing young people in 
Nicaragua, including violence, sexual abuse and drug 
addiction, but working to eliminate child labor is one of its 
major components.  In cases of child labor, the PAINAR 
program seeks to remove the child from the work environment, 
provide counseling to the child and parents on the rights of 
children, labor rights, and the value of education, and then 
work with other institutions to get the child back into 
school and provide follow up support.  Mifamilia coordinates 
with the Ministry of Education to keep the child in school, 
with the Ministry of Health to provide any necessary medical 
care, with the police in cases where drug or sexual abuse are 
involved, and with NGOs to obtain psychological counseling 
for the child when it is necessary.  According to statistics 
provided by Sanchez, the PAINAR program assisted 7854 child 
laborers in 2004, out of a total of 16383 minors who 
participated in the program that year.  Sanchez said that 
Mifamilia keeps parents and families involved in all phases 
of the PAINAR program in the hope of breaking the culture and 
tradition of child labor once and for all over the long term. 
 Sanchez added that Mifamilia is also starting a pilot 
program with the municipality of Managua to increase 
recreational and cultural opportunities for at-risk children 
in the hope of giving additional alternatives to such 
children and their families.    Other programs currently in 
the works include a systematic, statistical study of the 
causes of child labor in Nicaragua and a program to help poor 
families who have migrated to Managua from rural areas 
because of a lack of economic opportunities in their home 
regions to return home and reintegrate socially and 
economically there. 
 
8. As an example of one specific sub-program within PAINAR 
that is designed to combat child labor, since 1998 Mifamilia 
has had an ongoing "traffic light plan" (Plan Semaforo) that 
works to reduce the number of children begging and selling 
small items at Managua intersections and move them into the 
school system.  Aside from missing out on educational 
opportunities, the children working at the intersections are 
in considerable danger of being hit by passing vehicles. 
Although Mifamilia lacks the resources to implement the plan 
on a year-round basis, it does so at regular intervals, 
particularly during holiday periods when the number of 
children working at intersections tends to peak.  Mifamilia 
reported that when it implemented the plan in December 2004, 
it succeeded in getting 251 children off the streets and 
working with the Ministry of Education to place them back 
into the school system.  In such cases, the two ministries 
work with the parents of the children and provide follow up 
to ensure that the children stay in school once they are 
there.  They also provide school uniforms and other 
educational materials that the parents would otherwise have 
to purchase.  In cases when parents prove uncooperative and 
continue to send their children into the streets to work or 
beg, Mifamilia can remove the children from their custody. 
Despite the moderate success of the program, there is, 
unfortunately, a constant flow of new destitute children into 
the streets to replace those who have been moved into the 
school system by Plan Semaforo. 
 
9. In a separate program that focuses on ensuring that poor 
children go to school, rather than fighting child labor 
specifically, the Ministry of Education has begun providing 
meals to 600,000 destitute children in the poorest areas of 
the country in return for their attendance of school.  The 
Ministry is trying to expand the program to additional areas 
of the country by soliciting the financial support of the 
private sector.  Additional funding is already provided by 
the World Bank, The United Nations World Food Program and 
Mifamilia. 
 
10. Various government and non-government organizations 
continue to work on a variety of regional programs to reduce 
child labor.  In Northern Nicaragua, the Institute for Human 
Promotion (INPRHU) is working to educate business owners, 
teachers, and parents on the risks of child labor in the 
agricultural sector and to return children to the classroom. 
In April 2005, INPRHU reported that it had helped over 230 
children in Nueva Segovia department.  In May 2005, the NGO 
Save the Children signed an agreement with the Nicaraguan 
government to carry out a program to educate children and 
parents on labor rights and the value of education.  The new 
program is also to promote means to reduce domestic violence 
and commercial sexual exploitation of minors.  Finally, in 
late 2004, Care USA, Catholic Relief Services and other 
organizations began implementation of a 5.5 million USD, 
four-year (2004-2008) regional program funded by USDOL 
called "Aprendo."  This project is intended to combat child 
labor throughout Central America.  In Nicaragua, the project 
is being implemented by CARE, in coordination with local NGOs 
and government agencies, and it seeks to increase awareness 
of the importance of education, strengthen government and 
non-government institutions dealing with child labor and 
implement pilot programs in select communities to return 
children to school and keep them there. 
 
11. The La Chureca garbage dump in Managua remains one of the 
worst areas of child labor in Nicaragua, where generation 
after generation of children and adults continue to eke out a 
living by scrounging food and other items to use or sell. 
According to a recent study by a pastoral group seeking to 
help those living and working in the dump to find other means 
of making a living, 136 families, 96 of which included 
children, were living in the dump.  Many more children from 
the nearby neighborhood of Acahualinca work in the dump. 
According to a May 2004 study by the NGO Dos Generaciones, 29 
percent of the 2156 children living in the neighborhood were 
not in the school system and almost all of the absentee 
children were working in the dump in one way or another.  In 
ongoing programs organized by the ILO and funded by USDOL 
since 2001, Dos Generaciones and other NGOs have worked to 
educate the children and their parents on the importance of 
obtaining an education.  The NGOs also provide seminars on 
economic alternatives to working in the dump and work with 
the Ministry of Health to provide similar seminars on health 
and nutrition.  According to the latest statistics provided 
by the local ILO office, during the first half of 2005, a 
total of 2131 students from schools near the dump 
participated in various aspects of the program, and the 
program succeeded in getting a total of 104 students to start 
attending school. 
 
12. Another ILO program funded by USDOL is ongoing in the 
Department of Chontales in central Nicaragua, where large 
numbers of children work in agriculture and ranching.  In a 
program that began in 2001, the ILO has worked with GON 
agencies and local NGOs to educate ranchers, farm owners, 
parents and children on Nicaragua's child labor laws and the 
importance of education.  The program also works with local 
teachers to improve the quality of their classes and provides 
remedial classes for child workers who have fallen behind 
their peers because of the amount of school they have missed. 
 According to the ILO, 180 local teachers have participated 
in the program so far, 1950 ranchers and farm owners have 
been educated on child labor and Nicaraguan laws, and 1575 
children have participated in educational seminars. 
 
13. At a meeting with poloff on July 14, Anyoli Sanabria of 
the local UNICEF office for education programs, said that 
UNICEF's anti-child labor programs in Nicaragua are primarily 
comprised of financial and technical support for GON 
institutions and local NGOs.  Most of these efforts focus on 
education and are part of UNICEF's wider education campaign 
in Nicaragua.  At the moment UNICEF is funding a new Ministry 
of Education remedial education program designed to enable 
child workers to catch up to their peers and reenter the 
regular school system.  Sanabria also noted that UNICEF is an 
advisor to CNEPTI and will be supporting it as it carries out 
a new survey of the extent of child labor in Nicaragua later 
this year.  As noted by the Ministry of Labor (paragraph 4), 
UNICEF assists the ministry by providing it lists of areas 
where significant child labor has been found so that the 
ministry can target its inspections on those areas.  UNICEF 
has trained all of the ministry's inspectors on labor laws 
and human rights issues relating to child labor, as well as 
to properly document child labor cases they find.  UNICEF 
also provides funds to the ministry to enable its inspectors 
to travel from the departmental capitals where their offices 
are located out to the rural areas where most child labor 
occurs. 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRENT CHILD LABOR SITUATION 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
14. The situation of minors working as domestic servants has 
received considerable attention during the last year.  The 
ILO estimates that tens of thousands of children, mostly 
girls, are carrying out such work in Nicaragua and believes 
that work is preventing at least half of these children from 
attending school.  Most such child domestic workers are paid 
virtually nothing, they work long hours and their labor 
rights are regularly violated, and they are often subject to 
physical and sexual abuse by their employers.  The ILO is 
implementing a program in Masaya and Granada to remove 300 
children from domestic work and place them into either 
regular school or vocational training.  Another ILO program 
just getting underway is intended to carry out a series of 
workshops to train over 500 rural school teachers to identify 
cases of child domestic labor that are interfering with 
school attendance and to work with students and parents to 
find ways to keep such children in school. 
 
15. A 2004 study by Codeni, an umbrella group of NGOs working 
on children's issues, based on interviews with 173 working 
children between the ages of 12 and 15 in the northern and 
western parts of the country, found that virtually none had 
completed primary school and that 25 percent were illiterate. 
 Sixty-seven percent of the children stated that they were 
regularly physically abused by their parents.  This and other 
studies during the year emphasized that the primary factor 
behind child labor in Nicaragua was not so much poverty as 
the low level of education of the children's parents. 
 
16. Both the Ministry of Labor and the media continue to 
report that children as young as six are working in 
significant numbers in agriculture in northern Nicaragua, 
particularly in coffee fields.  Unfortunately, the Ministry 
of Labor lacks sufficient inspectors to cover all of the 
farms.  In the department of Jinotega alone, for example, 
there are estimated to be over 1500 different coffee farms. 
Because of its inability to carry out comprehensive 
inspections, it is very difficult for the Ministry of Labor 
to monitor the rural child labor situation and apply 
sanctions.  Instead it is forced to rely heavily on efforts 
to educate employers, families, and workers on their rights 
and responsibilities in an effort to break the culture and 
tradition of rural agricultural child labor. 
 
17. According to a new study of the child labor situation in 
Nicaragua carried out in 2004 by the ILO, approximately 
314,000 children in Nicaragua either were working or had 
worked at some point in their lives.  This represents 17 
percent of the population of the country between the ages of 
five and seventeen.  Of these working children, 14 percent 
were between the ages of 5 and 9, 42 percent between 10 and 
14 and 44 percent between 15 and 17.  Of the total of 314,000 
children who had worked at some point, 253,000 were estimated 
to be working at the time of the study.  Fifty-one percent of 
the 314,000 were not attending school.  As always, the most 
common areas of work were agriculture, lumber, fishing and 
domestic work.  President Bolanos referred to all of these 
statistics in a June 2005 speech in which he stated that his 
government had worked with the ILO and other organizations to 
carry out 19 different programs to reduce child labor in 
Nicaragua.  According to the president, these programs 
collectively had aided 20,000 child workers and their 
families. 
GARZA