A promise fulfilled? African human rights system and West African state mechanisms in the protection of domestic child workers

2.1 The nature of the human rights regime on child domestic workers

In Africa, the pre-eminent legal framework on the rights and welfare of child domestic workers is the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (Children’s Charter) and at the global level are the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, International Labour Organisation Minimum Age Convention, Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention and the Convention on Domestic Workers. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child codifies wide-ranging rights for all people under 18. It is rooted in principles that include non-discrimination, the best interests of the child and the right to be heard on matters concerning them. States are responsible under UNCRC to enact legislation and implement policy that will protect children from all forms of violence and exploitation, which is a substantial step in pursuing the goals of the Children’s Charter.

While article 1 of the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 places a legal obligation on member states to abolish child labour and that the minimum age for employment, not less than the age of completion of compulsory schooling, which is below 15 years. The Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention provides in article 3(a) to (d) the types of child labour and abuse that should be banned. These include: (a) slavery-like practices like child trafficking, debt bondage, forced labour and child recruitment for armed conflict; (b) working primarily in prostitution or involved in pornography; (c) using children for illegal activities specifically drug production and trafficking, d) any work which by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out harmful to the health, safety or morals of children. Article 3(a) of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, specifically in the context of trafficking, debt bondage and forced labour could be related to circumstances in which some child domestic workers find themselves.

The Children’s Charter defines a child in article 2 as a natural person who is under the age of 18 years. It further sets out a comprehensive set of rights for children in Africa, including the rights of child domestic workers. While article 1 of the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011, defines domestic work as the work that is done in or for a household or households. Article 15 of the Children’s Charter poignantly recognises the rights of all children to be protected from economic exploitation and harmful work practices. It specifically prohibits the employment of children in work that is likely to be dangerous or interfere with their education or physical, mental, spiritual, moral, or social development.10 Furthermore, the Charter emphasises the importance of providing child domestic workers with access to education, healthcare, and other essential services. It also calls for measures to be taken to prevent child labour and protect children from all forms of abuse. The Charter has tremendous influence on the protection and promotion of children’s rights across the African continent by setting out clear guidelines and principles for governments to follow. In Nigeria, for example, the constitution protects children from all forms of exploitation.

2.2 The scope of the human rights regime of child domestic workers in context

The Child Rights Act of 2003 (Nigeria) also prohibits child labour and outlines protections for children, including those working as domestic workers. Section 28(d) specifically provides that ‘[n]o child should be employed as a house-help outside his or her home or family environment’. On the other hand, the Nigerian Labour Act 2004, in section 59(1)(a) prohibits children working in any capacity, except where a family member engages them in light agricultural, horticultural or domestic work. Unfortunately, many times when family members in Nigeria have had to engage children from their kin in domestic work, abuse and outright contravention of this provision has been known to occur.

These laws are in place to protect the rights and well-being of children in Nigeria and to ensure that they are not subjected to exploitative or harmful working conditions. However, enforcement of these laws is often weak, leading to widespread violations of child labour rights. There are also cultural norms and practices that condone child labour, and these further complicate efforts to protect domestic child workers in Nigeria. Furthermore, the Child’s Right Act 2003 provides that every child should be protected from economic exploitation and performing work that is dangerous in nature, and that is likely to affect the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.11 In the light of the above, it encourages state parties to take appropriate legislative and administrative measures towards enforcement in both formal and informal employment as relates to children. Specifically on minimum wage for admission for such tasks, regulation of hours of employment and penalties for non-compliance.12

In Ghana, the Children’s Act of 1998 prohibits child labour and provides protections for children working in various sectors, including domestic work.13 This is reinforced by article 28 of Ghana’s Constitution.14 The Ghanaian Labour Act 2003 uses the term ‘young persons’ as a reference for children. Even though section 58(3) prohibits the employment of young persons from hazardous work, it does not say whether domestic work is hazardous. Ultimately, the Labour Act 2003, avoided the complexity of adequately representing the prohibition of child labour. The Children’s Act establishes that the minimum age for employment is 15 years of age,15 and goes on to prohibit children from working at night.16 The Act criminalises exploitative labour and prescribed conditions for light work,17 and safeguards children from torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, including cultural practices that dehumanise or harm the physical and mental well-being of a child.18 Moreover, the Domestic Violence Act of 2007 identifies domestic workers as part of the group of individuals in a domestic relationship, as outlined in section 2(1)(h).19 The Domestic Violence Act prohibits all forms of violence occurring in the household environment. This includes acts of physical assault and sexual harassment.20 It has been noted that Ghana’s laws on the protection of children are in line with the Children’s Charter.21 Similarly, as stated above, the Ghanaian Child Rights Act, also prohibits the engagement of a child in exploitative labour.22 It further clarifies that labour becomes exploitative when it deprives the child of its health, education and development.23 Furthermore, it unequivocally prohibits any person to engage a child in nocturnal work, particularly between the hours of 8pm and 6am in the morning.24 It further sets the minimum age for a child to be in employment to be 15 years of age.25 While dangerous work to the age of 18 years old.26 This is in substantial compliance with the Children’s Charter.

Article 25 of the 1992 Constitution provides for educational rights and stipulates, among other things, that basic education shall be free, compulsory, and accessible to all school-going children. Section 6(2) of Children’s Act 1998 outlines children’s right to education. Section 8 ensures that no child is denied access to education for their development. Section 10 specifies that even a disabled child has the right to education. Also, section 47 emphasises that a child is entitled to basic education during maintenance. The Act further/ guarantees that a mother is entitled to education if she is still a minor from the family,27 and this right extends even after she reaches 18 years old.28 These provisions are in accordance with the Children’s Charter. The law further prohibits any person from subjecting a child to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of any kind which dehumanises or its injurious to the physical and mental well-being of a child.29 It makes provision for a district assembly to cater for the welfare and promotes the rights of children, and it mandates that the district and governmental agencies liaise with each other in matters concerning children. It further mandates the Social Welfare Department to investigate issues relating to Children.30

In Sierra Leone, the key piece of legislation is the Child Rights Act of 2007, which prohibits the employment of children under the age of 18 in hazardous or exploitative work, including domestic work. Apart from the Child Rights Act, is the Employment Act 2023, provides in section 95, that children under the age of 15 years should not work. The minimum age for light work as provided in section 96(1) of the Employment Act is 13 years. In section 96(2), light work is defined as work that is not harmful to a child’s development and physical health. This makes it problematic to properly regulate child domestic work, as it could easily be termed light work, whereas determining working conditions of domestic work is difficult. Sierra Leone is a signatory to international conventions such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Labour Organisation’s Convention on Domestic Workers, which set out specific rights and protections for child domestic workers. By way of comparison, we shall examine the provisions under the Child Rights Act 2007 in Sierra Leone and juxtapose them with the Children’s Charter.

The Child’s Rights Act in Sierra Leone, unequivocally states that the age of fifteen is the minimum age to take up full-time work as a child.31 It expressly prohibits nocturnal work for children.32 In addition, the Act clarifies that the minimum age for dangerous work to be 18 years.33 The Child Rights Act 2007 (Sierra Leone), in compliance with article 16 of the Children’s Charter, provides for the establishment of a National Commission for Children. It states that children shall have access to basic education, including the provision of good school resources, materials, and trained teachers, especially in areas that are yet to be developed.34 The Act provides for the protection of children from exploitation.35 It unequivocally prohibits subjecting children to torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. The Act also prohibits unreasonable forms of correction and states that no correction is justifiable if the child does not understand its purpose. Despite these legal protections, challenges remain in ensuring that domestic child workers are able to access their rights. Many children working in domestic settings are vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, and neglect due to their isolated working conditions and lack of oversight. Furthermore, enforcement of labour laws can be weak, particularly in rural areas where child labour is more prevalent.

The African Children’s Charter offers an essential foundation for the protection of child domestic workers’ rights. Yet, there are still wide gaps between the laws and the realities based on a myriad of reasons from conflicts in national legislation, socio-economic causes and cultural beliefs. The road to eliminating child domestic work in Africa lies along the path of aligning national laws with international standards, building accountability and protection enforcement mechanisms and ensuring educational opportunities for all children. This comprehensive approach is fundamental to effectively guaranteeing children’s rights and dignity, allowing them to thrive without fear of exploitation.

Although social security legislation could have helped in keeping many children out of the domestic work, and securing their future, legislation such as the National Pensions Act of 2008 in Ghana provides a framework for pension benefits that indirectly impacts the children of deceased parents. One area that is very critical in the National Pensions Act has to do with the provision for survivor benefits which is found in section 101, and how those benefits impact on children when their parents are deceased. The Act specifies that when a contributor dies, children who are named as dependants, have the right to receive benefits. For this, it is important to look at how money is used to support children when their parents die. In section 101(2), the Act sees children as dependants, and therefore children become entitled to a share of the deceased parent’s pension. This is an important protection for the financial interests of children at an especially vulnerable time. The law explains the distribution of benefits among dependants (which can mean children, spouses or other family members). The allocation is set up so that children receive enough support for their basic needs (such as education and healthcare). On the other hand in Nigeria, the main social security programme that covers children is the National Social Security Trust (NSST), a mandatory contributory pension scheme, which pays retirement benefits to workers in both the public and private sectors. Although NSST is essentially a retirement scheme, it also has some provisions for children in the event of death or disability of the contributing member. In Sierra Leone, there are no specific social security programmes solely dedicated to protecting children from domestic work.

3.1 Challenges of child domestic workers in West Africa

Stories of abuse of child domestic workers are rife in Nigeria. However, the media does not report enough of these stories to raise the awareness of an urgent intervention in the protection of child domestic workers, just as Ekeanyanwu has expressed the view in The Cable that cases of child abuse are largely unreported in Nigeria. He reported the case of a man who physically abuses his young cousin, as told to him by a certain Raputa, adding that, ‘He beats this boy, applies pepper on his body and even his private parts. He beats him over every little mistake the boy or the abuser’s children make.’ Ekeanyanwu admitted that weak protection mechanisms for children in Nigeria is responsible for the high incidence of child abuse in Nigeria.37 In Anambra, Nigeria, a lawyer, Adachukwu Okafor, was reported to have used a broken bottle, knife, and electric iron on an 11-year-old child domestic worker with her, causing severe injuries to the child.38 Also in Abia, Nigeria, a 13-year-old child domestic worker had reportedly jumped down from a building in an attempt to escape further punishment, after being beaten severely.39 Premium Times, in appraising the situation of child domestic workers in Nigeria, reports that child domestic workers can easily be distinguished from their peers through their appearance, as they often wear their abuse like a garment. They are reported to appear dishevelled, clad in poor clothing, malnourished, and sometimes with scars from physical abuse.40 These stories highlight the untold hardship that characterise domestic work, especially for children in Nigeria. There are many reasons why children are specifically employed as domestic workers in Nigeria, one of the chief reasons being that their employers often demand for younger workers due to their manageability and the perception that they can do more work. There is no doubt that child domestic workers in Nigeria are a highly vulnerable group of children, because, as noted, the regulatory environment is weak and does not provide for robust and coordinated interventions for vulnerable children.

Child domestic workers in Ghana face terrible ordeals with their employers. Adu-Gyamfi has opined that corpses are treated better than domestic workers in Ghana.41 Ocran has also opined on the treatment of child domestic workers in Ghana, claiming that their dehumanisation is as complete as the one meted out to African domestic workers in the Middle East. The deficiencies in policy implementation can also be seen from the fact that there is no vocational education or training that is provided to such children, like they were promised before they were engaged. This shows that there must be legislation and other mechanisms that will protect the rights of child domestic labourers, and their employers should be held liable for any wrongdoings committed.

From Ocran’s contemplation about the treatment of domestic female child labourers in Ghana, one sees the glaring issues of exploitation, gender gap and insufficient recompense in domestic jobs. It is therefore required to develop an all-encompassing approach which includes aforementioned points for issues of legal changes, safety nets and moral reasons to ensure protection of these vulnerable children at risk. The challenges of child domestic workers in Ghana presents a severe human rights concern that is often not taken into consideration. This is because there is the tendency to not regard minors, especially when they come from low socio-economic backgrounds. Despite that Ghana has been rated high on democratic ideals, yet it struggles with the protection of the rights of vulnerable children. This might be due to the same institutional problems, which has also prevented Nigeria from the protection of vulnerable people, such as children working as domestic labourers.

As it is in many African states, life in Sierra Leone is difficult. Poverty levels are rising and people are desperate for jobs, while inflation has crippled the purchasing power of so many people and plunged people deeper into poverty.42 On the other hand, institutional failure is manifested in many administrative incapacities, which includes the protection of vulnerable children. In Sierra Leone, child domestic workers are known as men pikin, a term used for the description of the foster care of children with relatives where they do domestic work in exchange for better opportunities. In essence, the system is mostly sustained by the trust in the relatives, with whom the children go to stay with. The phenomenon of ‘men pikin’ is just one part of a bigger socio-economic problem in Sierra Leone, which binds together poverty and limited access to education that forces families to hand over their children to individuals or institutions that make false promises about better lives. Most unfortunately, these kids often find themselves trapped into forced labour or sexual slavery, and are thus stripped of their rights and subjected to unbearable conditions. Inadequate legal framework, low level of awareness about the matter among officials and lack of social services have enabled trafficking to continue unabated, thus making it hard for poor children not to be exploited. A holistic approach is needed including community education, legal reforms and support.

Sierra Leone is known as a source country, transit country and destination country for trafficking in children who fall victim to both commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour. The national specific internal child trafficking practice called ‘men pikin,’ which translates directly as foster care in Krio language, dominates the nation state. What transpires here involves taking children from their homes by their own family members under the pretence of seeking for good educational opportunities in towns or cities within the country rather than regions where there are established schools. These assurances most times however hide behind them a brutal reality where instead of having an ideal place to study with all necessary materials provided, they suffer from exploitation and abuse.43 There is a dearth of literature on child rights in Sierra Leone which has led to low levels of general public, policy makers and stakeholders’ awareness about the particular issues faced by children and what they should be protected.

A US Department of State report shows that there is evidence that child domestic work is a wide-spread phenomenon in West Africa, however, there is little known of the conditions in which these vulnerable children work. Child domestic work can vary from kinship arrangements, where children live and work in the household of their relatives to being trafficked. Despite the widespread engagement of child domestic work, it was further reported that there is a lack of comprehensive data on the conditions that these vulnerable children live in.44 However, a new report shows that in Nigeria, there are many child domestic workers who work in slavish conditions with little time for education and social activities with 37.1 per cent working more than 30 hours weekly and 21.4 per cent who work above 42 hours weekly.45 However, reports do not distinguish between the conditions of child domestic workers who live with kin and those who are not.

3.2 Combating child labour in West Africa

The International Labour Organisation defined child labour as work performed by a minor that is inappropriate for their age or developmental level, and hinders their physical, psychological, or social development.46 While Minimum Age Convention, 1973 provides for the minimum age for employment being above 15 years and not less than the age of compulsory schooling in article 1 and 2(3).

Attempts have been made to stop child labour in West Africa, but they have been done without much political will. In Nigeria, poverty drives child labour, and since the rate of poverty is not reducing, many households have had to augment their livelihoods through child labour. These children either are often made to work alongside adults or made to work as domestic staff in homes of people with a higher socio-economic status. Because poverty is the leading factor for the incidence of child labour, higher levels of inequality have resulted in an exacerbation of the problem of child labour. In 2021, Aljazeera found that there were many underage girls in Nigeria who are into child domestic labour. Girls as young as 12 years old, on the cusp of adolescence, and who are usually employed through agents, leave home with promises that are often not fulfilled. These children do not often have an idea about how much they earn because their earnings are either paid to their agents or their parents. The primary factor that makes the families of these children to give up their children for domestic labour is poverty. Many of the families where these children come from can barely feed themselves.47 This is resonant with other findings that poverty is the major reason of child labour.

There are two edges to the problem of child labour in Nigeria. In 2022, the government made some advance to stop the worst kinds of child labour. They passed new laws that mandated children to go to school and stay out of dangerous work environments. The government also employed more inspectors to check on working conditions and set up local groups to watch out for children. Unfortunately, many Nigerian children are still finding themselves where they have to do dangerous and strenuous work.48 There have been attempts to resolve child labour by the Nigerian government, and one of such attempts was the formulation of the National Policy on Child Labour (Phase II) in 2022. The policy was to serve as an additional tool alongside laws, regulations and other issues that concern children at work.49 The national policy framework in Nigeria to resolve the problem of child labour was targeted at the worst forms of child labour and was to ensure that child labour is eliminated in Nigeria. The policy relies on state mechanisms like the police, civil defence corps, immigration officials and other institutions. The problem with this, is that state mechanisms in Nigeria are lacking in capacity to engage the policy satisfactorily.

The exploitative work conditions that are associated with child domestic work include being made to work beyond reasonable hours and harsh disciplinary methods. In Ghana, child labour interferes with children’s education especially in the urban areas.50 Almost one-third of Ghanaian children between 5 and 17 are working, and for many, they work in dangerous conditions. This is especially true in farming, fishing, and forestry jobs. The same causes that have allowed the perpetuation of child labour in Nigeria continue to drive child labour in Ghana with more children being made to work in terrible conditions as a result of poverty, parental absence, and the weak response of state mechanisms in the implementation of state laws on education and child labour.51 Poverty is a significant factor that makes children work, as many families cannot afford school or simply need the extra help to survive. Even before COVID, inequality was high, with millions of children out of school and a large number of young people struggling to find work or training.52 And in Sierra Leone, child labour is an intractable issue with quite a large number of children under the age of 18 years engaged in labour. Children are even trafficked for domestic work. In Sierra Leone’s Eastern Province. While there has been some progress, state mechanisms are not moving at the pace of the problem. The government of Sierra Leone have incorporated the Children’s Charter and other conventions into law such as the Anti-Human Trafficking Act (2005) and the Child Rights Act (2007), the allowance of children at the age of 13 to do ‘light work’, undermines the efforts to check the trend of child labour in Sierra Leone.53

Even though the Sierra Leonean government has attempted some interventions, there are still challenges that persist. A major challenge to the government’s efforts in Sierra Leone is access to education in the rural areas, particularly for young girls.54 This problem in some other related context will be about the affordability of education for children who are forced into domestic work, or who are made to support their households through domestic work. What many studies who advocate for the prohibition of child labour do not often address, is what would take the place of child labour, where child labour is the only source of funding a child’s education. There are no doubts that child labour is injurious to a child’s development and can hinder a child’s development. However, child domestic work does not thrive because the people who are involved in the business of child labour are mostly individuals who are after negligible profit, but poverty, poor awareness and weak state mechanisms without proper mobilisation all contribute to the problem of child domestic work in West Africa. Despite the progress made by the governments in Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone, it is obvious that the efforts and interventions do not match up to the pace of the problem. The lack of political will which is often thought to encumber state mechanisms is a result of a lack of executive coordination, and the prioritisation of government interventions. This is because enforcement of state laws on child labour require dedicated commitment of governments and collaboration with NGOs, without which there would be an impediment of effective policy implementation and enforcement of state laws. Despite frameworks like the ECOWAS Regional Action Plan and state efforts, Ghana and other West African states have found it difficult to coordinate their agencies, resource mobilisation and local-level prioritisation of child welfare initiatives.55

3.3 State mechanisms and the Children’s Charter

The Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development in Nigeria is the institution that has the responsibility to protect the rights of children in Nigeria as part of their mandate, which is to also promote and protect women rights. This institution is expected to balance its work on women and children, such that the rights of women and children are protected. However, its work on women outweighs its interventions on the rights of children. The Child Rights Act, 2003 (Nigeria), provides that all children that are in need of special protection measures are entitled to the level of protection which are necessary for their physical, social, economic, emotional and mental needs and in circumstances that safeguard their dignity and the promotion of stability and their active engagement in the community affairs.56

Child domestic workers are a group of children with a need for special protection, because of their vulnerability as individuals from low-socio-economic backgrounds and their state of being forced into labour, but they are often neglected. The Children’s Charter provides that for child labour, including domestic work, there shall be no economic exploitation of children and from jobs that further endanger their lives and their physical, mental, spiritual, moral, or social development.57 The Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development claims in its policy document, 2021 National Gender Policy, that it will reinforce the institutional procedures that will make certain that the needs of men and women, boys and girls, and vulnerable groups are met equitably.58 Despite this policy commitment, the organisation is far from the protection of the most vulnerable group of children which are child domestic workers. Furthermore, the organisation has no short-term nor long-term plan for the protection of this group of children. The abuse of child domestic workers has been quite egregious in Nigeria and Ghana. Previous studies around governance and institutions have unraveled the problems of institutional capacity, attributing the incapacity of state institutions to many factors, such as a lack of political will, weak horizontal accountability structures and poor funding.59 The concept of state mechanisms goes beyond mere institutions to include elements of institutional processes, like laws, regulations and policies. The situation in Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone, are similar with slight variances. While Ghana is only slightly more politically stable than Nigeria and Sierra Leone, it struggles with the same problems of corruption and horizontal unaccountability.

With the same levels of incapacity of state mechanisms. While laws, regulations and policies abound, there is a very low incentive for institutions to be as effective as possible in the execution of these processes. For instance, while Nigeria has the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), children still get trafficked as domestic labourers and still get physically and mentally abused in such work environments. The implementation of laws on the rights of the child is still far from desirable, with the state allowing the condition of children to be determined by whomever is in custody of these vulnerable group of children. The nonchalance of the Nigerian government in the protection of these child domestic workers is a reflection of the indifference of the Nigerian state to vulnerable groups. The International Labour Organisation Survey Report for 2022 shows that 31,756,302 children are engaged in economic activity across sectors, which means that 50.5 per cent of children are engaged in economic activity in Nigeria. It further reported that 24,673,485 children are child labourers, which is 39.2 per cent of children that are child labourers in Nigeria.60 The ILO survey shows that children workers in the rural areas have a higher tendency to get injuries at their employment.61 The implication of this survey, especially as regards Nigerian child workers in rural areas, is that they are vulnerable, especially because state mechanisms rarely extend to those places. In another context, child domestic workers from the rural areas who find themselves working in the cities, discover that they are without support, since they are in a strange environment, where the closest family member is some hundreds of kilometres away. An Aljazeera report on child domestic workers in Nigeria captures this aptly:

Agents often woo the young girls with promises of education and good earnings. When their families sign up, the girls are transported from their villages to economic centres like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and surrounding cities. Often, these families are in dire financial circumstances and see their children as a vehicle for financial support. Many parents can barely afford daily meals and basic healthcare for their children, which makes the prospect of someone else taking responsibility for the child, while offering a stipend, too tempting to resist.62

Beyond the recruitment process is the actual abuse faced by child domestic workers in Nigeria, some get so physically abused that their lives are endangered, and yet such incidences of abuse are treated just like other crimes of aggression. Closely tied to the physical and mental abuse of child domestic workers is the likelihood of trafficking. The physical and mental abuse of these children is often hinged on their lack of support and protection by the state, and their perceived helplessness. It is this lack of protection by the Nigerian state, that inspired a group of Non-Governmental Organisations, such as the Street Project Foundation, Child Protection Network, United States Department of State the Freedom Fund, Devatop Centre for Africa Development and Centre for the Advancement and Protection of the Rights of Vulnerable People to advocate for the protection of child domestic workers in Nigeria with the proliferating cases of abuse against child domestic workers.63

In Ghana, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection is the government organisation that is empowered by law to protect children. This government organisation in Ghana has the Department of Children under it, which oversees all matters that relate to the condition of the Ghanaian child. The Children’s Act, 1998 (Ghana) prohibits the subjection of a child to exploitative labour.64 Under the Children’s Act, 1998, it defines exploitative labour as labour that deprives the child of its ‘health, education or development’.65 This would mean that the use of children for domestic work is illegal, especially because of its likely negative impact on the education, health and development of the child. The Department of Children in its policy mandate works to protect children from exploitative labour, including domestic work.66 The social welfare system in Ghana is family and relative based, and relies much on African communitarian values. This means that where an individual is in need of resources, such an individual could get assistance from family and relations. Where children have lost their parents or are in dire need of adult protection in Ghana, they are committed to extended relations and community members.67 With the evolution of society, this system has become unsustainable with the rising economic pressure. However, many children in Ghana today without their biological parents are staying with their relatives or grandparents.68 This has led to the prevalence of child domestic workers whose employers are actually relatives. The violence that these group of children face from their employers, results in mental health issues, impaired development, injury, negative coping mechanisms and compromised health, and this is the reality of many Ghanaian children. Ghana has been able to apprehend some of the violence against children from the time the Convention on the Rights of the Child, was ratified.69 However it has not been able to adequately protect child domestic workers because of the nature of their employment, and a lack of political will towards the policy and legal efforts needed for their protection.

The Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs is the government organisation that is mandated to protect child rights, amongst other things in Sierra Leone. They are also to promote child rights for social awareness. The work of this organisation has been very important especially since the civil war saw the engagement of child soldiers. Just like its Nigerian equivalent, this Sierra Leonean government organisation has had to accelerate action more on gender matters than the children’s right, despite the fact that child labour is still a problem and that child domestic workers are still suffering from abuse. Afro-barometer showed in its report for 2023 that 40 per cent of Sierra Leonean children were out of school, and that Sierra Leone, just like Nigeria, was one of the states with the least support systems for vulnerable children.70 It further reported that in Sierra Leone, children are very much often abused, mistreated, or neglected 23 per cent of the time.

Sierra Leone was amongst the states that were at the bottom-run of the index for the provision of support services for children that were abused or neglected, with mental health issues and disabilities.71 This falls short of the provision of the Child Rights Act 2022 (Sierra Leone) which demands that the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs in partnership with other government ministries and relevant stakeholders, shall work to promote the enjoyment of children’s welfare and rights throughout the whole of Sierra Leone.72 These statistics for vulnerable children, portend negatively for the rights of child domestic workers in Sierra Leone, who are living and suffering in the shadows.

Although laws such as the Child Rights Act have been formulated to protect children in Sierra Leone, enforcement is weak. The government has taken steps to address these and similar challenges, through the lifting of bans on pregnant girls attending school.73 In some communities, on the other hand, societal issues are still a problem. While women likely would benefit from economic empowerment policies, the focus of those policy interventions may fail to address that child protection is indeed paramount. The dynamics in Sierra Leone are part of a larger pattern, where women’s proximate gains, such as initiatives against child marriage, and the advocacy for their economic participation, come at the expense of children’s rights and childhood. Empowering women is important for societal advancement, but not at the cost of children’s education and well-being. To achieve sustainable development, Sierra Leone needs a two-pronged approach that accounts for child rights alongside those of women. Making sure policies take these long-term considerations into account will create a more just society for all.

3.4 Enhancing safeguards via state mechanisms

There are many ways state mechanisms can address the gap between their capacities and the promise of protection that is replete in the Children’s Charter. Between the potentials that the Children’s Charter represents, and the failed promises of state mechanisms in Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone, in meeting up to the protection needs of child domestic workers there are opportunities for redemption. These opportunities of redemption are strategies that can be executed for the effectiveness of state mechanisms in these West African states. One way to examine the failure of these state mechanisms, is to consider what is missing in their agenda-setting. It appears that in Nigeria and Sierra Leone, the government ministries concerned with the protection of children, are more concerned with programs driven towards women emancipation. With the laws on the protection of children in these three states, child domestic workers have continued to suffer human rights violations, this is because resources are not enough to go after violators, and corruption in government circles impedes justice for these child domestic workers. Furthermore, since child domestic work is accepted culturally, changing perceptions would be driven by both sensitisation on child protection laws and a stronger commitment by these states to disrupt child trafficking.

3.5 Regional mechanisms and the Children’s Charter

Since the use of children for domestic work is driven by poverty, it is essential that governments in West Africa begin to work towards social security programs for their citizens through wealth tax. West African governments taxing held assets in their states might help bridge the gap on widening inequality. Furthermore, the attribution of credible commitment to horizontal accountability mechanisms like the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, through a consolidated approach of judicial support from local judiciaries within the West African region, will not only help check executive excesses that frustrate human rights protection, but also enhance means through which civil society aspire for social change. One of the most limiting factors for legislative and policy efforts on child protection is the lack of credible data. In Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone, governments struggle with effective data systems, and this can frustrate legislative and policy efforts on the protection of children. Therefore, governments can collaborate with the private sector to achieve competent data collection and utility of these data. Since human rights abuses of child domestic workers are particularly notorious in states like Nigeria and Ghana, the African Commission can give technical assistance to build capacity members of the civil society in these states, to be able to track violations of the rights of child domestic workers, who are often very difficult to help because of the discreet nature of their work environment, and learn new strategies to engage the changing nature of child labour.