Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2021, published 110th ILC session (2022)

Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) - Solomon Islands (Ratification: 2012)

Articles 3(a) and 7(1) of the Convention. Worst forms of child labour and penalties. Sale and trafficking of children. The Committee previously noted that section 77 of the Immigration Act No. 3 of 2012 criminalizes trafficking of persons under 18 years of age (including for the purpose of sexual exploitation, forced labour or slavery), establishing as penalty for this offence a fine or imprisonment. The Committee notes that the Government indicates in its report that the Solomon Islands Immigration Division has reported three cases of trafficking of children in the period January–March 2020, which have ended in acquittals. The Committee also notes the adoption of the Penal Code (Amendment) (Sexual offences) Act (2016), which, under section 145, establishes a sanction of 25 years of imprisonment for persons engaging in internal trafficking of persons when the victim is a child. However, the Committee notes that the Government, in its report under the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), indicates that there is evidence of sale and trafficking of children, particularly of girls, by their parents to foreign workers. The Committee also notes that the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Child, in its 2018 concluding observations expresses its serious concern about the sale of children to foreign workers in the natural resource sector for the purpose of sex (CRC/C/SL/B/CO/2-3, 28 February 2018, paragraph 48). The Committee further notes that the Community Health and Mobility in the Pacific, Solomon Islands Case Study published in 2019 by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) highlights the high number of reported cases of sexual exploitation and trafficking involving children in communities near logging camps (page 46). The Committee requests the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that thorough investigations and prosecutions against persons who engage in the sale or trafficking of children are carried out, and that sufficiently dissuasive penalties are imposed in practice. The Committee also requests the Government to continue to provide information on the number of investigations, prosecutions, convictions and penalties imposed on the offenders on the basis of section 77 of the Immigration Act No. 3 of 2012 and section 145 of the Penal Code (Amendment) (Sexual Offences) Act of 2016, including information on the number of acquittals.

Clause (b). Use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution. The Committee previously noted that section 144 of the Penal Code, as amended up to 1990, did not criminalize procuring of male children for prostitution. It also noted that the definition of the crime of disposing of minors for immoral purposes (including prostitution), contained in section 149 of that Code, did not protect children between the age of 15 and 18. The Committee, accordingly, requested the Government to take the necessary measures to prohibit using, procuring or offering of both boys and girls under the age of 18 for the purpose of prostitution. The Committee notes with satisfaction that, through the adoption of the Penal Code (Amendment) (Sexual offences) Act (2016), the Penal Code was amended to protect all children under the age of 18 from prostitution, in line with the Committee’s previous comments. Section 141(2) of the Amendment stipulates that the person who procures or attempts to procure another person to provide commercial sexual services, either in Solomon Islands or elsewhere, is punishable by a penalty of up to 20 years of imprisonment if the victim is under 15 years of age, and up to 15 years of imprisonment in other cases. According to section 143, the person who obtains commercial sexual services from a child, or induces, invites, persuades, arranges or facilitates its provision is liable to up to 20 years of imprisonment if the child is under 15 years of age, or to up to 15 years of imprisonment in other cases. The same sanction applies to the parent or guardian who permits the child to be used for the provision of commercial sexual services as well as for the person who benefits from such service. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the application, in practice, of sections 141(2) and 143 of the Penal Code (Amendment) (Sexual Offences) Act 2016, including the number of investigations, prosecutions, nature of the offences, convictions and types of sanctions imposed on the offenders.

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