A/HRC/40/56 chain, as their husbands or other male household members are likely to be the final decision makers or formal owners of operations. 34. Most women with formal employment work in the post-harvest sector, where they are disproportionately impacted by the safety and occupational hazards associated with processing activities. Articles 11 and 12 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women address women’s right to protection of health and safety, with particular focus on pregnant women and young mothers. However, childcare and other accommodations are rarely available at processing sites, thus forcing many women to accept informal, part-time work that does not offer protection against occupational hazards or other social benefits such as maternity leave. Many women employed at processing facilities are also victims of physical and sexual abuse from their supervisors or employers, but they mostly remain silent for fear of losing their employment. 35. Women workers face gender discrimination throughout the industry, with less secure employment than men and fewer opportunities to unionize. A study of aquaculture operations in Nigeria and Viet Nam concluded that women often perform the lowest-paying jobs, while men perform more secure, managerial roles. 45 In the shrimp processing sector in Bangladesh and Thailand and in the salmon processing industry in Chile, women are less likely to have a permanent contract than men and are more likely to be engaged in seasonal employment. 46 Women are also likely to receive lower wages than those their male counterparts receive for the same work. Even when women work as full-time, independent fishers, they are often underpaid by intermediaries and other actors along the supply chain. 36. In some places, the practice of “fish for sex” is common among inland fishers and female fish traders seeking to secure their supply of fish at a better price. 47 The practice is thought to contribute to high HIV/AIDS figures in the affected communities. 2. Children 37. Children are responsible for a range of activities throughout the fisheries sector, often consistent with traditional gender roles. The occupational safety and health hazards associated with those activities have particularly severe consequences on children’s health, as they are more susceptible to illness, fatigue and injury. Since fisheries are notoriously dangerous, employing children in the industry is considered among the worst forms of child labour, yet it is prevalent in small-scale and aquaculture enterprises. ILO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimate that 60 per cent of child labourers, or 129 million children, are working in the agricultural sector, which includes fisheries and aquaculture.48 38. In Bangladesh, El Salvador, Ghana and the Philippines, fisheries are responsible for 2 to 5 per cent of all child labour, and children account for 9 to 12 per cent of all fishery workers; in Senegal and in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan, children constitute 28 per cent of fishery workers. Inland fisheries in Africa and in Myanmar also utilize child labour.49 39. Despite that, many existing policies fail to include targeted protections for children (A/73/164, para. 45), despite international instruments setting forth protections for children, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182). Child labour in fisheries, as in agriculture, is not only 45 46 47 48 49 Froukje Kruijssen, Cynthia L. McDougall and Imke J.M. van Asseldonk, “Gender and aquaculture value chains: a review of key issues and implications for research”, Aquaculture, vol. 493 (August 2018), pp. 328–337. Ibid. FAO, Review of the state of the world fishery resources, p. 264. FAO and ILO, Guidance on addressing child labour in fisheries and aquaculture, p. 11. Trafficking of children for labour in small-scale and artisan fisheries is well-documented on Lake Volta in Ghana. See International Justice Mission, Child Trafficking into Forced Labor on Lake Volta, Ghana: A Mixed-Methods Assessment (Washington, D.C., 2016). Child labour has also been reported on Lake Chilwa and Lake Malawi in Malawi, and on Lake Victoria in Uganda. See FAO, Review of the state of the world fishery resources, p. 260. 9