A/HRC/18/30 recreational activities, limits their ability to fully develop their physical, intellectual and emotional capacities. VII. Challenges in the prevention of child slavery in the mining and quarrying sector 77. The Special Rapporteur highlights the following five challenges in eradicating child slavery in artisanal mining and quarrying. 78. First, there are legal and enforcement challenges. This is due to the absence of legislation or inadequate legislation, lack of criminalization and the lack of enforcement or adequate enforcement of legislation relating to children working in slavery within the artisanal mining and quarrying sector. Where legislation exists, it is often complex and only favours the owner of the mine or quarry, not the workers – particularly in the case of the children. Additionally, where legislation exists in the form of bans on artisanal mining and quarrying, such activity is driven further underground. This increases the risk of violations of the rights of the children who work, as they are even more isolated and restricted in their movements in order to keep their work secretive. 79. Second, poverty, in particular rural poverty, is not only a cause but also an obstacle to eradicating slavery in artisanal mining and quarrying. Reports state that a working child incurs huge future income losses due to the negative impact working has on his human capital, health and education.29 In the case of child slavery in artisanal mining and quarrying, the negative impact is likely to be worse. With the lack of investment in rural livelihoods and alternatives to subsistence farming, mining – particularly goldmining – is regarded as a quick way of making money.30 31 Artisanal miners make one— three times more money from mining than from farming (see E/C.12/MDG/CO/2). However, although better paid than other occupations, it needs to be highlighted that in most of the cases, owing to factors such as debt bondage, inflated prices for basic goods and lack of basic services, wages hardly cover subsistence costs, perpetuating the need for children to work. 80. Third, geographical challenges also contribute to the lack of proper enforcement of the law and Government programmes. Mines and quarries are usually found in remote, hard-to-access areas of the country. Those who live in remote areas establish “frontier communities”. In some instances, Governments refer to difficulties in accessing these areas owing to internal armed conflict, organized crime or poor transport infrastructure. Remoteness also contributes to lawlessness in these communities, as perpetrators of violence and exploitation know that they are not within the reach of the law. 81. Fourth, the lack of public awareness about the slavery conditions experienced by children working in this sector is another challenge. The lack of general understanding of what constitutes child slavery and the illegal and informal nature of some artisanal mining and quarrying contribute to the difficulty in collecting data and information on where and how many children are involved in this work. This lack of knowledge makes it difficult to 29 30 31 “Child Labor, Education and Children’s rights”, p. 174. Rebecca Chouinard et Marcello M. Veiga, “Results of the Awareness Campaign and Technology Demonstration for Artisanal Gold Miners: Summary Report”, (Vienna, UNIDO, 2008). Edmonds, Eric and Maheshwor Shrestha, “Children’s Work and Independent Child Migration: a critical review”, Innocenti Working Paper, No. 2009-19 (Florence, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, 2009). 17