A/HRC/45/8/Add.1 are child representatives themselves. Members of the Committee are expected to submit annual reports about the situation of children’s rights in the country. 75. The Government also set up Children’s Advisory Boards – 44 local bodies distributed across the 39 prefectures in the five regions. Their role is to promote child protection activities at the local level and the increased participation of children in these activities, including in areas related to the eradication of child labour, of trafficking of children and of violence against children. Furthermore, these bodies are tasked with contributing to the drafting of periodic reports on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 76. The Ministry of Social Action, Promotion of Women and Literacy includes a Directorate-General for the Protection of Children, which is tasked with enforcing laws against the worst forms of child labour, with providing technical assistance, with leading government efforts to address trafficking in persons and with raising awareness of child labour issues. The Special Rapporteur was also informed about a foster family programme piloted in 2017 by the same Ministry, with 27 families initially; but the effectiveness thereof would need to be assessed further. 77. The Ministry of Social Action also operates the free Allo 1011 hotline, which is a system for alerting and reporting cases and providing information on situations of vulnerability and violence against children. This system, which is linked to the Centre for Reference, Guidance and Care of Children in Difficult Situations, includes a database that is regularly updated. 78. At the prefectural level, cases are either reported to the police, or to the Ministry for Social Action, or are detected by communities and referred to civil society organizations and/or the police. The Centre for Reference, Guidance and Care of Children in Difficult Situations system is currently operating throughout the country, including for sending SMS messages. Challenges remain, however, regarding the availability of follow-up and case management services, in particular the lack of coordination between the police, social welfare, health services and justice services. In rural areas, access to such services is even more limited. 79. The Government reported that more than 50,000 calls related to child labour, child marriage and other forms of exploitation and abuse of children were made in 2017 to the Allo 1011 toll-free hotline. Furthermore, the calls received in 2018 and 2019 included reports about 302 child victims of trafficking, including 263 girls. In cases of sexual exploitation, non-governmental organizations usually make referrals to the judiciary, but in cases of labour exploitation, they negotiate with employers and parents. The success rate of these interventions is not systematically monitored. 80. While Allo 1011 allows children to report perpetrators anonymously and to seek assistance, it is fully operational only in Lomé. The Special Rapporteur received reports that children in remote rural areas might experience difficulties accessing the phone line, and that more needed to be invested into making it accessible. 81. The Special Rapporteur was informed by numerous stakeholders in Togo about the positive impact of initiatives such as the ILO-supported Global Action Programme on Child Labour Issues, for 2011–2017, which was focused on building the capacity of national stakeholders and developing relevant policies and responses to child labour, and specifically on ensuring protection of child domestic workers.36 The programme also aimed to eliminate child labour in domestic work by supporting the Government in putting relevant regulatory and policy frameworks into place. 82. The Ministry of Security’s division on drugs, morals and pimping is mandated with the investigation of crimes involving child victims, including child trafficking. At the national and the regional levels, this entity operates as part of the National Police. The National Commission for the Reception and Reintegration of Child Victims of Trafficking was established in 2002. 36 See www.ilo.org/ipec/projects/global/WCMS_355744/lang--en/index.htm. 13

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents