Crime in Ivory Coast
Republic of Côte d'Ivoire République de Côte d'Ivoire (French) | |
---|---|
Capital | Yamoussoukro (political) Abidjan (economic) 6°51′N 5°18′W / 6.850°N 5.300°W |
Largest city | Abidjan |
Official languages | French |
Population | |
• 2018 estimate | 23,740,424.[1] (54th) |
• Density | 63.9/km2 (165.5/sq mi) (139th) |
GDP (PPP) | 2020 estimate |
• Total | $126.863 billion[2] |
• Per capita | $4,705[2] |
ISO 3166 code | CI |
Crime in
The
Embedded actors throughout the
Organised crime
Overall crime | Criminal markets | Criminal actors | Resilience to crime | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | #8 | #4 | #12 | #19 |
Index score | 6.23 | 5.95 | 6.50 | 4.54 |
Trafficking
Child labour
Ivory Coast is a major trafficking hub for important and export of child labourers.[5] Children below the minimum working age of 16 often work in agriculture, mining, domestic work and sex work.[6] Girls most commonly work as domestic servants, while boys perform forced labour on cocoa and coffee farms where they are exploited and abused.[5]
By law, children must attend school from the ages of 6 to 16.
Children | % | Population |
---|---|---|
Working | 31.5% | 1,682,754 |
Attending school | 63.5% | --- |
Working and attending school | 21.5 | --- |
Previously, trafficking children between the war-torn borders of Ivory Coast had been easy, as there was little surveillance. The decrease in violence between the neighbouring nations has allowed countries to work together to better prevent trafficking between countries.[5]
In the last decade, projects including U.S. Department of Labor funded projects and World Cocoa Foundation's Cocoa Action have aimed to eliminate child labour in Ivory Coast and other African countries.[6] UNICEF and their partners aimed to aid victims, form partnerships with the Ivorian government and increase law enforcement to aid the problem.[5]
In 2018, Ivory Coast improved their efforts to eliminate child labour. The government drafted a National Labour Inspection Strategy, as well as developed a 3-year National Action Plan to fight child labour.
In 2019, the criminal law enforcement upped their action. They trained 33 labour inspectors to investigate, prosecute and convict child labour traffickers.[6][8] Training for criminal inspectors and financial still lack for the 8.5 million workers in Ivory Coast.[6] However, the small increase in trained inspectors has allowed hundreds of children to be rescued from forced labour.[5] The U.S. Embassy in Ivory Coast also made the following prioritised recommendations to the government to further improve the trafficking situation:[8]
- Further train law enforcement and judicial official to effectively investigate, prosecute and convict trafficking cases in accordance to the 2016 trafficking laws
- Increase funding for non-government organisations supporting child protection centres
- Increase funding for anti-trafficking police units
- Revise existing identification procedures for child labour and trafficking victims
- Improve data collection in regards to child labour of all sorts
Cocoa production
The most common form of child labour in Ivory Coast occurs on cocoa farms.[6] It produce 2/5 of the world's cocoa and receives 60% of their revenue from cocoa crops.[7] 2.1 million children in West Africa, including Ivory Coast, work in dangerous conditions harvesting cocoa.[7] Children, usually boys, work to burn and clear fields, cut down trees, spray pesticides and use sharp tools to break open cocoa pods - all of which are determined to be hazardous activities by national law or regulation.[6] They are often beaten if they work too slowly or try to escape.[7]
Arms trafficking
Cote d'Ivoire is a common cross border trafficking hub for smuggling legal and illegal
* Benin * Burkina Faso * Cape Verde * Ivory Coast * The Gambia | * Ghana * Guinea * Guinea-Bissau * Liberia * Mali | * Niger * Nigeria * Senegal * Sierra Leone * Togo |
Major actors in small arms trafficking include low level transporters, members from regional and capital trafficking hubs and government forces.[10] Low level transporters do not usually belong larger trafficking groups. They often travel unarmed on motorbikes through unmanned and uncontrolled border crossings carrying small amounts of illegal arms.[10] Organised trafficking rings involving members from capital and regional trafficking hubs control the lower level transporters and inform about routes the transporters should take when moving goods from one location to another.[10] Government forces have the ability to rent and divert military-grade weapons, such as AK-pattern assault rifles, to outlawed and illegitimate users.[10] Other actors involved in the illicit transport of small arms include criminals, tribal networks and corrupt political officials.[9]
Arms trafficking can be seen as a valid and appropriate career for demobilised fighters, as it provides an opportunity to extricate oneself from unemployment. Such workers are dependent on connections and communication from cross border friendships, family and ethnic ties about movement of security forces.[10]
High-profile individuals and groups such as terrorist groups and other criminals have the ability to move illegal arms across national borders for their personal use.[10] The terrorist organisation al-Murabitoun trafficked assault rifles through Burkina Faso and Mali into Ivory Coast to be used in the Grand-Bassam shootings in 2016.[10] Kidnapping for ransom and extortion increases the power held by criminals and terrorists to traffic illicit arms.[10]
In 2007, an estimated legal and illegal 400,000 guns were owned by civilians. While in 2017, the estimated total number had increased in 1,049,000.[11] Licit and illicit import of small firearms grosses Cote d'Ivoire an annual $76,182,943.[11]
In 2001, Ivory Coast signed the United Nations Arms Programme of Action (UNPoA) to prevent and eradicate the trade of illegal arms and weapons.[11] Despite this agreement, armed violence persisted across the country.[12] Due to this violence, in 2004 the United Nations places Cote d'Ivoire under an arms embargo, banning the trade of any arms.[12][4] After the imposed embargo, violence with illegal arms between conflicting parties continued for over a decade.[13] Many violations to the ban occurred, where brokers from France and Belarus provided former authorities with large amounts of firearms and weapons.[12] Armed violence and hostilities escalated post 2011 presidential elections, catalysing human rights abuse in the country.[4][13] From 2011–2012, Ivory Coast had the highest rate of violent deaths in West Africa, with many deaths perpetrated by large amounts of political tension.[12][4] Thousands of citizens were killed, based on ethnicity and political affiliation, with illegal weapons.[4] Citizens can form an informant network to report suspicious behaviour of arms trafficking to the government and law enforcement.[10]
Sex trafficking
Ivory Coast has a prospering
A major concern for Ivory Coast and the sex trafficking industry is the prevalence of
Ivory Coast, working with neighbouring countries, have increased their efforts to investigate, combat and
Human rights abuses
2010/11 post-electoral crisis
Leading up to the 2010
Upon the November 2010 election, it was declared Alassane Ouattara won the election with 54.1% of votes against Gbagbo.[17] However, despite orders from the African Union, European Union and the United Nations, Gbagbo refused to step down from power.[16] Gbagbo claimed polls in northern regions of Ivory Coast to be rigged by pro-Outtara forces.[16] The former president attempted to declare the results as invalid as they were not released before December 1.[16]
Tension rose and violence broke out between Gbagbo and Ouattara loyalists. In particular, there was strong hostility between the southwestern
On April 10, 2011 United Nations Operations in Cote d'Ivoire, the
In August 2018, President Ouattarra released 800 prisoners involved in the 2010-11 post-electoral crisis, including military officers, former cabinet members and Simone and Laurent Gbagbo. He announced immediate amnesty for those held in custody since the crisis.[21]
The country continues to face economic and discrimination challenges since the events involving human rights abuses.[20]
Terrorism
Ivory Coast is one of several West African countries under
Grand-Bassam shootings
On 13 March 2016
After the attack, the flourishing tourism industry at the time was negatively affected. The Ivorian government nominated $1 million to assist the hotel, transport and tourism industry in Grand-Bassam to help compensate for the economic loses caused by the attack.[24] The Ivory Coast's National Security Council also took emergency measures to strengthen security in the country[22]
See also
References
- ^ "Côte d'Ivoire". The World Factbook. CIA Directorate of Intelligence. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
- ^ a b "Côte d'Ivoire". International Monetary Fund.
- ^ globalinitiative.net. European Union. 2019. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
- ^ a b c d e "Arms proliferation and abuse shatter communities in Côte d'Ivoire". www.amnesty.org. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Child trafficking in Côte d'Ivoire: Efforts under way to reverse a tragic trend". UNICEF. Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2020-02-08.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor - Côte d'Ivoire | U.S. Department of Labor". www.dol.gov. Retrieved 2020-02-08.
- ^ a b c d "The "Chocolate Slaves" of the Ivory Coast - End Slavery Now". endslaverynow.org. Retrieved 2020-02-08.
- ^ a b c d e f g 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report. (2019). [ebook] U.S. Embassy. Available at: https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019-TIP-Report-Narratives-A-C.pdf [Accessed 8 Feb. 2020].
- ^ a b c "Small Arms Survey - New case studies reveal intricacies of arms trafficking routes and actors in West Africa and the Sahel". www.smallarmssurvey.org. Archived from the original on February 3, 2020. Retrieved 2020-02-03.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Mangan, F. and Nowak, M. (2019). The West Africa–Sahel Connection Mapping Cross-border Arms Trafficking. [ebook] Geneva. Available at: [https://web.archive.org/web/20200118171901/http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/T-Briefing-Papers/SAS-BP-West-Africa-Sahel-Connection.pdf smallarmssurvey.org] [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
- ^ a b c "Guns in Côte d'Ivoire — Firearms, gun law and gun control". www.gunpolicy.org. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
- ^ a b c d "Arms trafficking in Western Africa: Côte d'Ivoire and Mali at the core | Grip". www.grip.org. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
- ^ a b "Document". www.amnesty.org. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
- ^ PMID 12348299.
- ^ a b c d "Côte d'Ivoire/Nigeria: Combat Trafficking for Prostitution". Human Rights Watch. 2010-08-26. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Q&A: Ivory Coast crisis". BBC News. 2011-04-13. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
- ^ a b Crisis in Côte d'Ivoire. (2011). Retrieved 18 February 2020, from http://www.responsibilitytoprotect.org/index.php/crises/crisis-in-ivory-coast
- ^ a b c d e "Crisis in Côte d'Ivoire". www.responsibilitytoprotect.org. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
- ^ a b "World Report 2019: Rights Trends in Côte d'Ivoire". Human Rights Watch. 2019-01-04. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
- ^ a b "The Crisis in Côte d'Ivoire | Center for Strategic and International Studies". www.csis.org. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
- ^ Cote d’Ivoire 2018 Human Rights Report. (2018). [ebook] United States Department of State. Available at: https://ci.usembassy.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/Cote-dIvoire-HRR-2018-English.pdf [Accessed 16 Feb. 2020].
- ^ a b c d e f g "Gunmen kill beach-goers in Ivory Coast". BBC News. 2016-03-14. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
- ^ "Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Travel Advice & Safety | Smartraveller". www.smartraveller.gov.au. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
- ^ a b "Ivory Coast Struggles To Keep Economy Afloat After Terror Attack". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
- ^ a b "Terrorism - Côte d'Ivoire travel advice". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
- ^ a b c "Security Council Press Statement on Terrorist Attack in Grand Bassam, Côte d'Ivoire | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". www.un.org. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
- ^ "Côte d'Ivoire - Terrorist attack in Grand-Bassam - Statement by Jean-Marc Ayrault". La France au Ghana. Archived from the original on 2020-08-15. Retrieved 2020-02-07.