A Roadmap for Ending Exploitation, Abuse of Talibés in Senegal
This report analyzes the Senegalese government’s policy, programming, and judicial efforts from 2017 to 2019 to address abuses against talibé children living in traditional Quranic boarding schools. It sets out a roadmap to end forced begging and abusive conditions in the Quranic schools, known as daaras.
Nearly 10 years after Human Rights Watch’s first report documenting abuses against talibé children in Senegal, the scale of ongoing abuse remains staggering. Over 100,000 talibé children living in traditional Quranic schools are forced to beg daily by their teachers. This report documents scores of serious abuses committed against talibé children in 2017 and 2018 by Quranic teachers or their assistants, including forced begging, beatings, sexual abuse, chaining, imprisonment, and the deaths of 16 talibé children due to abuse, neglect or endangerment. The report also documents human trafficking and dangers linked to talibé migration.
This report documents abuses against female students in secondary schools, primarily by teachers and school officials. Human Rights Watch found cases of teachers who abuse their authority by engaging in sexual relations with students in exchange for money, good grades, food, or items such as mobile phones and new clothes.
This report draws on extensive Human Rights Watch research on the rights of girls in Africa. Human Rights Watch examined national laws, policies, and practices that block or support pregnant girls’ and adolescent mothers’ right to primary and secondary education in all African Union (AU) member countries. Africa has one of the highest rates of adolescent pregnancy in the world. African governments should urgently adopt laws and policies to ensure that schools allow and support pregnant girls to stay in school and to return to school after having a child.
This report examines the successes and failings of the first year of the new government program to remove children forced to beg from the streets. The report documents the ongoing abuses faced by many talibé children in Dakar and four other regions during – and despite – the program, including pervasive forced begging, violence and physical abuse, chaining and imprisonment, and sexual abuse. Human Rights Watch and the PPDH also assessed the ongoing challenge of ensuring justice for these abuses.
The 85-page report found that 70,000 Senegalese each year need what is known as palliative care to control symptoms related to chronic, life-threatening diseases. Morphine is an essential and inexpensive medication for treatment of severe pain, but Senegal only imports about one kilogram of morphine each year – enough to treat about 200 cancer patients.
In this paper, Human Rights Watch noted that Senegal had not even passed the legislation needed to try Habré. Human Rights Watch called on the African Union to name a special envoy to help Senegal prepare Habré’s trial.
Nearly fifteen years after the fall of Chad’s brutal Cold War dictator, Hissène Habré, dozens of his henchmen still hold key positions of power, including top state security jobs. Meanwhile, the thousands of victims of torture and killings under Habré’s rule have never received compensation or recognition from Chad’s current government.
Violence and discrimination against women and girls is fueling Africa's AIDS crisis. African governments must make gender equality a central part of national AIDS programs if they are to succeed in fighting the epidemic.
