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National law and policies on minimum ages – Ethiopia

 

According to the CRC, laws and policies must be directed to the best interest of the child. This is especially so in provisions that aim to safeguard the child against exploitation or an early end to childhood, i.e. in the instances where children are most vulnerable and at risk. Yet such safeguards are often ignored and different areas of legislation found to clash with each other. What happens if the age for the end of compulsory education is 14 but the minimum age of employment is 12? Or vice versa? What if a girl can be married before school leaving age - will she then return to school? And who ensures schooling in prisons, when in reality education should protect children from incarceration?

 

 

 

 

With 192 parties to it, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified UN treaty. Each State Party must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which uses this process to monitor State compliance with the treaty. The vast majority of the information on minimum ages presented on these pages is taken directly from such reports (occasionally, if these failed to include relevant information concerning minimum ages, other components of the reporting process - such as the Committee’s Concluding Observations - were consulted). States Parties’ reports constitute self-assessment by governments and are therefore authoritative sources, emanating directly from those empowered to make decisions. Using this type of sources also permits a range of actors to hold governments accountable for the standards which they report under the CRC. The sections of these reports have been reproduced faithfully, and readers are encouraged to make use of the full original text, available here.

 

Individual country reports are often written by diverse parts of the government, and frequently run to more than 100 pages. Moreover, within some states’ legal systems there are various recognised sources of law, which frequently generate conflicting minimum ages. Distilling precise numbers out of such documents is therefore a precarious task. While we would encourage cross-country comparison, we would also stress the danger that those countries with a more honest engagement with the reporting process might come off worse when compared with those which would mis-represent the degree of compliance, whether wilfully or not. For a full explanation of the principles that guided us in our analysis, please visit the introductory pages here.

Sources:
3rd periodic report: CRC/C/129/Add.8, 28 October 2005
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/70/Add.7, 23 March 2000
Initial report: CRC/C/8/Add.27, 12 September 1995
 
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
From 3rd report
183. Ethiopia’s formal education system has an eight-year cycle for primary education and a four-year cycle for secondary education. Primary education is further divided into two cycles, of which the first four years aim at the attainment of a basic education while the second four years aim at the attainment of a general primary education. It may incidentally be noted that though primary education is free for all, it has yet to be made compulsory. Secondary education is also divided into two cycles of which the first two years are for the attainment of a general secondary education while the second two years prepare students for higher education and the world of work.
From initial report
50. Primary education has not yet been made compulsory. Earlier laws and policies on education (1987) had the objective of introducing compulsory education, step by step, for all school-age children and devising ways and means to provide free education for all citizens. Currently, the New Education Policy of the Transitional Government aims to make basic education accessible to all and guarantees that pre-school and primary education including the first cycle (grade 9--10) of secondary education shall be given free of charge. The above principles are confirmed in the National Social Policy of the TGE, which considers education as a right of all citizens.
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
From 3rd report
76. The Labour Proclamation No. 42/93 forbids the employment of children under 14 and categorizes children between 14 and 18 as young workers. In stipulating the conditions under which this age cohort may be employed it stated that young workers cannot be engaged in hazardous jobs and are protected from working overtime. It also prohibits them from working after 10.00 p.m. and before 6.00 a.m. as well as on weekends and holidays. Moreover, the nation has ratified two ILO Conventions, C 138 and C 182.
203. 62 per cent of children aged 10-14 and 39 per cent of children aged 5-9 are engaged in at least one type of employment besides household chores. The survey revealed that all-in-all, 15.5 million of the 18.13 million children are working either in the household or outside. In other words, only 14 per cent of the Ethiopian children in the age cohort of 5-17 are not working.
From 2nd report
84. […] The Labour Proclamation No. 42/1993 and the Civil and Penal Codes of 1960 and 1957 respectively have provisions that are fully compatible with article 32 of the Convention. The Labour Proclamation prohibits the employment of a child under 14 years of age (art. 82 (2)). Children between 14 and 18 years of age are categorized as young workers and the Proclamation provides that this category of children can work under strict conditions, such as working not more than seven hours per day, prohibition of overtime and night work and provision of weekly rest and rest on public holidays. The Proclamation requires MOLSA to legally prescribe lists of dangerous operations that are detrimental to the health of working youth.
 
Minimum age for marriage
From 3rd report
58. As per the recommendations of the UNCRC Committee, the minimum age for the consummation of marriage for both sexes now stands at 18 years. It may be recalled that the previous Family Code had set the minimum age of marriage for girls at 15 […]
83. Besides poverty, harmful traditional practices, particularly early marriage and abduction, are counteracting the efforts to promote respect for the views of the child.
129. Notwithstanding the fact that both the Penal Code and the revised Family Code provide rigorous prison terms for criminals perpetrating child abuse and exploitation, the practice is believed to be widespread. The abuse and neglect of children takes two forms in Ethiopia, viz., harmful traditional practices and (urbanized) child abuse and exploitation. Given the absence of systematic data gathering or a monitoring mechanism, exact figures or even crude estimates are not available regarding the number of children subjected to such harmful traditional practices as […] early marriage […]
From initial report
38. According to the Civil Code (art. 581 (1)), a man who has not attained the full age of 18 years and a women who has not attained the full age of 15 years may not contract marriage. Hence, for young males the minimum marriageable age is 18 years, while for young females it is 15 years. The marriage is invalid if it is contracted below the above-mentioned ages.
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
From 2nd report
28. For purposes of criminal liability, the Penal Code of 1957 classifies child offenders into three distinct age groups and prescribes distinct measures for their reform and rehabilitation. The first group, called “infants”, is totally exonerated from application of the penal law on ground of responsibility. According to article 52 of the Penal Code infants not having attained the age of 9 years are not criminally responsible for their acts and where an offence is committed by an infant appropriate steps may be taken by the family, school or guardianship authority to ensure their proper upbringing. The second group, addressed as “young persons” in the Penal Code, are children between the ages of 9 and 15 inclusive. For them, the Penal Code provides special punishments and measures upon conviction. They are not subject to the ordinary penalties applicable to adults nor shall they be kept in custody with adult offenders (art. 53). The third group is comprised of young persons between the ages of 15 and 18 and is treated under the ordinary provisions of the Penal Code as having the full prima facie liability of persons aged 18 and above (art. 56 (4)). However, the Penal Code provides that mitigation of the penalty is always permitted, the death penalty may never be imposed and, under certain conditions, the measures of the penalty scheme for young offenders be applied in toto (arts. 56 (2), 118 and 182).
 
Sources:
3rd periodic report: CRC/C/129/Add.8, 28 October 2005
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/70/Add.7, 23 March 2000
Initial report: CRC/C/8/Add.27, 12 September 1995