A Poisonous Mix - Human Rights Watch

• Improve access to primary health care for children, reproductive health services, and
HIV services in artisanal mining areas, for example, through well equipped mobile
clinics with skilled health workers.
Improve Access to Education for Children Working in Artisanal Gold Mining
• Carry out a nationwide campaign on child labor and the right to education, including
outreach with mining communities. The campaign should be coordinated by the
national authorities, who need to have oversight over local authorities. As part of this
campaign, local authorities should:
• inform communities about the prohibition of worst forms of child labor in
artisanal mining;
• inform communities about the importance of education, and the law on
compulsory education;
• engage families whose children do not attend school;
• as a last resort, sanction families who refuse to send children to school, in
violation of Malian law.
• Enforce the principle of free education by lifting school fees and taking effective steps
to remove other financial barriers to schooling, in line with the Malian education law.
• Take specific steps to improve access to education in artisanal mining areas, in
particular through:
• the improvement of school infrastructure in mining areas, such as the
construction of new schools and expansion of existing schools, deployment of
additional teaching personnel, and the creation of mobile schools in areas with
many immigrant children;
• greater state financial support for community schools in mining areas;
• a program of outreach and dialogue with parents or guardians of children
working in artisanal mines, with the aim of enforcing school attendance in
artisanal mining areas, which is compulsory by law;
• programs that allow children beyond the enrollment age to access non-formal
education institutions and transition back into the formal education system;
• the establishment of nurseries and other early learning and childcare institutions.
• Implement the national social protection plan with particular attention to the needs of
vulnerable children, through:
• the establishment of a social protection scheme that benefits vulnerable
children, including child laborers in mining areas, and that ties cash transfers
to regular school attendance;
87 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | DECEMBER 2011