Involvement
Children in Sale and Trafficking of Drugs
In March 2000, the Government of Indonesia ratified
ILO Convention No. 182 on the Prohibition and Immediate Action on
the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour. With this ratification,
the GOI commits itself to align its laws, regulations, and practices
along the lines of the Convention. Point 5 in the elucidation of
the Law No. 01/2000 on the ratification of the convention points
out that:
While practicing the principles of Pancasila and
implementing legislative rules and regulations, however, violations
against the protection of children are still felt. Therefore, the
ratification of the Convention is aimed at eradicating any worst
forms of child labour practices. The ratification is also aimed
at improving protection and effective legal enforcement to ensure
that children are safe from all forms of slavery or practices dealing
with prostitution, production of pornography, drugs and psychotropics
trafficking. This protection also covers protection against works
of which in nature is likely to jeopardize the health, safety, and
moral of the children.
Point 6 in the elucidation stipulates the seriousness
of the government to protect children's rights and to improve Indonesia's
image among international community of nations.
Earlier this year, ILO-IPEC has assigned the consultant
to conduct an assessment of incidence of trafficking in person in
four major provincial areas (DKI Jakarta, Bali, Batam, and Medan).
During the assessment, it was identified that children were likely
recruited and involved in the sale and trafficking of illicit drugs
(Irwanto et al., 2000). Since the assessment was performed in a
very short time (one month), the team was unable to dwell into the
issue of children involved in the matter. Due to the importance
of the problem, a small fund was created to further assess the problem.
This initial research aims at shedding more lights into the understanding
of the nature and involvement of children in the production, sale
and trafficking of drugs in Indonesia. Better understanding of the
problem should assist ILO/IPEC, GOI, and the civil society to combat
it.
