Adequacy and comprehensiveness of Zimbabwe’s Laws in combating child labour trafficking

Abstract

The ushering in of the new constitutional dispensation in 2013 heralded the dawn of a new epoch in the reinvigoration of the impetus to fight human trafficking in Zimbabwe by trying to domesticate the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (the Palermo Protocol) through the enactment of the Trafficking in Persons Act of 2014. The ideological underpinning behind the enactment of the TIP Act was to comprehensively combat human trafficking through the implementation and domestication of the international legal instrument to combat trafficking – the Palermo Protocol – which Zimbabwe is a state party. This research examines the adequacy and comprehensiveness of the TIP Act in combating child labour trafficking. It seeks to explore the scope, magnitude, forms, and causes of child labour trafficking. The research focuses on the principal international legal instrument meant to combat child labour trafficking, the Palermo Protocol, in a bid to find the legal solution to child labour trafficking in Zimbabwe. The research will draw inspiration from best practices from South Africa and Kenya on how to craft adequate and comprehensive legislation to combat child labour trafficking which is congruent to the Palermo Protocol. The study will contextualise child labour trafficking to the exigencies facing Zimbabwe while drawing inspiration from the two mentioned jurisdictions of Kenya and South Africa.