Senegal: Failure to End Abuses in Quranic Schools

The report, “‘These Children Don’t Belong in the Streets’: A Roadmap for Ending Abuse, Exploitation of Talibés in Senegal,” analyzes the Senegalese government’s policy, programming, and judicial efforts from 2017 to 2019 to address the abuses. The groups found that these efforts have been insufficient and set out a roadmap to end forced begging and abusive conditions in the Quranic schools, known as daaras. “Talibé children have been openly and tragically neglected, exploited, and abused, and the government simply has not done enough to stop it,” said Corinne Dufka, associate Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The government needs to take bold, concrete, and sustained actions to end the suffering many children endure in Senegal’s daaras.”