Child-Labour is a form of slavery, which deprives children of their future. It must be abolished. PRINCIPLES
WHAT IS CHILD LABOUR? We have all seen pictures of children who are forced to work in sweat shops. For these children, as well as millions of others, childhood has ceased to exist. These children are open to serious exploitation by adults who abuse their vulnerability and innocence. Adults wrench children from their family home, trafficking them to work often in distant places, often in foreign countries, and exposing them to unscrupulous employers. In the worst cases, they seize not just children’s labour but also their bodies – trapping them in brothels and bars for adult sexual gratification. I feel a great sadness when I hear of children who are sold into bondage to clear the debts of their parents or 'guardians'. Children as young as five are handed over to work for people from whom their relatives have received a sum of money. Twelve year old Katankari told Human Rights Watch that she earned for herself five rupees a day for rolling 1,500 beedies. Her employers keep the other forty rupees that she has earned for “expenses.” Her parent's original debt would have been cleared by only three and a half weeks of work but she has been in bondage for five years. Those with the power to save children from exploitation still have a lot of work to do. According to UNICEF, "there are more than 352 million children working in the world."[1] These children are denied their basic right to an education and many are subjected to inhumane and unsafe working conditions to produce cheap products for developed countries. There is a big difference between child work and Child Labour. Light work on a part-time basis is permitted from the age of 12 under ILO Convention 138, and in many countries there is a long-standing tradition of children assisting on the family farm or business. This may include household tasks that benefit both the family and help the child develop skills and a sense of community. However, work that prevents a child under the age of 15 from attending full-time school or adversely impacts the child's health and development is Child Labour and is prohibited. These children are victims trapped in a cycle of economic despair often created by poverty, apathy, greed, and callous indifference. Child Labour contributes to the cycle of poverty. Adults are not receiving fair wages because they are competing in the labour market with the cheap labour which children provide. Those adults therefore remain unemployed or under-employed and are unable to save. They are unable to enter the market for consumer goods and services and thereby to generate employment for others. In countries with no social security these adults are forced in turn to send their own children out to work. Absence of education for child labourers or their parents further contributes to the cycle of deprivation. CHILD LABOUR AROUND THE WORLD According to the UNICEF report, The State of the World's Children[2], the breakdown of these 352 million children engaged in Child Labour defined as at least one hour of economic activity or 28 hours of domestic work. Table 1. Child Labour by Percentage of Children Ages 5-14(1999-2003)
Over 8 million children work in China alone. These children work in domestic labour apprenticeships, service industries, construction and mining. In India, there are over 250 million children not attending school. THE MYTHS
CHILD LABOUR IS SLAVERY Child Labour is characterized by hard work, often under severe conditions, for twelve to fourteen hours each day. What little is earned in wages is often returned to the employer for room and board or as a fine for unachieved quotas. Children are even "sold" by their families into debt bondage to pay off family bills at the expense of a child's welfare. Usually the child has no choice, and I believe that Child Labour can properly be regarded as slavery. All too often, producers and consumers alike turn a blind eye to poor living conditions, and the impaired intellectual, emotional and physical development of the children who work to produce cheap goods without reaping any of the profits. Nowhere else is the disparity between wages earned and company profits so great. It takes outrage on the part of the whole world community to end Child Labour everywhere. Yet, this must begin with one person or one organization to lead the movement. In Eighteenth Century Britain William Wilberforce led the way. In the Nineteenth Century United States, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and the Abolitionists ended adult slavery in America, and the British Navy swept the slave trade from the seas. William Wilberforce fought for the abolition of the African Slave Trade and the abolition of slavery itself. In 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act was passed by Parliament to give all slaves in the British Empire their freedom. The word "Christian" could be replaced with any religious affiliation as the following quotation from Wilberforce is a call to action for peoples of all countries as moral beings concerned with ethical practices. “Before this great cause all others dwindle in my eyes, and I must say that the certainty that I am right here, adds greatly to the complacency with which I exert myself in asserting it...May I be the instrument of stopping such a course of wickedness and cruelty as never before disgraced a Christian country.[3] Consumption of goods produced with Child Labour only reinforces the gross inequality and violation of children's fundamental rights. It is our responsibility as individuals and as nations in the Twenty-first century to abolish the practice of Child Labour completely and forever. EDUCATION AND THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD There are 120 million children of primary school age not attending school. UNICEFEqual opportunity and equal education prevent poverty, which empowers the free market and global free trade. Half of the world's population has never used a telephone, let alone logged onto the Internet, and 90% of the world's telecommunication takes place within and between Europe, the US and the countries of the Pacific Rim. The internet is bringing the world closer together, and bringing an unimaginable breadth and depth of information to us all- often at little or no cost. In Europe, most schools have recognised the importance of the internet for research and educational purpose and are connected to the World-wide web. Education is a not only fundamental human right, but it also makes social, economic and cultural sense. It is vital, not only in the fight against poverty, but also to promote democracy, economic progress, equal opportunities and the observance of human rights in practice. One of the key deterrents to education is Child Labour. At the Dakar World Education Conference, held in 2000, education ministers from around the world reaffirmed the fundamental right of all children to a free education of quality. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations affirmed that childhood is entitled to special care and assistance. This general reference to children was expanded upon in detail in 1989 in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention protects children and demands that their needs be met by all governments. The 2002 Optional Protocols banned the involvement of children in armed conflict and the sale of children, child pornography and prostitution. Article 11 outlaws human trafficking and promotes preventative multilateral agreements. Of primary importance in the Convention[4] are the child's right to -
In the Dakar Framework of Action[5] the representatives of 181 governments promised that by the year 2015 lack of resources would not impede children from obtaining education. Goals included:
In 2002, the government of India launched a campaign against Child Labour declaring that "Any child out of school is a Child Labourer and universalisation of primary education is the only way to completely eliminate Child Labour.” There is still a long way to go in India alone. Tribal children (Adivasi) work in beedi manufacture in debt-bondage under crowded conditions and constantly exposed to tobacco which leads to poor eyesight, gastric infections and tuberculosis. There is also a network of Adivasi slaves involving women and children. According to Shantha Sinha[6], there is in India an explosive demand by parents to send children to school. Education provides access to cultural capital and the means for families to maintain their dignity and improve the quality of their lives. She believes that value systems labelling people as "poor" prevent children from attending school and result in the government blaming parents for their children's lack of education, instead of taking on that responsibility themselves. Mrs. Sinha argues that when children go to school:
Bridge Schools are one solution to deal with the over 250 million children and adolescents who have not been attending school and to get them on an appropriate academic level for their ages[7] Children should be encouraged to pursue their studies until at least the age of 15. All necessary materials should be provided free of charge at the point of delivery, and efforts must be made to provide a healthy meal to every child whose parents cannot provide one. Education is the key to ending the cycle of poverty and apathy on the part of the family and the international community. However, "Education can only be an adequate alternative to Child Labour if it is accessible, of good quality, relevant, affordable, equal, safe, and valued by and serving the needs of targeted populations. In reality, education is often part of the problem contributing to Child Labour. School settings can be harmful to children due to abusive treatment, discrimination, bias, corporal punishment, lack of sanitation, etc."[8] Many children are too impoverished to benefit fully. In countries where millions of people live on less then $1 a day, school books, uniforms, and examination fees are a burden which many families simply cannot afford. How can people who cannot read get office jobs, how do they know what is in medication they are taking, or know what is going on in the world around them? Children from impoverished areas must be able to pursue an education free from discrimination based on any criteria, especially gender. Discrimination may have prevented the parent generation from obtaining their education, but it will not be acceptable as an obstacle to educating this and future generations. Family life is vital to the growth, education and welfare of the child. Families are the basic units of communities which form cities, countries, nations and the international community. Families must invest and be encouraged and enabled to invest in the success of their children. INTERNATIONAL LAWS PROHIBITING CHILD LABOUR In addition to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, there exist many other international laws that prohibit Child Labour. ILO Minimum Age Convention 138. In 1973, the Intrnational Labour Organization bound ratifying countries to pursue a national policy for the abolition of Child Labour and to raise the minimum age for work to 15 years or the age reached by completion of compulsory schooling. ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour was published by the ILO in 1999 with the aim of dramatically reducing instances of the following abuses on persons under the age of 18 in all countries. Nearly 70 % of all Child Labourers are victims of these horrendous conditions. These include -
The 1999 United Nations Global Compact works in conjunction with international laws by means of a voluntary commitment from world businesses to support and respect international human rights, specifically in abolishing:
In 2002, its Advisory Committee also gained the support of UN member states to achieve these principles. The European Parliament declared in 2003[9] that "universal full-time education also includes an effective ban on Child Labour as well as an education that includes strategies to integrate all out-of-school children." The UN Millennium Development Goals aim at poverty eradication through education for all and the abolition of Child Labour. The UN Human Rights Norms for Business call for the immediate implementation of a plan to eliminate Child Labour in all enterprises that use it. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) [10] has never ruled on Child Labour, and no Child Labour issues have ever been challenged in the WTO. The WTO prohibits discrimination among trading partners and between local and imported goods regardless of whether Child Labour was involved in their processing. This is an issue of major concern, as the acceptability of globalisation relies on the WTO. The WTO must ensure that the rhetoric of concern for human rights is not cynically used as a cover for an agenda of protectionism. Equally, the distinction has to be made between free trade and genuine opposition to unethical practices such as Child Labour. EUROPEAN UNION MEASURES AGAINST CHILD LABOUR The European Union is making significant strides in the global fight against Child Labour. The Plan Position on Child Labour for the Secretariat of the Development Committee has vowed to eliminate Child Labour in the long-term with the intermediate goals of protecting child rights and contributing social factors to a child's need to work. Of utmost importance in the fight against Child Labour is the need for Universal Birth Registration in order to ensure full compliance with the Minimum Age Convention. In June 2005 the Development Committee of the European Parliament submitted to the Parliament a Report and draft resolution[11] on the elimination of Child Labour. PROHIBITING CHILD TRAFFICKING Child trafficking violates international human rights laws. Article 5 (3) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, declares: "Trafficking in human beings is prohibited." The 2002 Brussels Declaration links EU law to international anti-trafficking laws constructed by the United Nations through its goal of further developing European and international co-operation, concrete measures, standards, best practices and mechanisms. On a global scale, the UN Trafficking Protocol calls for a comprehensive international approach is required that includes measures “to protect the victims of trafficking, including by protecting their internationally recognized human rights." Article 2 of the Protocol states that its purposes are “to protect and assist the victims of such trafficking, with full respect for their human rights”. COMMODITIES: AGRICULTURE AND CHILD LABOUR According to Human Rights Watch,[12] 70 percent, or 170 million children are working in agriculture where they are forced to work 12 or more hours 365 days per year, exposed to toxic pesticides and extreme temperatures up to 100 degrees Celsius, injured from heavy loads and cutting instruments, physically abused and sexually harassed. SUGAR Child Labour is pervasive on sugar plantations. Cutting sugar cane is back-breaking and hazardous work even for adults. Children as young as eight use machetes and other sharp devices to cut cane. They work up to nine hours a day under the gruelling heat of the sun. Cuts and bruises on the hands and legs are virtually an everyday occurrence even for the most experienced workers, and medical care is often not available. If it is provided, the cost is usually unbearable and not easily accessible. Children employed on sugar plantations frequently do not attend school. In El Salvador, as many as 30,000 children are working on sugar plantations where they face long hours, harsh conditions, and severe cuts. In many sugar-producing countries like El Salvador, labour provisions generally are not enforced. The minimum age for dangerous work is 18, and 14 for most other work, but some sugar plantation employers get around this law by hiring children as "helpers" rather than as legitimate employees that would entitle them to protection. COCOA In West Africa, cocoa farming takes place on over one million small family-run farms. Products grown on these farms are used by over 2000 businesses in manufacturing. It is vitally important therefore that the cocoa industry enforces ethical means of producing cocoa that do not endanger children. Cote d'Ivoire produces 40% of the world's cocoa on independent family farms that are ot organised into cooperatives. Child Labour and difficulty gaining fair prices for the cocoa crop are issues of major concern. Some of the Child Labourers are young boys tricked or sold into forced labour. Once children are across the border, often through means of bribery and corruption, the children are usually handed over to traders who hire them to cocoa farmers. According to a survey conducted by Knight Rider in 2001, these boys are lied to about jobs and wages and suffer through beatings, insufficient meals, lock ups at night, and workdays of more than 12 hours without any breaks. They are separated from their families and live in fear. It remains unclear just how pervasive the slavery problem is in cocoa harvesting. There is little documentation or solid evidence. A large part of the problem is that many Ivorians do not perceive Child Labour as an issue that requires attention. The US Human Rights Report of 2000 estimates that there are more than 15,000 children that have been sold into slavery on cotton, cocoa, and coffee plantations in Cote d'Ivoire alone. Also Ghana, Cameroon, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo and Nigeria are among other countries involved in the trafficking of children to cocoa plantations. The March 2005 report of CAOBISCO highlights important measures taken on part of the cocoa and chocolate industry to combat Child Labour. The programme calls for "certificates" verifiable by a third party that label cocoa as responsibly grown. This emphasizes the industry's intent to eliminate Child Labour on the small family-owned cocoa farms in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire where over 82,000 children under the age of 18 reside. In conjunction with this programme, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) are tackling issues of limited educational access, unsafe working conditions and low farm family incomes. Despite admirable intentions, Child Labour is still common in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. Further organisation of family farms into cooperatives and continued monitoring of production, combined with company-based initiatives to construct schools and monitor child attendance are necessary to eradicate Child Labour in the cocoa industry. TOBACCO The ILO estimates that 5,000 to 6,000 children under the age of eighteen work on tobacco farms in the Dominican Republic, mainly near Santiago. Most of these children work on farms owned by their parents or other relatives. Most children attend school until the 6th level and then drop out resulting in under-educated children. Children are also used on tobacco farms in Fiji, the Philippines, Tanzania; Malawi and Uganda. This is directly connected to under-development and poverty. A child's work on a tobacco farm includes cultivation of tobacco plants for water percolation, weeding, ploughing, chemical spraying, planting, transplanting, watering, applying fertilizer, harvesting, uprooting, preparing the fire for the glue, and sun drying. As with other agricultural industries, children must use sharp dangerous tools and are exposed to harmful insecticides, dusts, noxious liquids, and prolonged heat and noise. They tend to be underweight and undernourished. They suffer from respiratory ailments, gastro-intestinal complaints, and skin diseases. About one in five children have access to safety equipment. The little money that the children may earn is generally used to purchase food and clothes for themselves and their siblings. Most children are unpaid family workers in household-operated farms. The problem continues despite government efforts to enact Child Labour laws and guidelines. It is rooted in the economic structure of the family and the country. Most of these families view their child's participation in the work as a routine activity and find nothing wrong with it. It is difficult to address the Child Labour problem without also addressing issues of poverty and under-development. BANANAS In Ecuador, the banana harvest has been organized in such a way that employers see Child Labour as indispensable. Growers and exporters in Ecuador supply 25 percent of the bananas eaten in the United States. However, their profits have dropped by 30 percent in the past decade. In order to cut their losses, growers and exporters rely on Child Labourers. Adults are in charge of a large number of acres and their children often work for no pay to make the cultivation deadlines so the owners do not cut their parents' pay. Low wages have been attributed to high profits gained by "huge retail outlets in the developed world where a 43 pound box of bananas is bought for $2 US and sold for $25 US in the United States and Europe." [13] The legal minimum wage for a banana worker is US $5.85 per day. Adult workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch earned, on average, approximately US $5.44 per day, while children averaged only US $3.50 - 60 percent of the legal minimum wage for banana workers.[14] Additionally, Child Labourers are exposed to toxic pesticides, often sprayed from planes while they are working in the fields. The problem is very complex. 3% of the industry's workforce is under the legal working age of fourteen. Most of the Child Labourers work on their family's farms. Many people agree that Child Labour in banana-producing countries, such as Ecuador, is a consequence of poverty. It is difficult to simply deny the child the opportunity to earn a living when they have no other way to subsist. In May 2001, Human Rights Watch[15] interviewed forty-five children working on banana plantations in Ecuador for companies such as Dole Del Monte, and Chiquita, most of them beginning their work between the ages of eight and thirteen. They described workdays as twelve hours of hazardous conditions in which they completed dangerous tasks detrimental to their physical and psychological well-being. The children reported having no access to toilets, experiencing sexual harassment, using sharp dangerous tools such as knives and machetes, exposure to hazardous pesticides, and hauling heavy loads of bananas from the fields to packing plants. These children further reported that they handle insecticide-treated plastics and fungicides on a regular basis. Generally they are not provided with protective equipment. The health effects have included headaches, fever, dizziness, fatigue, red eyes, stomach-aches, nausea, vomiting, trembling and shaking, itching, burning nostrils, and aching bones. Less than half of these children were in school mostly due to the need to provide for their families, yet they only earn only3.5 dollars a day, roughly 64 percent of the wage of adult workers. Again, Ecuadorian laws prohibit these Child Labour violations, but the regulations have yet to be fully implemented. Companies including Dole, Chiquita, and Del Monte are all signatories to a workplace code of conduct called the SA8000, which monitors labour conditions. COTTON Central Asia: According to the ICG Report of 28 February 2005[16], Child Labour is only one of the severe problems associated with the cotton industry in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Profits from this industry go to the state or small élites and are not seen by those who grow and harvest the crop. Political repression is the main tool forcing these peoples to work for little or no wage to grow cotton. In all three of these countries, students are required to harvest cotton at the expense of their education and with negligible pay. Consequences for non-participation are fines, failure to pass and expulsion. Some children are even required to spray the cotton with dangerous pesticides without protection. These Child Labourers are housed away from their family under poor sanitary conditions, with little food and with quotas of cotton to pick during workdays of ten or more hours. Public beatings are the consequence for failing to meet the quotas. In 2001 in one province alone, over 17,500 students and 198,000 schoolchildren were working in the fields. In Bangladesh, UNICEF, the ILO and Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association signed an agreement to abolish Child Labour in the textile industry. Positive results show that in 1998 over 10,500 Child Labourers were liberated and given financial support to attend full-time schools run by NGOs. Egypt: According to Human Rights Watch, each year over one million children between the ages of seven and twelve are hired by cotton-farming cooperatives in Egypt. Egyptian children employed on these cooperatives work long hours, routinely face beatings from their employers, and are unprotected from exposure to harmful exposure to pesticides and heat. Generally they work eleven hours a day with a one hour break, seven days a week. Access to water is not always available. Children are generally responsible for controlling cotton leaf-worm infestations by manually removing and destroying infected portions of leaves. An employer interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that children are exclusively recruited for this task because it is more economical than hiring adults, the children are more obedient, and had the appropriate height for removing the damaged leaves. Children earn an average of $0.81 per day for this task. Employers have little trouble recruiting children to perform this job. Increasing rural poverty along with a steady decline in land allocated to cotton farming has given rise to the growth of use of Child Labour in much of Egypt. Children from the poorest rural families are most likely to work in leaf-worm control and the most vulnerable to the worst of conditions. Children are exposed to chemicals used on the leaf-worm plants that may result in pesticide poisoning with effects such as dizziness, vomiting, diarrhoea, and disruption of the major body systems. Children generally resume work either immediately or shortly following the spraying of pesticides on the worm-infested plants. Measures to protect children against pesticide poisoning and heat-related illnesses are inconsistent and often inadequate. Children frequently must bear the cost of medical treatment, which often results in the children not receiving proper care. The Egyptian Child Law passed in 1996 prohibits children under the age of twelve from working, and in theory protects them from ill-treatment and hazardous employment. In the years since its adoption, the Child Law remains largely un-enforced. India: Around 450,000 children are employed in India and most of them on cotton seed farms for multinational companies. Nine out of ten employees are children between the ages of six and fourteen, and female labour constitutes the majority of that total. Cotton seed production is very intense labour. These children work twelve to thirteen hour days and sleep in either the employer's cowshed or a child camp with ten to thirty other children. The prevention of Child Labour is presently one of the priority issues of the government of India. THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOUR: PYROTECHNICS, TRASH RECYCLING, ROCK SPLITTING In El Salvador, more than 2,000 children work in pyrotechnics and many live and work in trash dumps sorting out recyclable materials. Agriculture, pyrotechnics, rock splitting, trash sorting (850 children in Guatemala City alone) are the worst forms of Child Labour in Guatemala. MINING Children are employed around the world to mine diamonds, emeralds, gold, clay and coal. They are favoured for their small size that enables them to mine in smaller tunnels. They often work with their families in small-scale mining operations exposed to harmful chemicals and high concentrations of dust with little ventilation. In the Philippines[17], mining is one of the industries where Child Labour is most prevalent. More than two million children work under hazardous conditions, with mining ranking first. Children work along with their families to complete the various stages of mining including: carrying rocks and water, shovelling and refining. They are also exposed to dangerous chemicals such as mercury and lead and hazardous concentrations of dust that result in respiratory disease, musculo-skeletal and gastro-intestinal disorders, and skin diseases. There is no protective equipment offered to children or other workers to protect them in these appalling conditions. In Peru[18], the smallest children, known as "mole children" are favoured by artisan and small scale mining companies (ASM) to work in the smallest tunnels with a hammer and chisel. These violations of anti Child Labour laws are due to the lack of formalisation in ASM. In Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, there are over 65,000 children working in mining and another 135,000 at risk due to poverty and familial involvement in the mines.[19] India[20] cuts and polishes about 70 percent of the world's diamonds and nearly all of the world's emeralds, rubies, and sapphires. The gemstone industry operates as a complex system of middlemen between the worker and the exporter and does not fall under any labour legislation in India. Workplaces are congested, poorly lit, and poorly ventilated. The intense labour methods combined with conditions such as long hours, cramped working positions, continuous stress and strain, and the high probability for sickness and injury make the work nearly unbearable even for adults. Many employers avoid the Indian Factory Act, (which only applies to workplaces employing more than nine workers), by dividing their operations into small units with different owners on paper, making it nearly impossible to identify which worker works for which employer. Employers avoid the Child Labour Act by hiring children as apprentices when in fact they merely provide them with cheap or even free labour. There is virtually no accountability. Children are usually engaged in tasks such as making ghats (rough cut stones), faceting, piercing stones, and polishing semi-precious stones. They work long hours, carry heavy loads, set explosives, use dangerous tools, crawl down narrow tunnels, breathe in harmful dusts, and risk exposure to hazardous toxins such as lead and mercury. They face a serious risk of death, or serious life-long health problems and injuries on a daily basis. Children are preferred because they have the keenest of eyes to cut the smallest diamonds and can be forced to work for very little money and sometimes even for free. Diamond cutting is listed in the top ten most hazardous industries by the Indian government, and the employment of children under the age of fifteen is banned for this reason. There are no reliable statistics on the number of children employed by the industry, but estimates vary from 10,000 to 20,000 children work in India alone. The ILO estimates that some one million children work in mining around the world. CHILD TRAFFICKING Human trafficking is inevitably linked with coercion, force and poverty, that victimises women and children as labourers. Children are trafficked for international adoption, child prostitution, begging rings, military engagement and forced labour. Trafficking in Europe occurs primarily through the Balkan region into EU member states. Albanian and Roma children have been trafficked to Greece and Italy by organized crime and forced to commit petty crime and to beg. Children from Moldova and Romania have been trafficked to Russia for prostitution, petty crime and begging. Additionally, cases of trafficking unaccompanied minors have been cited in 2003 in Ireland. These children enter via other EU member states and are trafficked throughout the EU. They often fall victim to sexual abuse, pornography, prostitution, and Child Labour. In the United States, 45,000 to 50,000 women and children are trafficked every year notably from Russia, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico. The U.S. Department of State estimates that 14,000 to 17,500 women and children are trafficked into Los Angeles alone each year, particularly from Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe. These victims become the source of cheap labour and as undocumented illegal immigrants they have limited access to help. Child trafficking into prostitution and the sex trade is rampant in Cambodia and Viet Nam. According to UNICEF, women and children are sold to brothel owners for as little as 50 USD, and virgins are sold for up to 800 USD, which corresponds to three times the annual GDP per capita in Cambodia. HIV/AIDS infections have placed a higher demand on the prostitution of young virgin girls because of myths surrounding the curative power of youth. Over one third of sex workers are under 18 in Cambodia. Vietnamese girls are trafficked into Cambodia as they are prized for their light complexions. They are often in debt bondage and their income goes to pay off their parents' debt. The World Tourism Organisation has established a Code of Conduct to eliminate child prostitution and sex tourism. This is of the utmost importance as the child prostitution trade in Thailand generates an income of over £7.37 billion per year. The Accor Hotels in Asia combat this by recruiting young women and training them in the hospitality industry through English lessons, basic hotel operations and pay to keep them from seeking other income such as prostitution. CHILD SOLDIERS The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child condemns the use of children as combatants as a flagrant denial of fundamental human rights. Further, article 8(2) (b) (xxvi) of the 2002 Statute of the International Criminal Court makes it clear that conscripting children under 15 into military service is a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court. All nations must commit themselves to ensure that all persons committing this crime are surrendered to the jurisdiction of the Court. Child soldiers are forced to kill other children to prove bravery and save their own lives. They become victims of rape, HIV/AIDS, torture and total social alienation. They are treated as a means to a political end by renegade groups who are egregious violators of human rights. Recent cases where children have been forced into combat include the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, guerrilla warfare in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and in the “Lord's Resistance Army” in Uganda. Contributing factors include:
Violations of human rights:
After war, child soldiers face problems with social re-absorption, poverty, alienation, severe mental health consequences, shattered communities and families. Child combatants find it difficult to resume the role of children after having been commanded to kill to prove their bravery. In Uganda, the “Lord's Resistance Army” (LRA) abducted over 20,000 children in 19 years of conflict and 12,000 children since 2002 according to UNICEF estimates. In 2004, tens of thousands of people abandon their homes in the country at night to escape attack from rebel forces and to save their children from being abducted. In Colombia, an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 children have been recruited by guerrilla groups, but through the efforts of UNICEF and grassroots organizations, over 600 children have been released in the past three years. In Sri Lanka, the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) recruit by abducting children en route to school or at festivities, often beating families and teachers who resist the seizure of the children. Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers had recruited more than 4,700 children, some as young as 11, since 2001. Kofi Annan said that "Out of the 4,700 cases of child recruitment by Tamil Tigers since April 2001, more than 2,900 children have returned or been released to their families, including about 1,230 children who were formally released." The guerrillas have said they have set up an internal mechanism to verify the age of their combatants and release anyone found to be underage. However, no government or international organization should take this as a guarantee. In Sierra Leone, the 1999 Lomé Peace Agreement addressed the need for the reintegration of demobilized child combatants. Displaced children were returned to their original communities and reconciliation measures have been given high priority. However, these children are now a lost generation at risk. United Nations Under-Secretary General Otunnu has proposed the 2005 Compliance and Enforcement plan for Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC). This measure would provide for sanctions on perpetrators and the protection and monitoring of children involved in conflict. It would also ensure accountability to a specific entity and provide a means for the demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers during conflict and in peace negotiations and agreements. Among these are six grave violations:
Plans to enforce CAAC: · Sanctions against parties in monitoring list · Committee to review and oversee sanctions imposed for the protection of children in armed conflict · Demand working collaboration between parties on monitoring list and UN field personnel and time-bound action plans · Put monitoring mechanisms into practice immediately [22] United Nations Peacekeeping Personnel, both civilian and military, have themselves been accused of sexual exploitation and abuse, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This is totally unacceptable, and UN Under-Secretary General Otunnu recently outlined his plan to monitor and eliminate these horrendous abuses. SOLUTIONS It is not too difficult to demonstrate the scale on which Child Labour exists worldwide, and the harm it does to children. It is much more difficult to find practical solutions. Family poverty is often the driving force behind Child Labour, and the pittance which children earn can often make the difference between survival or starvation. This is not a problem which is going to be solved quickly or easily, but every campaign has to start somewhere. I believe that governments must institute a phased programme for the reduction, and eventual elimination of Child Labour, starting with industries in which children are placed in danger. There can be no justification for employing children in dangerous industries, and immediate action must be taken to stop it. International funding agencies should make effective action in this regard a condition of further funding. With regard to other industries, it has to be recognised that Child Labour was endemic until quite recently in Britain and other countries which are now considered developed. It was not until the industrial revolution had created the wealth with which education and welfare programmes could be implemented, that it became possible to eliminate Child Labour. Today we have the possibility to accelerate this process with well-targeted international aid funding. THE ROLE OF INDUSTRY Whilst nineteenth century industrialists were not generally known as caring employers, some of them were. Robert Owen (1771-1858) bought four textile factories at New Lanark in Scotland. When Owen arrived children from as young as five were working for thirteen hours a day in the factories. He immediately stopped employing children under ten and reduced the labour of the older children to ten hours a day. The young children went to the nursery and infant schools that Owen had built. Older children worked in the factory but also had to attend his secondary school for part of the day. On 26th April, 1816, Owen appeared before Sir Robert Peel's House of Commons Committee, where he said: “I came to the conclusion that the children were injured by being taken into the mills at this early age, and employed for so many hours; therefore, as soon as I had it in my power, I adopted regulations to put an end to a system which appeared to me to be so injurious.” Robert Owen proved that having taken over an enterprise staffed largely by under-nourished people living in appalling conditions and by improving the working and living conditions of the workers, he not only acquired a healthy, and more productive workforce but increased the profits of his company. Other industrialists took a similar view. William Hesketh Lever (1851- 1925) the founder of Unilever, believed that decent housing for workers at reasonable rents was good for his business, and in 1888 he created a new town called Port Sunlight with schools, library, institutes and public buildings. In the present day it would be wrong to think that all the owners of businesses which employ children are greedy uncaring employers. Many of them are, but others can see, as Owen and Lever did, that a healthy well-educated workforce is not only a moral imperative but is good for business. However, many of them are small businesses struggling themselves to survive in a highly competitive environment. |
