September 5, 2007, SANA'A, NewsYemen – Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, in cooperation with the International Labor Organization ILO, launched Wednesday the first national policy to limit the child labor in Yemen and identifying the decent labor.

Deputy prime minister, minister of interior Rashad al-Alimi said the policy represents "a real partnership between all partners who have concerns about child, the government, donors, civil society organizations and private sector." He described the policy as "a great achievement", pointing that the policy included many topics involved in the election program of president Ali Abdullah Saleh and the government's package of reforms.

Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Amat Arrazak Human expressed admiration of the policy and highly appreciated the ILO for its initiative to design this policy to reduce child labor in Yemen, calling for support to translate the policy into actions.

Statistics indicate that the number of working children in Yemen in increasing. According to a census conducted in 1999, the number is estimated at 700,000 children, most of them in rural areas where 95% of children work to live.

http://www.newsyemen.net/en/view_news.asp?sub_no=3_2007_09_05_6859