By James Macintyre
Thursday, 24 July 2008
independent.co.uk
Gordon Brown will warn today that the historic commitments made by the United Nations in 2000 to relieve poverty in the developing world are in danger of being missed.
The Prime Minister will reaffirm his commitment to the Millennium Development Goals in a speech to the Lambeth conference of Anglican bishops which moves temporarily from Canterbury to London today. He will say that while good progress is being made on some targets – such as on the eradication of extreme poverty – other areas including education and sanitation need urgent improvement.
Mr Brown staved off an attempt to water down the G8 commitment at the Gleneagles summit three years ago that the world's richest economies will double aid to Africa to $25bn a year to 2010. But he is concerned that the wider effort by the UN is behind schedule.
As well as eradicating extreme poverty, the development goals are achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women, reducing child mortality, improving mental health, combating HIV, Aids, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development.
The latest World Bank-IMF report warns that most countries will fail on the goals. Many parts of the world are on course to halve extreme poverty by 2015. But the aims of cutting child and maternal mortality are looking highly unlikely. Primary education, sanitation and nutrition goals also look likely to be missed.
The World Bank estimates that food price increases – 74 per cent for rice over the past year, and 130 per cent for wheat – will drive at least another 100 million people into deep poverty.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, will praise the progress achieved by Mr Brown so far, but add a new challenge, urging world leaders to invest in and strengthen their partnership with the church worldwide, so that its extensive delivery network for education and health care, alongside other faiths, is fully utilised in the eradication of extreme poverty.
The World Bank says 70 per cent of Africans live in absolute poverty – less than $1 a day – while 90 per cent live on less than $2 a day.
Global March named to receive International Alfonso Comín Award
The International Alfonso Comín Award is a prestigious award both nationally and internationally. The 25th International Alfonso Comín Award this year has been given to Global March Against Child Labor for its active efforts to end child labor, condemning systems that require children to work, both at the global, national and regional levels, and exerting pressure to achieve political changes and jointly developing policies and actions to achieve a unified response to child labor, illiteracy and poverty.
The Alfonso Comín Foundation grants an international award every year to individuals or groups of people who have been prominent in their struggle for justice, freedom, peace and human rights. This year is a particularly special occasion for the Foundation as it celebrates the 25th Award along with 25 years since the Foundation was first founded. The award ceremony for this is held in the Salón de Ciento of the City Council of Barcelona and will be presided over by the mayor of the City.
Over the years the award has been given to the Nicaraguan People through its Chancellor Miguel d'Escoto (1984), Father José Mª de Llanos S.J. (Madrid) engaged in the struggle on behalf of the poor (1985). It was also awarded to Nelson Mandela when he was still in prison and received on his behalf by a family member and the representative of the African Congress in Europe (1986). Other recipients have been Leonardo Boff (Brazil), liberation theologian (1987), the Palestinan People, and as a worthy representative of its cause, the former mayor of Nablus, Bassam Al-Shaakaa (1988), the University of Central-America in San Salvador and its rector Ignacio Ellacuría S.J., murdered in El Salvador together with five Jesuits and two women ten days after receiving the award in Barcelona (1989), Alexander Dubcek, Prague Spring leader (1990), the innocent victims from the Irak People during the so-called Gulf War (1991), Pedro Casaldàliga, bishop of São Félix do Araguaia, Mato Grosso, Brazil (1992), the Bosnian city of Tuzla and the editors and employees of the Oslobedenje newspaper in Sarajevo (1993), the displaced children of the Sudan war (1994). Abbé Pierre (Paris), founder of Emaús Ragpickers (1995), Salima Ghezali, Algerine chief editor of the weekly, "La Nation" (1996), Vandana Shiva, Indian scientist committed to the ecologist and feminist movements of her country (1997), Sola Sierra, chairwoman of the Association of Families of the Detained-Disappeared of Chile (1998), the Kurdish people (1999), the "Andalucía Acoge" Pro-Foreign Immigrant Federation (2000), the Landless Workers' Movement (MST) of Brazil (2001), The Jerusalem Link (2002), Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) (2003), SOA Watch (2004), Chema Caballero (2005), Gregorio López Raimundo and José María Díez-Alegría (2006) and the Iraqi Maha Al-Hadeethi (2007).
‘Exploitation of child labor was behind every morsel of food eaten’
BANGALORE: Poverty cannot be an excuse to justify child labor and it is time to break such stereotypical equations, said Shantha Sinha, chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
Delivering the keynote address in a workshop on community participation in the elimination of child labor conducted by International Labor Organization, she said the poor did not “manufacture excuses”. They were manufactured by others and internalized by the poor, she said. Even as there was a huge market demand for child labor, there was an increasing demand for education from the deprived sections of society, she said.
SENDING A MESSAGE: A child worker lighting the lamp along with Shantha Sinha (left), Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, at a workshop in Bangalore on Friday. B.L. Sridhar, Principal Secretary, Department of Labor , is at right.
The State should have a 10-year campaign against child labor to cover an entire generation rather than adhoc ones running to one or two years, she said. She said exploitation of child labor was behind every morsel of food eaten, clothes worn and houses lived in (“roti, kapda aur makan”).
She said there should be a collective “moral indignation” towards denial of a child’s rights.
The former Chairperson of Backward Classes Commission and senior advocate Ravivarma Kumar spoke about the legal loopholes in addressing child rights issues. He said that although education was a fundamental right under Section 21 (A), it needed to be revamped and made an “inalienable right”. There was ambiguity on the issue of penalty to be levied on a person employing child labor, with no clarity on the criterion for fixing the sum.
PIL on child labor
In a discussion with the workshop participants, Dr. Sinha said that a Public Interest Litigation filed by her had sought to expand the definition of child labor by classifying all forms of child labor as “the worst forms” of the practice.
Sanjiv Kumar of the International Labor Organization, B.L. Sridhar, Principal Secretary to the Government, Department of Labor, and Vasudeva Sharma of Child Rights Trust spoke.
Ben Davis, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center representative in Mexico, relates a poignant narrative of what’s wrong with trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Watch the VIDEO: Child Labor in Mexico, Beyond
On Jan. 6, 2007, David Salgado, a 9-year-old worker from Guerrero, was run over and killed by a tractor while harvesting tomatoes on a farm in Sinaloa. In a May 9 story, Arizona Republic correspondent Chris Hawley reported the owner of the farm is a major supplier of open field and greenhouse products, including tomatoes, eggplant and sweet bell peppers, for the North American market.
The Arizona Republic reports the company paid the family $3,300 for funeral expenses but refused any additional compensation, arguing that it was not liable because the death occurred on a public road—although this was contradicted by a report from the Mexican Senate.
David’s case is far from unique. A recent investigation by three reporters for the Mexican newspaper Excelsior found that 30 child laborers between the ages of 6 and 14 died in work-related accidents in the state of Sinaloa in 2006 and 2007. And in December, nine children were killed when a truck carrying coffee pickers overturned in the state of Puebla.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government continues a massive investigation into the source of the salmonella outbreak that has so far affected nearly 1,000 people in the United States. In response to the outbreak, which some in the media called “the attack of the killer tomatoes,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) identified potential sources of the outbreak in the United States and Mexico, and major U.S. retailers responded by removing tomatoes from their shelves. (Just this week, the FDA ruled out tomatoes as the culprit, though investigations of other vegetables continue.)
The FDA warnings sent up a howl of protest from growers in the not-yet-ruled-out areas, who claimed they would be put out of business. Mexican growers accused the FDA of using the salmonella threat as a pretext to keep Mexican tomatoes out of the U.S. market and threatened a lawsuit under the North American Free Trade Agreement ([2] NAFTA). NAFTA’s Chapter 11, regulating investment, gives private businesses the right to sue governments to challenge public health, environmental and safety regulations that might impinge on corporate profits.
While NAFTA protects the rights of large-scale Mexican tomato farmers to sue the United States government for consumer safety protection, it gives the U.S. inspectors no mandate to scrutinize even the worst labor rights violations, including child labor.
Fresh produce is one of those NAFTA “success stories.” U.S. imports of Mexican produce increased 35 percent between 2003 and 2007, from $3.2 billion to $4.4 billion. Many U.S. growers are relocating production to Mexico in response to worker shortages resulting from the immigration crackdown in the United States. Lucky for them, there is a large labor pool of rural families who have been displaced by imports of corn under NAFTA and government policies that favor commercial producers.
As reporters swarmed to the “killer tomato” story, many interesting facts about the tomato supply chain were revealed. It turns out tomatoes are hard to trace for several reasons. Tomatoes are not individually labeled, and nearly all tomatoes are re-packed several times before reaching their final destination. So tomatoes from Sinaloa in Mexico may be shipped to Florida, re-packed with locally grown tomatoes and then shipped out to New Jersey. Or Florida tomatoes may be re-packed in Mexico before being shipped to the United States.
There is no easy way for the FDA, let alone consumers, to know where, or under what conditions, the tomatoes they purchased were grown. To overcome this difficulty, FDA agents have traveled, farm by farm, in Mexico and Florida, inspecting each workplace to identify potential sources of the salmonella bacteria. It’s an impressive operation, and interestingly the Mexican growers—despite their cries of protectionism and complaints of attacks on Mexican sovereignty—are giving the U.S. inspectors complete access to their farms. They know that without the FDA seal of approval, it will be difficult or impossible to regain access to U.S. consumers.
It is gratifying that our government will go to such lengths to stamp out a dangerous bacterium. It is less encouraging to know that the inspectors were not looking at massive labor rights violations, especially the systematic employment of young children in hazardous conditions, which have existed in the tomato industry for decades. Earlier this year, migrant farm workers in Florida won a major victory when Burger King [3] agreed to increase prices paid to tomato growers.
In Mexico, child labor in export agriculture has been documented for many years. A 2006 Mexican government report funded by UNICEF estimates that there are between 400,000 and 700,000 children ages 6 to 14 working in the fields.
It is unfortunate the U.S. inspectors, as they travel from farm to farm in Mexico, are not looking for child labor, or for workers laboring in 120-degree temperatures who are being sprayed with dangerous pesticides. It’s not that our government is unaware of the problem. In fact, the U.S. State Department’s 2007 human rights report on Mexico cites the UNICEF report’s statistics that “16 percent of children age five to 14 were involved in child labor activities.”
Wouldn’t it be nice to think that we Americans care as much about 9-year-olds being run over by tractors as we do about the risk of getting a stomach ache?
Meanwhile, David Salgado’s 10-year-old sister, Adriana, is still working in the fields.
Export councils should vouch for child labor-free status, says panel
NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has directed the State governments and export promotion councils to set up a self-regulatory mechanism to curb child labor.
It has asked the States to initiate social auditing to ensure that no child labor is engaged in any form.
In a communication to the Union Textile Minister and the Chief Secretaries of the States, Commission chairperson Shanta Sinha said: “Children are being employed by many informal and household sectors. Newer forms of child labor are being discovered everyday by media and social activists. Many children are recruited as bonded labor.”
The Commission has taken cognizance of reports of children being trafficked in and employed on Bt. cotton fields, in zari and embroidery making and in many other industries. In spite of the notification prohibiting employment of children in shops and establishments, millions of them are still being engaged as help in this sector, it says. The panel has asked the export promotion councils to put in place self-regulatory systems to certify non-engagement of child labor from the supply to export stage.
Directives have gone to the Chief Secretaries of all States to strengthen enforcement of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2006, the Bonded Labor Act, and the Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 and ensure that children are sent to regular fulltime schools.
To strengthen law enforcement, the Commission has directed that the States ensure — through the District Collectors — formation of a task force for social audits to make sure that there is no child labor in the processes and occupations listed in the Schedule - Part A and B of the Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. It has emphasized inclusion of auditing residential complexes by a task force team to find out whether domestic child labor has been engaged.
Yemen: Parliament carries out survey on child labor in Dhamar
[20/July/2008]
DHAMAR, July 20 (Saba) - Children Parliament started on Sunday carrying out a survey on child labor phenomenon here and in neighboring areas.
Speaking to Saba, parliament member Ahmad al-Marwani clarified that the aim of the survey is for showing social, economic, health and
psychological effects of the phenomenon on the society and calling
all concerned bodies to solve causes behind it.
He noted that the survey would cover samples from different forms of child labor, male or female whose age are under 18 and problems they face while in work.
He indicated that the parliament will discuss results of the survey
with concerned bodies for taking measures for solving this problem,
calling all state and public efforts for enlightening society on child rights and on dangers of child labors.
Mr. Samson Kweku Boafo, Minister of Chieftaincy and Culture
The Minister of Chieftaincy and Culture, Mr. Samson Kweku Boafo says the engagement of children in farming, fishing and other labor-intensive activities at the expense of their education is barbaric.
According to Mr. Boafo, the practice amounts to child labor which “must be vigorously fought against in the country.”
Speaking in an interview with Asempa News, the Minister cautioned parents who indulge in this act to refrain from it, saying it is their obligation to provide shelter, cloth and food to their children.
He added that children are expected to help their parents though not at the expense of their education which is their fundamental human right and which is vital to the growth of every developing nation.
According to him, the ministries of Chieftaincy and Culture, Information and National Orientation, Women and Children’s Affairs, were collaborating to bring to an end this practice.
Mr. Boafo said government’s free medical care for pregnant women and the free basic education were positive policies being implemented to fight illiteracy in the country.
He therefore advised parents to make education paramount in the upbringing of their children.
Steve Hawkes and Amanda Andrews
Times Online, UK - Jun 24, 2008
Clothing retailers needed to monitor carefully their suppliers to ensure that they had not outsourced work to middlemen who employed children, Debenham’s said yesterday, after reports that children had been found working for Primark suppliers.
Rob Templeman, Debenham’s chief executive, said that retailers had to be more vigilant to ensure that suppliers in the Far East were not outsourcing work to unauthorized middlemen who could use teenagers to finish garments. Primark was forced to cut three suppliers in India after the BBC discovered that children as young as 11 were carrying out embroidery work on some of its clothing. The BBC’s findings were aired on Panorama on Monday night. Yesterday it emerged that Zara, the Spanish-owned fashion chain, forced the closure of a supplier’s factory in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, after learning of alleged physical and verbal abuse of workers.
Mr Templeman said: “What’s happened with Primark is a lesson for everybody. You have to make sure if you have sequin or embroidery work carried out that it’s being done in the factory and not outsourced. It is very, very hard to police but you’ve got to be vigilant.”
Debenham’s said that it was switching more of its production to factories in Vietnam and Bangladesh as costs rose in China. Inflationary pressures are building in China on the back of a sharp rise in the renminbi, higher wages and an increase in the global cost of cotton. Mr Templeman’s comments came as Debenham’s brought forward a key trading statement to silence “inaccurate” speculation over the company’s financial health.
The group said that like-for-like sales had increased by 1 per cent in the past ten weeks. It added that its guidance on profit margins and net debt for the full-year to August was unchanged. Mr Templeman said: “The best way to dispel rumors is to be factual. It’s tougher out there, but I am pleased with the numbers we have reported today.”
Tony Shiret, a Credit Suisse analyst, said that although the update had reassured investors, the profits of Debenham’s could be stuck between £105 million and £115 million for the next three years. He added that the dividend was likely to be cut by 20 per cent this year. Shares in the retailer rose 2½p, or 6 per cent, to 44¼p
British importers of Rajasthan sandstone worried about child labor
By Indo-Asian News Service on Friday, July 18, 2008
London, July 18 (IANS) Reports that child labor may be in use in the quarrying of the world-famous sandstone in Rajasthan has led some British companies to tighten their import guidelines.
B&Q, one of Britain’s top DIY (Do It Yourself) superstores, says it has adopted strict buying standards and rigorous quality management processes to oversee the suppliers of sandstone after hearing reports of use of child labor in Rajasthan.
Companies like B&Q are now using their India offices or NGOs to confirm the reports that there are many illegal quarries in the Indian state where children work.
A B&Q statement says: “B&Q requires all of its suppliers to provide evidence that demonstrates they have a robust process of supply chain management that assures their supply chains meet B&Q’s operational standards. In India specifically, B&Q is working closely with its suppliers to ensure guidelines addressing employment practices, health and safety, quality of product and environmental performance are properly adhered to.”
India is the third largest exporter of sandstone in the world. Indian sandstone has become popular in Britain for gardens because it is attractive and of good quality. It is costly, when compared to local concrete slabs, primarily because of the transport expenses involved.
The Herald reports that the British companies are already looking for alternatives to sandstone, given the controversy surrounding it. One such is reclaimed stone from kerbs and pavements, which are refurbished in Scotland.
Sweatshop cops? Springfield: Group says $80,000 in State Police and DNR uniforms was supplied by firms using overseas factories with poor conditions
July 1, 2008
Some Illinois state uniform makers have been linked to overseas sweatshops. This would violate an anti-sweatshop bill that Gov. Blagojevich signed a few years ago.
(Joseph P. Meier/STNG)
BY MAUREEN O'DONNELL AND DAVE MCKINNEY modonnell@suntimes.com dmckinney@suntimes.com
The state of Illinois ordered about $80,000 of its uniforms from three companies linked to overseas factories with poor working conditions, according to findings to be announced today by an anti-sweatshop coalition.
"The state of Illinois does business with companies that are linked to sweatshops,'' said Victoria Kaplan of SweatFree Communities.
Some Illinois state uniform makers have been linked to overseas sweatshops. This would violate an anti-sweatshop bill that Gov. Blagojevich signed a few years ago.
If so, that would appear to flout a 2005 executive order from Gov. Blagojevich.
Records show the state ordered about $61,300 in uniforms and other apparel from Fechheimer, a Cincinnati firm; about $15,500 from Blauer of Boston, and about $2,200 from Dickies of Fort Worth. The clothing was for State Police and the Department of Natural Resources.
Fechheimer and Blauer have been linked to a Chinese factory with child-labor violations, Kaplan said. Fechheimer has received products from a substandard factory in Honduras, and Dickies has been linked to poor working conditions in Pakistan, Kaplan said.
The group based its allegations on interviews with overseas factory workers. Officials at the three firms did not return calls for comment.
'Made in Kentucky, Maryland'
A state official said the companies are in compliance with multiple anti-sweatshop efforts.
The companies followed purchasing requirements, including the Executive Order on a Sweatshop Free Procurement Policy, the Domestic Products Act, the Prohibition of Goods from Forced Labor Act, and the Prohibition of Goods from Child Labor Act, said Susan Hofer of Central Management Services.
Fechheimer "has told us, in writing, that all uniforms provided under our contract are made at their union shops in Kentucky and Maryland."
Best Practices in Preventing and Eliminating Child Labor through Education
Drawn from the Global CIRCLE Projects: Winrock International
Winrock International has launched the publication of Best Practices in Preventing and Eliminating Child Labor through Education, a document that captures and richly weaves together the best practices of over eighty international non-governmental organizations to prevent and eliminate child labor around the world.
Winrock International’s recently concluded CIRCLE project aimed to prevent or reduce child labor through education by identifying, promoting, and supporting innovative, locally developed, and community based projects. CIRCLE was a global subcontracts project that funded over 100 community based NGOs in 24 countries around the world since 2002. The project goal was to promote and document the best practices of innovative, community-based projects that successfully addressed the reduction or elimination of child labor, especially the worst forms, through formal and non-formal education. CIRCLE has withdrawn or prevented over 24,000 children from child labor and has impacted thousands more through public awareness, advocacy, and training activities.
Best Practice Methodology and Structure
CIRCLE used a peer review approach, through the analyses of over 150 expert volunteers, based on six criteria: effectiveness, reliability, sustainability, innovation, educational relevance, and stakeholder involvement to inform the best practices document. The Best Practices document contains 8 thematic chapters: project design, awareness raising, policy and advocacy, formal and non-formal education, vocational education and life skills, peer education, child labor monitoring, and data collection. The document is written as a “how to” for practitioners in child labor. Each chapter contains sections on the definition, project design, examples from CIRCLE NGOs, enabling environment, sustainability, and challenges.
Website and access to the Publication
The Best Practices publication and CD is being disseminated widely through mailing and through mini-launches in country sites. The documents are also posted on the dynamic Circle website at http://circle.winrock.org in English, French, and Spanish and downloadable by chapter.
Roundtables and Mini-Launches
Winrock hosted a pre-launch Roundtable on Best Practices and Knowledge sharing in order to take stock of past achievements and trends and push the “tipping Point” of collective impact of preventing and eliminating child labor through integrated and coherent knowledge management approaches. Participating in the Roundtable were representatives from the US Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT); The International Labor Organization, Washington, DC office; International organizations and local organizations from four CIRCLE countries (Ecuador; Nepal; the Philippines, and Malawi). Results of the Roundtable were the interest and commitment to establishing a joint stakeholder group to coordinate and lead ongoing discussions in the field of knowledge management on the reduction, prevention and elimination of child labor, particularly its worst forms, and to set clear, targets in terms of strategy, resources, and a framework to facilitate capacity-building between international and national NGOs to support exchanges and networking in this field and to facilitate access to a proposed internet portal that will be accessible to and serve the best interests of national and local NGOs. In May and June Winrock CIRCLE coordinated with CIRCLE NGOs to host mini-launches in Bolivia, Ecuador, Ghana, Philippines, Mali, and Nepal.
Purpose and Dissemination of Best Practice Document
The purpose is to inform and inspire individuals and organizations working to end the exploitation of children, to promote educational opportunities for all children, and to support their personal and social development through a fulfilled, safe, and happy childhood. The Best Practices document is available electronically and in print Winrock would like to disseminate this document to as many people interested in child labor as possible. If you have any questions or would like a copy, please contact Vicki Walker (vwalker@winrock.org) or Jason Befus (jbefus@winrock.org).
Funding for CIRCLE is provided by the US Department of Labor under Cooperative Agreements E-K-9-2-0048 and E-K-9-4-0005.
Some 815 children who were once considered as child laborers in the city and the town of Estancia, Iloilo recently finished their education through the ABK Initiative, a special project for combating child labor problem in the country.
The 815 children were previously engaged in pyrotechnics making, prostitution and deep-sea fishing before they availed of the ABK Initiative sponsored by the World Vision Philippines. "ABK Initiative" stands for Pag-aaral ng Bata para sa Kinabukasan (Education for the Children's Future), said Aivon Guanco.
Guanco, OIC project team leader of the Rising Sun Association of Iloilo Inc. and a local partner of World Vision, said of the 815 children, 500 came from Estancia, a northern town in Iloilo which is 135.5 kilometers north of the city. A number of red houses exist in the town because of the presence of a seaport. Some of the children used to work in the red houses. Children from 5 to 17 years old who are supposed to be in school but are already are working are among the recipients of the project.
In Iloilo City the beneficiaries mostly came from Arevalo district working in pyrotechnics factories and some as house helpers.
Guanco felt proud of the determination of the children as they faired well while in school. They are even recommended to take part in the Phase 2 of the project which is Teach Now. Teach Now is like the ABK Initiative though it is more advanced. Those students who graduated from high school with higher grades have the greater chances to get another sponsorship when they want to seek college education.
The ABK Initiative is a $7.8 million project funded by the United States Department of Labor and completed in March 2008. The ABK Initiative has targeted six worst forms of child labor, which are deep-sea fishing, domestic work, mining/quarrying, prostitution, pyrotechnics and sugarcane plantations in the country. Children as young as 5 years old until 17 years old are those engaged in child labor.
Iloilo is one of the priority areas listed by World Vision in the ABK Initiative. The other areas that comprise the list are: Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Cebu, Bulacan, Camarines Norte, Davao and Metro Manila.
For the second phase of the project or Teach Now, they are considering of including children living in the Calajunan dumpsite in Mandurriao. The group is still on the process of gathering information and facts in the area. At the same time, they are having meetings with the barangay officials to firm up whatever projects they intend to put up that will benefit the children, said Guanco.
ACCESS-MENA Holds Workshops on Fighting Child Trafficking in Yemen
YemenOnline- July 09, 2008- The Alternatives to Combat Child Labor through Education & Sustainable Services (ACCESS-MENA) conducted five workshops dubbed Together to Combat Child Trafficking. The workshops aimed to make sheikhs, members of the local councils, and other dignitaries aware of child trafficking in the Hajja Governorate.
At the end of the workshops, the 126 local council members and sheikhs signed papers pledging to reject all forms of child trafficking, help raise awareness in their communities, and, most importantly, urge their community to send their children to school. The pledge papers also included the commitment to support all efforts at fighting child trafficking by mobilizing the citizens of their districts to report and stop child trafficking. In addition, these community leaders will urge the executive bodies to alleviate poverty and disparity, the leading cause of child trafficking, in solidarity and strength.
Jamal Nasser Al-Aqel, the Deputy Governor of Hajja, Ahmed Al-Shami, the Deputy Governor of Hajja for Tihama Affairs, and Haitham Al-Jubari, the General Director of the Social Affairs & Labor Office, launched the opening ceremony of the workshops in the Haradh district.
Dr. Jamal Al-Haddi, ACCESS Project Manager, took part in the conclusion of the workshops in the Aslam district. He delivered a speech to the sheikhs and dignitaries of the district, urging them to undertake their responsibilities as community leaders to limit child trafficking. He ends by saying that the proper place for children is the classroom.
ACCESS-MENA has headed several interventions to combat child trafficking including the re-enrolling 206 children in school, protecting 1,416 children from dropping out of school, and repairing and maintaining the nine schools targeted by the Project. They have also provided schools with social and cultural centers and electrical generators. The activities coincide with the intensive awareness campaigns that transcend all sides of the community
Similar workshops following the framework of activities and programs held by ACCESS are now emulated by other charitable organizations. CHF International, in an executive partnership with the Charitable Society for Social Welfare, is holding ACCESS inspired workshops with funding from the US Department of Labor.
Under pressure, Dhaka may lift curbs on trade unions
Criticized at home and in countries that import its goods, Bangladesh’s military-backed government is set to partially lift curbs on trade unions.
“We have requested the home ministry to allow limited trade union activities so that collective bargaining agents can hold their stalled elections,” Labor and Employment Adviser Anwarul Iqbal said Sunday.
Iqbal was briefing the media after a tripartite meeting on the draft child labor elimination policy. Dhaka has denied charges from Western nations importing its readymade garments and knitwear that it employs child labor.
The garment sector has witnessed frequent violence over non-payment of wages and bonus, which are low compared to international standards, and bad working conditions.
Political and trade union activity is banned in the state of emergency, which has been in force since January last year. However, Dhaka is gradually moving towards civic elections, with promise of parliamentary polls in December.
Campaigning for the civic polls is on and the government of Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed has assured lifting of more of them while engaging in talks with political parties.
Iqbal said a gazette notification relaxing the emergency rules would be issued soon. Labor leaders, however, demanded complete withdrawal of the ban on trade unionism.
Trade Union Centre President Mohammad Nurul Islam told the New Age that partial withdrawal of the ban on trade union activities just for facilitating stalled collective bargaining agents’ polls would bring no good to laborers.
He complained that trade union activity had been curbed even though it was the political parties, and not the trade unions, which were responsible for violence and turmoil during end-2006, early 2007. Trade unions in Bangladesh, like most developing countries, are largely labor wings of political parties.
Ivory Coast: Child sacrifice on rise in election run-up
Abidjan Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Child abduction, which is already a serious problem in Cote d’Ivoire, may worsen in the run up to presidential elections later this year as political hopefuls using traditional myths of human sacrifice to improve their electoral chances will fuel an already significant market for stolen children, according to the Ivorian police.
Child abduction is something that needs urgent attention especially in the run-up to the election because a lot of things are going to happen like human sacrifices and other rituals where the organs of children will be particularly in demand,” said Sergeant Antoine Goua Bi, a spokesperson for the child protection unit of the Ivorian police, who says child sacrifice always increases around election times.
“The number of children disappearing in Cote d’Ivoire has already reached extremely worrying proportions,” said Jean-Michel Boka, coordinator of the Ivorian non-governmental child protection organization Roxal. “Every day we register three new cases – that adds up to between 60 and 90 cases per month.”
Organ traffickers, who slice out hearts, kidneys, lungs and other body parts for sale to medical facilities and soothsayers are the main culprits, Bi said. The children are also taken to work in the sex trade, for use by illegal adoption rings, and for work on plantations, he said.
Parents’ chances of getting their children back once they have disappeared is slim. Boka at the NGO Roxal estimated a recovery rate of just one in 20.
Kouassi Bâ, coordinator of the international NGO Save the Children in Korhogo, northern Cote d’Ivoire, said they are working alongside the UN Children’s Agency (UNICEF) and International Labor Organization, to raise awareness against child trafficking, but that there is no specific project against child abductions.
However on 30 May the representatives of nine West African countries governments met in Grand-Bassam in southern Cote d’Ivoire to sign a joint accord to harmonize their laws against child trafficking.
The Ivorian ministry of family, women and children said in a statement that it is taking the situation “very seriously” and that further measures against child abductions will be announced shortly.
MALAWI: Child labor encouraged by poor record keeping
Photo: Bill Corcoran/IRIN
Returning from the fields
LILONGWE , 3 June 2008 (IRIN) - More than a million Malawian children are still being used as laborers, according to the latest available estimates, but legislation compelling birth registrations has been delayed by government infighting and the resultant political turmoil.
A senior official of the national registration bureau in the president's office, Lawrence Hussein, told local media in March 2008 that "Malawian children have no document to show when they were born. We can hardly tell who is a child."
The colonial-era 1904 Birth and Deaths Act, which does not require citizens to be registered at birth, nor deaths to be reported to the authorities, is still in force.
Consequently, even though Malawi is a signatory to numerous conventions against child labor, including the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of a Child, the 1973 International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 138 (setting a minimum working age of 18), and the 1999 ILO Convention 182 (outlawing child labor), child protection officers cannot verify the ages of people suspected of being employed as child laborers.
The National Registration Bill was presented to parliament in 2006 for ratification, but has yet to be passed because deliberations over annual budgets and legislation have been repeatedly suspended due to political wrangling.
Political wrangling
Last month, Malawi's former president, Bakili Muluzi, was arrested when he returned from a holiday in Britain, on allegations of plotting a coup against President Bingu wa Mutharika. The arrest came after numerous political crises, including corruption charges against Muluzi.
Muluzi won the country's first democratic elections in 1994, after deposing Hastings Kamuzu Banda, who had ruled the country since it won its independence from Britain in 1964. Muluzi picked Mutharika as his successor in 2004.
After capturing the presidency, Mutharika quit the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) and set up the Democratic Progressive Party, with the support of 60 former UDF colleagues who crossed the floor to join him in his minority government.
With the high levels of poverty in Malawi people cannot afford to pay the transport to get their documentation to registration offices, let alone pay for the birth certificates themselves
The UDF claims floor crossing is unconstitutional, and that a minority party cannot rule, which has led to an impasse in the legislature. Both Mutharika and Muluzi intend contesting the 2009 presidential election.
A registration system has been put in place by the national statistics office and sponsored by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), so that birth certificates can be introduced in nine of Malawi's 28 districts as soon as the legislation is passed, but a source close to the process told IRIN that unless the bill is ratified, little progress could be made in implementing this system.
At present, the burden of registration rests on the parent or guardian to travel to Blantyre, Malawi's second city, to register the birth of a child if they so wish; they also have to pay the administrative costs of issuing a birth certificate.
Impact of HIV/AIDS
"With the high levels of poverty in Malawi people cannot afford to pay the transport to get their documentation to registration offices, let alone pay for the birth certificates themselves. The new legislation is needed urgently because the work that is being done at the moment is mostly preparation, and as such is ineffective without the legislation," the source told IRIN.
The last government survey of child labor and trafficking was published in 2002 and revealed that about 1.4 million youngsters, or 29 percent of the population younger than 17, was engaged in child labor; of these, about 734,000 were working in the agriculture industry, and 288,000 were said to be involved in hazardous labour.
According to UNICEF child protection officer Seamus McRoibin, aside from widespread poverty, the effect of the country's high HIV/AIDS prevalence rate – about 16 percent of people aged between 15 and 49 are infected, resulting in about 400,000 HIV/AIDS orphans under 15 years old - has also contributed to the high level of child labor.
"The ministry for labor is very good, and it has set up a number of initiatives that are trying to tackle this huge problem. But although efforts to tackle child labour are not operating in a legal vacuum, the laws are not specific enough and people are not being punished correctly," he said.
Bright Cakambau, executive director of the Youth and Children's Rights Shield (YCRIS), a local non-governmental organization advocating the rights of children, said rolling out the new registration laws would have an immediate positive benefit.
"If we could get every child registered at birth, with a birth certificate, then we would have concrete evidence to take to the courts. It is difficult to say what age a juvenile in his mid-teenage years is without proof."
Paper trails
Despite problems with registration, Cakambau, who is based in Dedza, a town about 100km south of the capital, Lilongwe, said the success attributable to a labor ministry initiative that aims to build capacity in rural communities to combat child labor were a cause for optimism.
If we could get every child registered at birth, with a birth certificate, then we would have concrete evidence to take to the courts. It is difficult to say what age a juvenile in his mid-teenage years is without proof .
Over three years ago Keneriyo Feston, 11, was taken from his single mother by a male relative who promised to give him some "light work". But the work was far from easy, and his mother did not see him for two years.
"The work was very hard for me, as I was forced to herd many cattle on my own. For a long time I never saw my mother and I was not paid. I did not like the work but I did not know where I was or how to get home," he told IRIN.
Feston was tracked down and rescued by another male relative, Cakambau said, but in the absence of birth certificates a system was being implemented to try and deter the unscrupulous by making it more difficult for people to use child labor.
"We have been putting in place structures at national, district and village level in relation to recruitment of workers. Any person who wants to employ labor must first go to the National Labor Office and get a letter that allows them to recruit," Cakambau said.
"They take this letter to the traditional authority at district level, which verifies it and issues another letter that can be taken to village chiefs, citing who can be employed and for what purpose.
"If they do not have these letters they cannot recruit in a village, and if they are found doing so they will be prosecuted," he said. "The system creates a trail that the authorities can follow in instances of suspected child labor."
Mr Kailash Satyarthi called on Ambassador Mark P Lagon, Head of Trafficking
in Persons Office, US Department of State on July 15th, 2008 at Washington,
D.C.
Liberation for Education, India
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Education for Liberation, Pakistan
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Here is a unique opportunity to help rescue, rehabilitate and educate children engaged in the worst forms of child labor, this academic year. Please consider giving a one-time donation of $300 to make possible the raid and rescue of 10 children from forced labor in India! With a 'recurring donation' of $55/month, you can provide 1 child rescued from forced labor with food, shelter, education and vocational training in a rehabilitation center.
Or, send a child from the brick kilns or shoe factories to school in Pakistan. With a 'recurring gift' of only $33/month (or a one-time donation of $396/year), you will provide a child with school supplies, textbooks, a daily meal, and a uniform! Do you know that some Americans spend more than $30/month on dyeing their hair?! With a generous recurring donation of $132/month, you can support 1 teacher of these children.
Please share this letter with friends or family members who might be interested in donating to this very just cause.
