UK: Models stage 'sweatshop' protest
Models dressed in chains paraded along a makeshift catwalk in London's Oxford Street as part of a demonstration against sweatshop labor.
Campaign group No Sweat staged the protest outside Primark's flagship store urging "decent working conditions and a living wage" for garment workers.
A Primark spokeswoman insisted: "We obviously share and recognize many of the concerns raised."
It says it fired suppliers whom the BBC's Panorama found used child labor.
'Huge profits'
But Mick Duncan, the secretary of No Sweat, said this was not good enough.
He said: "We don't want them to walk away - we want them to take responsibility for their workers and make sure their conditions are improved.
"No Sweat isn't calling on consumers to boycott chains like Primark, but instead to put pressure on them to clean up their act.
"These companies make huge profits and have a duty to ensure a fair wage."
The protest was backed by comedian Mark Thomas, who said it was in the interest of British workers to campaign for better treatment for their counterparts overseas.
"If workers abroad are being badly exploited, that means that the conditions of workers in the UK are also being undercut.
"It's about raising the standard for everyone."
But a Primark spokeswoman said the company had insisted that many factories improved their labor standards, and created senior management posts for an ethical trade manager and an ethical trade executive.
She said: "Ethical business practices are at the top of Primark's agenda and the company works tirelessly to ensure its many suppliers, including those in Bangladesh, conform to the highest standards of behavior.
"Primark works very hard to continually improve ethical standards and working conditions among suppliers."
Primark currently has more than 170 stores and made a £200m profit last year on total sales of more than £1.6bn.
Last year, Primark fired three Indian suppliers after a six-month BBC Panorama investigation found the suppliers had used child labor to carry out embroidery and sequin work.
A subsequent BBC undercover investigation found factory workers making clothes destined for fashion chain Primark who worked up to 12 hours a day for £3.50 an hour in Manchester.
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Uganda: UPE remains a dream as child labor flourishes
Simon Musasizi, The Observer, Monday, 20 April 2009 07:46
Lunch, uniform and scholastic materials are standing in the way of many children who would otherwise benefit from UPE. As a result, child labor has remained an attractive option for many poor parents.
At 14, Annet Nalule has just enrolled for Primary Four. Nalule was set back 7 years ago when her mother died in child birth and she had to live with a stepmother who never wanted her to go to school. “She would tell me not to go back to school whenever I came back for lunch. She wanted me to do house work and my father never cared,” Nalule says. Amidst other forms of mistreatment, her uncle took pity on her and took her to a grandmother who, unable to look after her, gave her up as a housemaid to a woman in Bwaise, a Kampala suburb.
Earning a monthly salary of Shs15,000, Nalule was subjected to brutality by her boss – who often beat her up. She ended up in the hands of another stranger who took her to work for a security man in Luzira. “The man had no wife. He told his children who were all boys to start calling me mum. I feared working here,” Nalule says. Last year, she moved back to her grandmother’s home in Bombo where she has resumed school at Kalule Primary School. But even with the free education, Nalule finds it hard to fit in the school, where The Observer found her. Clad in a white shirt and purple skirt, she sat under a mango tree waiting for her grandmother to turn up for parents and guardians training organized by Happy Kibira Children Foundation. She was eager to see her guardian benefit from the project aimed at empowering parents to provide for their children by engaging in crafts.
Aidha Nansubuga, the Proprietor of Happy Kibira Children’s Foundation says, “If we can do our own income generating activities, then [they] don’t need to beg for help.”
However, Nalule’s guardian did not turn up because apparently, she had been to the school the previous day but the trainers did not show up.
Nalule is one of the 150 orphans at Kalule Primary School who the head teacher, Loy Kasobya, says come from vulnerable families and are at risk of dropping out of school.
“The biggest problem for parents and guardians is providing lunch, scholastic materials and uniform. Some children spend a whole month without writing, yet they are sent to school,” she said before adding: “For us we have nothing to do, we just teach. At times, they come without breakfast and after lunch most of them are dozing. “When government started the Universal Primary Education (UPE) in 1997, its primary goal was to benefit less advantaged children like Nalule.
But as of today, over 1.8 million children in Uganda are not in school. Instead, they are earning a living in child labor related activities, according to Kyateka Mondo, the Assistant Commissioner Youth & Children Department, Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development.
According to the 2008 country report on ‘Understanding Children’s Work in Uganda,’ 15% percent of children engage in economic activities by the age of 7 years, and over half of all children are economically active by the age of 13. The report further says that over 35% of all 7-14 year-olds work and attend
school at the same time.
Working children spend less time in school and this constitutes a key obstacle to achieving Universal Primary Education and other Millennium Development Goals in Uganda – perpetuating the poverty cycle. In September 2004, World Vision in partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the Academy for Educational Development (AED) received a 4-year co-operative agreement from the United States Department of Labor to implement a Regional Child Labor and Education Initiative in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia (KURET). The $20 million programme aimed to remove 30,600 children out of child labor.
According to Yvonne Premper, the KURET Regional Director, 32,863 children (of which 8,176 were Ugandan) were enrolled by the project and their families and communities supported to be self-sustained to ultimately take on the responsibility of caring for them.
Richard Onencan, 18, is one of the true heroes of the project. The Senior Five student of Gulu High School was in 2005 saved by KURET from herding cattle for one ‘rich man’ in Koch Village, Omoro Sub-county, Gulu District.“When my mother died [while in Primary Six], my father was paying for us [4 children] and our cousins whose father died,” Onencan says.
“To get scholastic materials, I tried several jobs such as working at construction sites before starting to look after 25 cows of one rich man. I would miss school for over 2 weeks because we worked in shifts with some other boy,” he adds. In return, they were given food, clothes, and books.
“The issue of child labor is a complex one, which requires not only a single intervention. Even if we have free education, we know there are additional costs that parents have to meet,” says Joyce Nape, the Secretary General National Council for Children.
Orphans represent one of the most vulnerable groups in Uganda. A large proportion of Ugandan children grow up in the absence of one or both biological parents. According to the report, nearly 8% of children aged 7-14 are living with single parents while 5% have lost both parents. At 50, Laura Namatovu looks after 2 orphans. The peasant farmer breaks her back to get Shs36,000 to pay for lunch and uniform for her Primary Seven
pupil at Kalule Primary School. Yet she has to pay another Shs6,000 for lunch for one in Primary One.
“Life has become difficult for me. I don’t know if my grandchildren will join secondary. I no longer have a source of income because the coffee wilt has destroyed my plantation,” she says.
Under the UPE programme, the responsibility of feeding, clothing and children’s accommodation is on their parents. But given the high poverty levels, more and more pupils are finding it hard to benefit from UPE.
65% of the education budget funds primary education and according to Kasobya, what trickles down to them from government is money for chalk, manila cards, preparation books and pens for teachers.
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Nigeria: Education Roadmap: Minister, stakeholders deliberate on turn-around strategies
Vanguard, Written by Olubusuyi Adenipekun, Thursday, 02 April 2009
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Dr. Sam Egwu, Minister of Education |
Last Friday, the Minister of Education, Dr Sam Egwu shed more light on the turn-around plans and the implementation strategy as encapsulated in his roadmap, which is a strategic plan for responding to the numerous challenges confronting the Nigerian education sector. Sam Egwu spoke while addressing a large number of stakeholders from across the country at a national forum on the roadmap for Nigerian education sector which took in Abuja for the purpose of getting stakeholders’ inputs and constructive criticisms with a view to enriching the document.
The improvement plans, says the minister, centre around his four-point agenda of access and equity, standards and quality assurance, technical vocational education and training and funding, adding that well-thought turn-around strategies have been put together for each of these agenda.
Given the fact that about seven million Nigerian children are out of school, with inequities plaguing the sector, the minister plans to address these issues that pertain to access and equity by launching an aggressive national campaign on access in order to intensify sensitization, advocacy and mobilization in support of enrolment and retention of Nigerian children in school.
The minister is also to work towards reviewing and updating the UBE Act to enforce the provisions that stipulate compulsory enrolment and retention of children in schools.
The Federal Ministry of Education under Egwu is, in addition, to encourage and support the establishment of more neighborhood schools by communities; declare a national literacy emergency for five years, introduce the National Open School System; promote gender parity, provide infrastructure and facilities, promote a child-friendly school climate as well as to improve rural schools, nomadic, and adult and non-formal centres.
Explaining that standards and quality assurance extend to all aspects of the teaching and learning process which encompasses the quality of school infrastructure, teachers, curriculum, assessments, information communications technology, and students life, Egwu disclosed that the specific turn-around strategies for this agenda include the amendment of Act 18 of 1985 to provide adequate legal backing for the institutonalization of education quality assurance at basic and post basic education levels, establishment of a National Agency for Educational Quality Assurance (AEQA), constitution of a national steering committee and similar committees at the state level to facilitate the establishment as well as institute practices for school self monitoring and evaluation.
Other turn-around plans on standards and qualify assurance, according to the minister, include building and rebuilding classrooms, laboratories, libraries and so forth, investment in teacher quality development, reduction of shortfalls in the number of qualified teachers through intensive recruitment, training and retraining of teachers as well as the plan to train teachers on the implementation of the new school curricula developed by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council.
Egwu says further on the strategies for maintaining standards in schools: “One of the problems in maintaining high standards is having reliable and valid means of assessing how well our students and teachers are performing. We plan to institute a system of assessing students and teachers so that we can determine the quality of learning and teaching. I have proposed reinstating an assessment at the end of the 6th year so as not to pass students on who have not mastered the requisite basic skills at the primary level.”
“We propose to revamp character education, invest in counseling, re-introduce extracurricular activities, and encourage appreciation of the arts and all those aspects that enrich the school life and result in the education of the whole child.”
Egwu’s plans of action in this area also include the production and dissemination of a comprehensive quality standards document to replace the National Minimum Standards, undertaking general inspection of all basic and post basic schools once in every three to five years for schools’ status evaluation and ranking as well as the establishment of a standardized assessment system that annually monitors and reports academic achievement in the core subjects.
The strategy to be adopted by Egwu to bring about improvement in Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) refocuses attention on Vocational Enterprise Institutes (VEIs) and Innovative Enterprise Institutes (IEIs), adding that his administration plans to redouble efforts in this area and reposition the nation’s education sector to develop workers with skills that are relevant to Nigeria’s economic system.
In this regard, the minister is to ensure an acceleration of the take-off of VEIs, and establish a National Council for Vocational Education to facilitate the implementation of National Vocational Qualification Frame-work, provide adequate publicity for the VEIs, resuscitate the Technical Teacher Training Programmes and increase gender parity via incentives for female enrolment in TVET.
TVET, according to Egwu, is to be a top priority of his education agenda because of its importance to the realization of Vision 2020. He says: “Nigeria’s ability to realize its vision of becoming one of the top 20 economies of the world by the year 2020 is largely dependent on its capacity to transform its population into highly skilled and competent individuals. Many advanced economies place a great emphasis on the knowledge and acquisition of technical and vocational skills.
Unfortunately our society places a stigma on this type of education, showing a preference for academic track disciplines. Now we are at the point where we are importing labor from all over the world because we do not have Nigerians with the adequate skills to meet the demands of the labor market, such as good artisans.”
The Education Minister identifies leadership and accountability, inadequate budgetary allocation, inadequate funding of schools, poor management and utilization of funds as some of the challenges confronting funding of the education sector.
His plan in ensuring adequate funding of the sector include intervention on behalf of states and tertiary institutions to facilitate an easy way of assessing available funds without compromising due process.
He cited the example of the Education Trust Fund which has accumulated un accessed funds to the tune of N22.6bn meant for various schools and institutions across the country.
This, to Egwu, is unacceptable, explaining that government will mop up una ccessed funds that accumulates due to the failure of state governments or institutions to meet minimum criteria. Such money, he added, would then be utilized for the development of other needy schools and educational institutions.
The minister’s turn-around strategies in funding also include the encouragement of public-private partnership as well as reaching out to other stakeholders in funding education.
The implementation strategy which Egwu plans to adopt is to use a representative sample of schools and institutions across the country as demonstration projects that will benefit from an intensive and focused implementation of the turn-around strategies.
The implementation strategy, according to him, is based on the theory that what works in the representative sample will work in other similar schools and institutions across the country, adding that state assistance teams will be trained to implement the same strategies in their non demonstration schools and institutions.
“With this strategy, we will be able to see noticeable changes in those schools that have benefited from the intensive training and technical assistance offered by the demonstration initiative within a 12 to 24 months time frame.”
Dr. Egwu assured that all the contributions made by delegates to the national forum would be integrated into the roadmap document, adding that the inputs made by officers of the FME, heads of parastatals and the principals of Federal Unity Colleges at the March 20, 2009 retreat that held in Abuja have been incorporated into the document.
He assured all that the plan of action enunciated in the roadmap will be faithfully implemented.
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Uganda: Rescued from the jaws of child labor
By Evelyn Lirri, Mar 31, 2009, Kampala
Sarah Akello is just 15 years old. But she has already faced more enormous hardship in her short life than many people older than her.
At the age of 11, while studying at Cura Primary School in Lira District, Akello went to work in a stone quarry at Ngetta Hill.
“I did not have money for scholastic material and uniform yet my parents had no money,” she said in an interview with Daily Monitor on Thursday in Kampala. Akello was one of four former child laborers who, last week, narrated their escape from child labor at a ceremony in Kampala to mark the end of a $20 million project launched in four East African countries four years ago.
The initiative, which was implemented in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia by World Vision and the International Rescue Committee, was funded by the US Department of Labor with the aim of rescuing up to 30,600 children from the worst forms of labor in war and HIV/Aids affected communities.
Akello says she worked in the quarry during weekends and holidays in order to earn some money which she used to buy books, pens and soap, as well as help her poor parents to supplement the family’s meager income.
But life at the stone quarry was not easy as Akello later discovered. Together with other children, they would spend long hours crushing the large rocks into gravel using crude hammers.
For every jerry can of crushed stones, Akello would be paid Shs250. Because of the tedious nature of the work, she would only manage five jerry cans each day. This would fetch her Shs1,250, not enough to meet basic requirements like books and soap.
Akello was also working under terrible conditions at the quarry. “The small stone particles would enter my eyes and affect my vision. I would also get wounds on my hands while crashing the stones. I would also fall sick and miss going to school most of the days because of the fatigue,” she said.
Lady luck however later smiled on Akello, as she was rescued from the jaws of child labor through the Kenya Uganda Rwanda Ethiopia Together (Kuret) project.
Ms Yvonne Ferguson, the project’s Chief of Party said in Uganda, their target was to withdraw children caught in various forms of child laborin the northern districts of Gulu, Lira and Dokolo.
“In Uganda, we managed to withdraw up to 8,176 children. Of these 4,355 were female and 3,821 were male,” she said. Like Akello, 18-year-old Richard Onencan, now a Senior Five student of Gulu High School was also rescued from child labor by the Kuret project. Onencan was a cattle keeper for two years for a man he described as “one of the richest’’ in Koch Koyo village, Omoro county in Gulu district.
When Onencan was in senior one, he did not have money for fees as his father could not afford the Shs97,000 school fees every term. “One of my friends asked me if I wanted to go and work for the rich man. I said yes and when I went to this man, he agreed to give me the job”.
Onencan, however, would miss more than half of the school days because he had to take the cattle for grazing, every morning trekking 10kms to and from.
But at the end of the day though, Onencan’s employer had agreed to pay him Shs10,000 every month, he never got a single cent until he left.
“Instead he would give me some old clothes. It was only after Kuret came in and agreed to pay my fees that I quit working for that man,” said Onencan.
The two are lucky to be in school and have someone pay their fees. Many children like them have found themselves trapped in child labor. Many more are missing out on education and a comfortable childhood because they have to fend for themselves and their families.
Mr Kyateka Mondo, an assistant commissioner for youth and children in the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development agrees that the problem of child labor is still a big challenge. He said that despite the government’s initiative of free primary and secondary education, many children are still caught in the child labor web.
Mr Mondo explained that HIV/Aids and civil conflicts have orphaned millions of children many of whom have been forced to engage in petty-yet risky jobs to fend for themselves. “Child labor continues to thrive in many parts of the country and we are seeing many children in plantations, stone quarries, commercial sex and as home domestic servants,” he said. Currently, according to Mr Mondo, there are 1.8 million Ugandan children aged five to 17 years engaged in different forms of labor.
“This is not a small number and it is also possible that this could be a conservative figure. The statistics could be much higher,” Mr Mondo revealed.
Although the Kuret project which lasted four years has ended, Ms Ferguson says there are a number of organizations that are willing to take the project forward and help more children.
She added, “Removal of children from hazardous labor is often more of a process rather than a one-time event.”
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India: Court: file report on child labor in match units
Legal Correspondent, Hindu
Indicate steps taken to disengage children
Petition alleges large scale employment of children below 14
“Government has done nothing for welfare of child laborers”
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to file in eight weeks a status report indicating the number of child laborers in match and firecracker units.
A Bench consisting of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices P. Sathasivam and A.K. Ganguly gave this interim direction on an application in a pending petition filed by M.C. Mehta alleging large scale employment of children below 14 in these factories.
By an earlier order, the court directed the constitution of a committee to look into child labor and to mobilize funds for the welfare of these children.
The Bench, taking note of the last affidavit filed in 2004, said the status report should also indicate the steps taken by the committee to disengage child laborers from match and firecracker units; the welfare measures taken to rehabilitate them and how much fund was available with it for such activities. The application said the intention of the earlier court order was to rehabilitate child laborers and create educational and health facilities
for them. However, in the last 10 years the government had done nothing for their welfare even though there were directions to create a welfare fund.
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EU Par wants India FTA to address "child, bonded labor" issues
Samay Live, Mon, 20 Apr 2009 at 17:22
London, Apr 20 : "Concerned" over "child and bonded labor" in India, the European Parliament has strongly pressed the European Union to include the issues in the Free Trade Agreement talks with New Delhi, which is stoutly against inclusion of social issues in commercial deals.
A resolution adopted by Strasbourg-based European Parliament last month asked the European Commission to insist on India to address the issue of child labor in the FTA, negotiations for which started in 2007.It said the European Parliament "is concerned about the use of child labor in India, which is very often exploited in unsafe and unhealthy conditions...Asks Commission to address the issue during negotiations on the
FTA." The resolution wanted the Indian government "to maximize its efforts to remove the underlying causes in order to end this phenomenon".
The European Parliament also sought pressure on India to tackle the issue of "bonded labor" affecting "millions of people -- largely from Dalit and Adivasi community... It is believed this issue is not being adequately addressed due to lack of administrative and political will".
India has strongly been opposing efforts to include social and environmental issues in the multilateral and bilateral trade talks -- be it FTAs or under the aegis of the World Trade Organization. (MORE)
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Enforce law to end child labor’
Express News Service
BHUBANESWAR: All parties have raised issues on many areas, but missed one of the most vital ones — the status of children in Orissa — even in their manifestos. So a one-day interface with political parties and candidates here has called for total eradication of child labor and proper rehabilitation measures for rescued child workers in the state.
The interface, which aimed at sensitizing political parties on children’s issues also demanded proper legislation to stop violence against children, proper schemes for their development in the rural areas and urban slums, special provisions for girl child with disability and those who are from SC/ST, Dalit and minority communities.
Child right activists also urged the political parties and their workers to demand a Children’s Health Mission as part of the National Rural Health Mission on priority basis, placement of paediatricians at every community health centre and to stock essential drugs for children starting from primary health centre.
BJD general secretary and spokesperson Baishnab Charan Parida said his party
had taken clear stand to abolish child laborand work for proper rehabilitation of the ‘rescued child workers’. However, he admitted that the issue is neglected by almost all major parties.
CPI-ML (Liberation) candidate from 114-Ekamra Rabindra Nath Dash claimed
that perhaps his party has addressed the issue of children and youth extensively in the manifesto with promise to spend 6 per cent of the GDP on education.
With no to fee hike, commercialization of higher education, strict regulation of fees in private institutions and professional courses and curbing ragging are highlighted, he said.
Pradyumna Satapathy (Independent) from Bhubaneswar-North, CPM leader S. Panigrahi and CPI’s Ramachandra Panda spoke.
The event, jointly organized by Save the Children, India and city based Centre for Child and Women Development in a resolution also urged all political parties to pledge that every elected representative must work
towards ensuring maternal and child health services as per the Indian Public Health Standards and to include issues of marginalized children in the Disaster Management Act, 2005.Child rights activist Mahendra Parida said while nearly 40 lakh children in Orissa are not going to school, 30 lakh work as child labor and the infant mortality rate still tops the national chart.
‘‘The child welfare committees are being constituted under the Juvenile Justice Act, but never function adequately to address the issues of children in need of care,’’ he observed adding though children are engaged in various economic activities, there is no comprehensive study on them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(top)
Finland: Chocolate Produced by Child Labor Sold in Finland?
Published Apr 10 02:01 PM, updated Apr 10 05:44 PM
Child labor could have been used to manufacture some chocolate Easter eggs currently on sale in Finland. The NGO Swed watch has discovered that Swedish confectionary manufacturers have not taken measures to prevent the use of child labor in cocoa
harvesting.
Chocolate Industry Runs on Child Labor
”Most of the cocoa stems from west Africa, including Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Conditions in these countries are quite undeveloped, and it's nearly impossible to supervise conditions there,” says Timo Jaatinen of the Finnish Federation of the Brewing and Soft Drinks Industry.
“It’s impossible to guarantee that child labor has not been used in production. Entire families often work on farms, and people in these countries don’t have much choice when it comes to earning money for their families,” adds Jaatinen.
Finnish confectionary manufacturers say they're aware of the problem.
Panda MD Ami Ward says that most cocoa suppliers are unable to guarantee that their beans were harvested without child labor.
Experts say confectionery makers could stop unfair labor practices at cocoa farms by only using Fair Trade certified cocoa products.
However Anita Laxen of the Finnish flagship confectionary maker Fazer says there is no silver bullet for rooting out child labor.
“Young cocoa farm laborers also handle tools that are not appropriate for children,” adds Laxen.
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Uzbekistan: Child labor in Uzbekistan is a part of problem not visible for world
Natalya Pozdnakova, Deutsche Welle
Participants of the recently formed "Uzbek-German Human Rights Forum" focus on problems of using child labor during cotton harvest in Uzbekistan.
Several representatives of the Uzbek civil society who have to live abroad at the moment decided to form a human rights organization - "Uzbek-German Human Rights Forum". The participants of the "Uzbek-German Human Rights Forum" focuses on situation with human rights and use of child labor during cotton harvest in Uzbekistan.
At present it is almost impossible to be engaged in human right activity in Uzbekistan, one of initiators of the forum and employee of international Human Rights Watch organization Germany branch Umida Niyazova said.
Umida Niyazova was persecuted by the authorities and lives in Germany at the moment. Niyazova said unfortunately, the government's attitude toward criticism of the regime remains stably hostile. "Therefore, some activists - Uzbek citizens in Europe, as well as some German citizens decided to form the human rights organization," she said.
"International community must know about a real situation with human rights in Uzbekistan"
In February, the founding meeting took place and organization's regulations were developed. Many German politicians and representatives of international organizations approved an idea to form the forum, Niyazova said. "We could gain support of some parliamentarians of the German Bundestag. Some human rights organizations in Germany render all possible support to us."
The human rights activist said the organization aims to monitor a situation with human rights in Uzbekistan. "As we worked in human rights field in Uzbekistan, of course, we have a great network of friends, our counterparts-activists who need to spread the information. Our main task is to publicize a report on monitoring of local human rights group to large community, both in Europe and Germany."
Child labor is applied regardless of international obligations
For near future, the participants of the Uzbek-German Forum have three main tasks: to strengthen legality and independence of juridical system in Uzbekistan, provide right to freedom of speech and press and forced child labor, particularly in cotton harvest in Uzbekistan.
The issue of a child labor still stands on agenda. Because, as human right activists say, Uzbekistan does not fulfill international commitments. "According to the legislation, it is forbidden to use labor of children under 15. Uzbekistan has recently ratified many international agreements banning child labor and prudential labor. The international agreements include International Labor Organization on Minimal Age Convention, the Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor and Convention on Children's Rights. However, begriming from mid-September the government closes schools, liceiums and universities and send pupils and students to pick cotton," human rights activist said.
She said this fact is attributed to lack of reforms in Uzbek agriculture. "The situation of farmers' rights must be described. According to the law, they are independent entrepreneurs and government's interference with farmers' business is not appropriate. Farmer must grow cotton; otherwise he/she will not get land."
Umida Niyazova said it is not beneficial farmers to grow cotton and they are not able to gather harvest with their own force. Cheaper labor force is the only way out of the situation.
Uzbekistan does not admit presence of problem
Nevertheless, the problem of using child labor in harvest does not exist on government level according to human right activist and Uzbek officials who claim it in international meetings. "Uzbek delegation made a report on human rights situation in Dec. 2008. Over ten countries raised the issue of using child labor at that time," Niyazova said.
Representative of delegation from Uzbekistan National Human Rights Center Akmal Saidov rejected this accusation. He said children do not pick cotton in Uzbekistan. First of all, certain conventions have been signed and there are laws prohibiting child labor. Secondly, farmers who grow cotton are not dependent on state.
She said these arguments are ungrounded. Using child labor is obvious. Umida, who has been born and brought up in Tashkent, said did not work on the field as schoolchildren and students were not sent to pick cotton at that time. "Nevertheless, everybody who has grown up in Uzbekistan can see child labor. It is inherent in national tradition.
Problem, not visible for world
"Problem not visible for world" - the latest study on labor child in cotton fields conducted by London University School of Eastern and African Studies was named in this way. "Though the problem is obvious in Uzbekistan, it is not paid attention on international arena. However, this issue has been raised by international organization frequently for the last years". Niyazova is confident that the world should further be informed about the situation in Uzbekistan. "Business companies such as Tesco and Walmart have boycotted Uzbek cotton and refused to buy it," human rights activist said. However, the situation has not changed. Last year children worked in cotton fields despite national program adopted in September.
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Australia: Australia aids cocoa farmers as child labor questions loom
By Bronwyn Herbert for AM
Cocoa is a $2 billion cash crop for Indonesia, but farmers have to contend with diseased crops and subsequent poor returns.
Australian scientists have teamed up with the world's largest confectionary company in an aid project that is helping restore productivity and profitability for Indonesia's cocoa growers.
It has been a decade of disappointment for cocoa farmers on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
Disease, pests and poor returns have soured interest in what was once a financially sweet cash crop.
Peter Horne, from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, says the key is partnerships between research agencies in Australia and Indonesia.
"Given their dependence upon cocoa as their main source of income, they are facing a major threat to their livelihoods," he said.
"In this particular case we have world class expertise in Australia in plant pathology and disease control, but of course the cocoa industry in Australia is small, very, very small."
Australian plant botanists have helped select a new generation of pest resistant strains of cocoa.
These plants are now being delivered by workers from chocolate company Mars to farmers across Sulawesi.
"We can work with research organizations and develop a better tree, but unless we can bring that tree into the field on a broad scale in a way that is actually sustainable then, yeah, it's a nice piece of research," Mars spokesperson Noel Janetski said.
Having made significant improvements to cocoa agronomy and crop yields, chocolate manufacturers are facing challenges from charities worldwide.
World Vision Australia chief executive Tim Costello is putting the companies under pressure to tackle the industry's most pressing ethical issue, child labor.
"What we know is that 61 per cent of the children who work on cocoa farms, so we get to eat cheap chocolate ... don't get to go to school," he said.
He says the majority of the world's cocoa is sourced from West Africa where an estimated 12,000 children are forced to work on plantations.
"I'd like AusAid to say to Mars, 'by the way, we know what's happening in Ivory Coast and Ghana and we think if you are taking our Australian taxpayers dollars here, you should be showing more effort over there,'" he said.
In Britain, Cadbury's has made a commitment that its popular Dairy Milk chocolate will not use cocoa beans sourced from farms using child labor.
Tim Costello is urging Australians to think about what type of chocolate they buy this Easter.
"Make sure your chocolate is fair trade. That's saying that it hasn't got trafficked laborin it, certainly trafficked child labor."
The World Cocoa Foundation, set up by major chocolate companies, says it is working with governments, particularly in Africa, to address these issues.
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