ICCLE’s 2005
Workshop ‘Teaching About Global Child Labor
Issues’ inaugurated by NEA President
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The International Center on Child Labor and Education
(ICCLE) brought together the American Federation of
Teachers, Child Labor Coalition, National Consumers
League, International Labor Organization, National
Education Association, and Stichting Kinderpostzegels
Nederland, and nearly 40 teacher-participants and
child labor experts for the 2005 Workshop on Teaching
about Global Child Labor Issues, July 27-28. The objective
was to provide teachers with the resources and skills
needed to integrate lessons on global child labor
issues into their classrooms and to promote youth
leadership on global child labor issues. Funding for
this workshop was provided by the United States Department
of Labor. The workshop was inaugurated by the President
of the National Education Association Mr. Reg Weaver
standing along side Jill Christianson from NEA and
Helen Toth from AFT International Affairs Department.
Mr. Kailash Satyarthi Chair Global March Against Child
Labor and President of the Global Campaign for Education
was also present on the occasion.
Eighty percent of all teacher-participants and resource
persons who filled out an evaluation were "very
satisfied" overall with the program. The other
20 percent were "satisfied." A few of their
overall impressions were that the workshop was both
local and global and covered both the big issues and
particular actions and experiences. One participant
wrote, "It was a great way to share ideas from
different states." Impressively, the teachers
represented the following states: CA, CT, IA, MA,
MD, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TX, VA!
The information and sessions that respondents found
most interesting, relevant or useful for them were:
1) the way Nick Grisewood, author of the ILO-IPEC
Education Pack SCREAM Stop Child Labor, led them in
hands-on teaching activities, such as the moving debate,
4-squares activity, and creating a story from an image;
2) the actual personal experiences, work and reflections
of real people who have done "impressive stuff",
particularly Kailash Satyarthi, Chair of the Global
March Against Child Labor as well as Ron Adams, Teacher,
and Kristen and Tom, students from Broad Meadow Middle
School in Quincy, MA. The teachers appreciated their
laying out step by step processes to take action;
and 3) learning teaching strategies and lessons from
experienced teachers like Beverly Witwer and Marlene
Johnson, authors of the University of Iowa's Child
Slavery and Hazardous Child Labor teaching modules.
Learning about the positive work that different organizations,
schools, and people, especially young people, are
already doing was most inspiring for those who filled
out the questionnaire. That is, hearing from real
people who are making a difference, e.g., The Broad
Meadows team and Kailash Satyarthi, a "real-life
hero" and the Global March. Many participants
were also inspired by observing the passion, dedication,
and courage of not only speakers like 17 year old
Emily, Youth Editorial Board member of the youth-led
e-newsletter Youth Network for Children’s Rights,
and Kailash, but also of the other teacher-participants.
Future Education Plans and Workshop Opportunities
One hundred percent of the teacher-participants and
resource persons who filled out an evaluation of the
2005 Workshop indicated that this sort of workshop
for teachers will be useful in the future. So, look
for announcements of upcoming workshops for teachers
and you might like to inform your teachers about the
upcoming workshops. You might also like to participate
as resource person if you have some meaningful outcomes
from your efforts.
Over
200 children voice their concerns in Bihar Children's
Parliament - 2005
On Friday, 29th of July 2005, the Bihar State Legislative
Council auditorium was overflowing with over 200 children
who had gathered to voice their concern on the issues
that affect them such as their school, education,
health, facilities at home and physical environment
that aids in their growth. The children did not stop
at listing their problems but also gave their suggestions
for a better future for children of Bihar. The children
put forth heir demands by enacting the proceedings
of the parliament.
The "Children's Parliament-2005" was jointly
organised by Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), the Bihar
Legislative Council and Unicef. Smt. Sumedha Kailash
of BBA said, the Children's Parliament is a step towards
making a child friendly Bihar.
The members of the "children's parliament"
came from 38 districts of the state. 10 or more children
were selected from each district through the three
regional rounds held across the state to participate
in the children's parliament at Patna. The regional
rounds focused on the vital child rights issues and
the children expressed their problems and suggested
solutions under the broad theme, "Bal Suraksha"
(Child Protection).
The enthusiasm of children was evident as they personified
two key child rights issue - children's right to participate
and children's right to be heard. Having a brush with
the Parliamentary proceedings, the questions from
children came thick and fast - some innocent, others
quite probing. With no inhibition or fright children
kept one challenge after another before the adults.
They asked - Why are there no teachers in schools
in the rural areas? Why do I have to cross a river
every day to reach my school? Why are schools often
turned into a police camp during elections? Why is
the government unable to check social scourges like
female infanticide, feticide, child marriage? And
above all, why is Bihar still churning out child labourers
in violation of government programmes and policies?
Child parliamentarian, Tanmay Mitra of Banka put
a naïve but loaded poser before the august House
when he said; "I will like to draw the attention
of the Government through the Chair why even a basic
thing like clean potable water is not available in
my school. We have to drink contaminated water due
to which we often fall ill". The Chair of the
House, Beauty from Nawada assured to bring this issue
before the concerned authorities.
"Those who can afford opt for the private schools.
Where should the underprivileged children go?"
questioned a child parliamentarian, wondering why
do government's programmes and policies remain on
paper only.
"I want that the problem of child labour should
stop and children who are working in factories should
be given formal education. By doing this Bihar will
surely progress," said Sanjeev Kumar, a child
parliamentarian.
Ravish Kumar, a child parliamentarian from Arwal
asked, "When the Government has given the Right
to Information why is it that children do not have
access to any information relating to children?"
The highlight of the session was the vision of "An
ideal Bihar in 2006" which presented enough food
for thought and action for the adults.
The Governor of Bihar, Buta Singh, inaugurated the
Children's Parliament. The Legislative Council Chairman,
Dr. Jabir Hussain, cine star Faroukh Sheikh and other
members of the House were amazed at the understanding
of the children and the pertinent issues that they
raised.
Harkin
Continues Efforts To Eliminate Abusive Child Labor
In The Cocoa Industry
MONDAY, JULY 18, 2005
Washington, D.C.—Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)
today offered an amendment to the Foreign Operations
Appropriations Act that reiterates the Senate’s
commitment to eliminating abusive child labor practices
in the growing and processing of cocoa.
“When a child is exploited for the economic
gains of others, the child loses, the family loses,
their country loses, and the world loses. It is bad
economics and bad development strategy,” Harkin
said. “A nation cannot achieve prosperity on
the backs of children. There is simply no place in
the global economy for slave labor.”
The plight of hundreds of thousands of child slaves
toiling in cocoa plantations in West Africa was reported
in a series by Knight Ridder newspapers in June 2001.
The report found that some of these children are sold
or tricked into slavery. Most of them are between
the ages of 12 and 16 and some are as young as nine
years old. There are more than 600,000 small farms
producing cocoa beans in the Ivory Coast, many in
the remote parts of the country. Local human rights
activists in the Ivory Coast estimate that as many
as 90% of cocoa farms use forced child labor.
Harkin, along with Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY),
was instrumental in developing an industry wide protocol
in 2001 which aimed to eliminate forced child labor
in processing cocoa beans in West Africa. The Harkin-Engel
Protocol, signed by various stakeholders in the chocolate
trade including the chocolate industry, required that
chocolate companies implement an industry-wide voluntary
certification system to give a public accounting of
labor practices in the cocoa-growing countries by
July 1, 2005. While the July 1, 2005 deadline was
not fully met, industry has assured Harkin and Engel
that it is fully committed to achieving a certification
system, which can be expanded across the cocoa-growing
areas of West Africa and will cover 50% of the cocoa
growing areas of Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana within
three years. # # #
TAJIKISTAN:
Protecting and assisting street children
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations]
KURGAN-TYUBE, 20 Jul 2005 (IRIN)
- Ten-year-old Parvina can neither read nor write,
because she has never attended school. She lives in
the southern Tajik city of Kurgan-Tyube, capital of
Khatlon province, 100 km south of the national capital,
Dushanbe. Sometimes other children play with her showing
her how to write her name in the sand. But Parvina
can count.
"I can count up to 500," she said proudly,
adding that she learnt to do so when she started working,
selling plastic bags in the city's main market. She
was making around US $ 1 a day and helping her family
to survive. Now she has switched to selling flat Central
Asian bread and along with her younger brother Akram
earns about $ 3 a day. Parvina gives most of the money
to her mother but is allowed to keep some which she
spends on clothes and food she likes.
Parvina's mother sees nothing wrong with her child
working. "We live on the money they make. My
husband left for Russia in search of a job two years
ago and we haven't heard from him since," she
explained. Poverty in the Central Asian republic means
labor migrants contribute a substantial proportion
of the nation's wealth in the form of foreign remittances
from Kazkhstan, Russia and even further afield.
"Parvina and those who are in a similar situation
are lucky. They work in the streets but go home in
the evening. They have a place to stay," Caroline
Hamilton, a consultant on juvenile justice reform
with the UN Children's Agency (UNICEF), told IRIN
in Dushanbe. "They have either one of the parents
or relatives, who in some way or form take care of
them. Such children have fewer problems with the law.
But the other category of children on the streets,
they are in a more difficult situation. They have
to not only work on the streets but are forced to
live there as well, because they have neither home
nor family," Hamilton added. UNICEF is concerned
that such children are vulnerable to exploitation.
"They can easily be dragged into criminal activity,
including theft, sex and the drug trade," the
UNICEF official noted.
Tajikistan is the poorest of the former Soviet republics.
More than half of the country's 6.5 million population
live below the national poverty line. The average
monthly salary is less than $ 20 and there are high
levels of unemployment.
The civil war of 1992-1997 is also a major factor
in the current prevalence of children working and
living on the streets in the region, according to
Davrona Kunguratova, a senior official at the provincial
HIV/AIDS centre in Khatlon.
"In Khatlon province and Kurgan-Tyube city there
was a lot of fighting and conflict and therefore the
consequences of the war, including poverty, unemployment
and street children, were the most grave," Kunguratova
explained.
The problem of street children is not confined to
southern Tajikistan. In Dushanbe and other major cities,
groups of bedraggled children selling, begging or
just sitting and watching life go by are a common
sight.
"The main task of the government, NGOs and international
organizations is to bring back these children to society,"
Hamilton said, adding that UNICEF was currently supporting
a street childrens' shelter in Dushanbe in an effort
to tackle the problem in the capital.
"There are children of the age of between seven
and 14, whom the police bring from the streets. They
can stay at the shelter for up to six months, while
the police search for their parents. But if at the
end of that period the family and parents are not
found, they go back to the streets," she said.
Giyos Karayev, head of the local NGO, Nasli Navras,
said that they were implementing a pilot project in
cooperation with UNICEF, the city education department
and the local authority of the capital’s Sino
district, targeting street children.
"Within the framework of the project, a little
over 70 children living on the streets, including
boys and girls aged between 10 and 18, will attend
classes at an informal school. After six months of
schooling they will get certificates, that will enable
them to continue their education," Karayev said.
Nasli Navras has gone further and established a rehabilitation
centre for street children. More than 200 children
go to the centre, where they are offered counseling
services by lawyers, doctors and social workers. The
children may also take sewing classes to provide them
with a marketable skill.
Another local NGO, Refugees, Children and Vulnerable
Citizens (RCVC) ran another UNICEF-financed project
to assist poor families. It aimed to provide micro-loans
with low interest rates to single mothers who had
many children.
"With that money they were able to buy materials
to set up a bakery business or to start their own
small businesses," Majuda Tursunova, head of
RCVC, said, adding that around 10 women had benefited
from the initiative.
"We only recently launched a new project with
assistance from the UK. We opened a night shelter
for homeless children. For the time being it has a
capacity of 10 children. Social workers send children
here who have problems with their families. They get
a meal, a clean bed and a shower," Tursunova
said.
However, Hamilton said that it was very difficult
to get projects targeting street children up and running.
"There needs to be a pretty hefty amount of
money to fund them. For a shelter, there need to be
qualified personnel who can deal with 'problem' children,"
she explained.
A journalist from the local Bomdod newspaper in Kurgan-Tyube
remarked that such projects are running mainly in
the capital, whereas there is hardly any work going
on in provincial cities and towns to tackle the issue.
"Sometimes I am horrified when I think about
what sort of future these kids can have. What will
the children who are left to themselves turn into?"
he asked.
Child labor
rampant in Cebu, DOLE says
by Wenna A. Berondo
July 15, 2005
Due to high incidence of child labor in Cebu, the
Department of Labor and Employment chose it as among
the priority areas for interventions.
Although DOLE did not give figures on how many children
are working in Cebu, it is considered as among the
“hot spots” for child prostitution where
a number of kids are found working in pyrotechnics,
prostitution, domestic labor, mining and quarrying,
deep-sea fishing, and sugar cane plantations.
Last month, DOLE regional office and the International
Labor Organization reported that there are 1,025 child
laborers in Cebu, which only covered the areas of
Bogo, Medellin, the cities of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu and
Mandaue; Samboan, Santander, Ginatilan and Oslob,
where there are reported cases of child labor. Labor
officials said these only represent a small chunk
of the real number of child laborers in Cebu.
Central Visayas also ranked second with highest number
of child laborers in the country with 388,000 after
southern Luzon which has 461,000 child laborers, most
of whom are exposed to hazardous working conditions.
The number still does not include prostituted children.
With the increasing number of child being exposed
to hard labor at early ages, DOLE is conducting interventions
and was able to remove some 12,500 children from the
worst forms of child labor in 2003 and 2004.
The “rescued” kids were extended educational
assistance under the Philippine Time Bound Program
of the labor department.
In its recent report, DOLE’s Bureau of Women
and Young Workers said the children were among those
who have been identified through the baseline surveys
conducted in 2003 and 2004 by the International Labor
Organization-International Program on the Elimination
of Child Labor in the Philippines.
PTBP aims to reduce the worst forms of child labor
by 75 percent by 2015 in six priority sectors - sugarcane
plantations, pyrotechnics, deep-sea fishing, mining
and quarrying, prostitution, and domestic labor.
Source: The fair and fearless freeman
Human rights watchdog sues nestle, adm,
cargill for using forced child labor
Companies Import Cocoa Beans from Africa
Cultivated and Harvested by Children
Charges Include Trafficking,Ttorture,
Beatings, 14-hour days
July 14, 2005, ILRF Release
A leading human rights organization sued the Nestle,
Archer Daniels Midland, and Cargill companies today
in Federal District Court in Los Angeles for involvement
in the trafficking, torture, and forced labor of children
who cultivate and harvest cocoa beans which the companies
import from Africa. The suit was brought under two
federal statutes, the Torture Victims Protection Act
and the Alien Tort Claims Act
The Washington, DC-based International Labor Rights
Fund (ILRF), along with Alabama-based civil rights
firm Wiggins, Childs, Quinn & Pantazis, LLC, filed
suit on behalf of a class of Malian children who were
trafficked from Mali into the Ivory Coast and forced
to work twelve to fourteen hours a day with no pay,
little food and sleep, and frequent beatings. The
three children acting as class representative plaintiffs
are proceeding anonymously, as John Does, because
of feared retaliation by the farm owners where they
worked.
"It is unconscionable that Nestle, ADM and Cargill
have ignored repeated and well-documented warnings
over the past several years that the farms they were
using to grow cocoa employed child slave labor. They
could have put a stop to it years ago, but chose to
look the other way. We had to go to court as a last
resort," said ILRF attorney, Natacha Thys.
Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based human rights
group, has also joined the Complaint and, along with
the former child laborers, have also sued Nestle under
California's unfair business practice law for false
or misleading statements. Global Exchange alleges
that to date no effective steps have been taken by
the companies to prevent the use of child labor on
farms producing cocoa for companies like Nestle, and
that these companies have nevertheless led their members
and the public to believe otherwise.
Global Exchange will also sponsor demonstrations against
Nestle in cities all over the U.S. timed with the
opening of the film, "Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory."
The complaint follows the July 1, 2005 deadline identified
in a voluntary industry initiative, known as the Harkin-Engel
Protocol, to eliminate the worst forms of child labor
in the West African cocoa industry. A key part of
the Protocol was an obligation to have in place an
independent and credible system of farm monitoring,
certification, and verification to ensure that child
labor was not still taking place, and to also have
effective programs on the ground to address and rehabilitate
child laborers. The industry failed to establish such
a system by the July 1, 2005 deadline, several years
since reported stories of child labor in the West
Africa cocoa sector began to appear and three years
since the Protocol was announced.
British
cocoa industry & govt discuss child labour issue
27/07/2001 - The British cocoa and
chocolate industry and government officials will support
an investigation into forced child labour in West
African cocoa plantations, a spokesperson from the
British foreign ministry said on July 26.
A one-day workshop held in London on July 25 brought
together cocoa traders, manufacturers, retailers,
non-governmental organisations, trade unions and government
officials from the U.K. and West Africa to discuss
working practices in cocoa plantations. The participants
expressed their desire to find realistic solutions
to any problem of forced child labour and trafficking
connected to cocoa production," said a spokesperson
at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which
hosted the workshop.
Recent media reports on the use of child slaves in
West African cocoa production have pressured the global
chocolate and cocoa industry to reassure consumers
on the origin of beans. Chocolate manufacturers such
as Cadbury Schweppes Plc and Mars Confectionery UK
confirmed they sent representatives to attend the
meeting.
"We agree very much with the conclusions which
were reached and are fully participating in the programmes
that are going ahead," a spokesperson for Cadburys
told Reuters. The ministry spokesperson said that
participants underlined the complexity and the sensitivity
of the issue and urged for it to be handled at a sub-regional
level.
Authorities in Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa
producer, have set up a host of measures to halt child
trafficking from its neighbouring countries. However,
the Ivorian authorities, global cocoa operators and
trade associations believe reports of slavery have
been exaggerated and are unrepresentative of most
cocoa plantations.
"Whilst all agree that exploitative child labour
is not widespread in cocoa production, and is not
unique to cocoa growing, or indeed West Africa, we
all share a firm commitment to eradicate these illegal
practices," John Newman, chairman of Britain's
chocolate industry body, the Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate
and Confectionery Alliance (BCCCA), said in a statement.
Participants at the meeting agreed to support a survey
that will investigate the scale of the problem in
the course of the next crop season. "We had a
good forum with a cross-section of organisations brought
together. Clearly, they have made some conclusions
which will take it (issue) forward," Phil Sigley,
chief executive of the Cocoa Association of London
(CAL) trade body, told Reuters.
They also agreed to participate in a regional conference
to be hosted by Ivory Coast in September, as well
as creating a task force that would look at ways of
increasing the effectiveness of existing measures
and visit the region later in the year.
"Tackling this issue needs input at many different
levels and so we are pleased that the task force members
include governments, our industry and other key players,"
Newman said.
AFGHANISTAN:
Child marriage still widespread
[This report does not necessarily
reflect the views of the United Nations]
KABUL, 13 Jul 2005 (IRIN) - The United Nations, government
officials and rights bodies in the Afghan capital,
Kabul, have expressed grave concern about the widespread
practice of girls marrying early, as the country marked
World Population Day on Tuesday.
Nearly 60 percent of marriages in Afghanistan involve
girls below the legal age of 16, according to reports
from the Ministry of Women's Affairs and NGOs. Some
girls are married as young as nine.
Rights and health activists say that such marriages
increase the maternal mortality rate and deny young
women an education or any kind of independent life.
Often, after a child marriage, husbands and/or parents-in-law
refuse to allow the child-wife to go to school under
threat of violence.
“Badakhshan [northeastern province] has the
highest maternal mortality rate in the country and
one of the main reason is under-age marriages - even
as young as seven in some cases. This needs to be
addressed,” Paul Greening a project officer
of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said
on Wednesday in Kabul.
Afghan minister of women’s affairs Masouda
Jalal, called early marriage “a violation of
equality” and condemned the traditional practice
as harmful to girl’s health, their education,
political participation and economic opportunities.
“Child marriage and early childbearing mean
an incomplete education, limited opportunities and
serious health risks,” Jalal said.
Child brides are not physically mature and can sustain
injury during sexual intercourse.
“It is a shame to say that even in the capital
Kabul we treat pregnant mothers as young as 12 years
of age,” said a midwife at Malalai hospital,
the leading maternity and gynaecology unit in the
capital.
Afghanistan's new constitution sets the minimum age
of marriage for females at 16 and for males 18 but
in rural and even some urban areas, the tradition
of marrying off daughters while even younger in order
to receive money remains common among the poor.
A recent study by Afghan Independent Human Rights
Commission (AIHRC) has found 500 girls who had been
given away or traded as part of local conflict resolution
practices. Of these, 90 percent were under 14 years
old. Most become the 'property' of the family or individual
who receives them.
NEPAL:
Displacement contributing to child labour problem
[ This report does not necessarily
reflect the views of the United Nations]
KATHMANDU, 4 Jul 2005 (IRIN) - Ten years ago, when
Nepal signed an agreement with the International Labor
Organization (ILO) to launch a national programme
to eliminate child labor, there were real hopes that
the scourge could be significantly reduced. But today
activists say that the number of working children
in the Himalayan kingdom has increased rather than
gone down, in part because of the conditions created
by the current insurgency.
“The conflict has had a serious negative impact
on our past efforts, and the challenges are enormous
today,” said long-time child labor activist,
Uddhab Poudel from ILO. Poudel added that as the insurgency
forces more children to leave their villages, the
problem of child labor worsens.
It’s not only the number of working children
that startles observers but the kind of work they
are increasingly being forced to undertake. Heavy
migration of displaced children into urban areas because
of the nine-year long Maoist conflict, means young
people are being forced to engage in some of the most
dangerous and exploitative forms of labor.
“We expect about 10,000 to 15,000 children
to be displaced into urban areas this year - this
will grow by ten fold if the situation deteriorates,”
explained Poudel. “A peace settlement is the
only way to protect our children from further harm,”
he added.
Concern for children has been mounting among activists
working for children’s rights. In a report reviewing
the situation in Nepal by the UN Committee on Rights
of the Child (CRC) in May, one of the committee experts,
Lucy Smith, said that Nepal was in many ways not a
country fit for children.
According to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC),
many young children moving to urban and semi-urban
areas live in very difficult circumstances, being
forced to work in unhygienic conditions and in hostile
environments. Many live on the streets, denied an
education and exposed to a variety of threats, added
the NRC.
A recent Child Workers in Nepal (CWIN) report, said
that child labor is widespread in agriculture, manual
work (such as carpet weaving) basket making, iron
and steel production, as well as industrial sectors
such as brick-making and stone quarrying. It added
that most children are exploited while employed as
domestic helpers, hotel servants, porters or when
picking over rubbish looking for items to sell.
“Before the conflict, children had the choice
of returning home to their families but now all they
can do is keep quiet and do not have the power to
bargain with their employers,” explained activist
Tarak Dhital from CWIN. He added that there was a
dire need for contemporary research on the situation
of displaced children in the context of the current
conflict.
Other organizations, like Maiti Nepal, which focuses
on reducing the number of girls trafficked for prostitution,
are concerned that the sexual exploitation of children
is also on the rise. This is especially the case amongst
those who end up in the capital and other main cities.
“Most of them are in a vulnerable state and
are without any protection as they don’t know
where to approach for help,” said Anuradha Koirala
from Maiti Nepal.
Nearly two years have passed since the Children as
Zone of Peace (CAZOP) initiative was established to
pressure both the rebels and security forces to leave
children out of the conflict. But activists maintain
that both parties have only made the situation worse
for children, many of whom have been the victims of
constant abduction, interrogation, sexual abuse and
physical torture, leading them to flee their villages
and work in exploitative conditions in urban areas
to survive.
“The country is losing a whole generation of
youth when they flee to India and leave schools and
live in hostile conditions without any certainty about
their future,” said activist Reinhard Fichtl
from Terre de Hommes, one of the handful of NGOs that
is planning to launch a project for internally displaced
Nepali children.
Fichtl is worried that most organizations are only
focusing on the IDP camps whereas the large numbers
of displaced children end up in the local district
headquarters near the villages.
“Most live in cowsheds and whatever accommodation
is available for the children,” he explained.
“Whenever we talk of civilians affected by conflict,
we tend to leave out children who are in need of most
state protection from all sorts of exploitation,”
Fichtl added.
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