Iowa City Youth Activists Help
Cambodian Child Scavengers
Early 2005 update
In late November 2004, the youth members of Children
Helping Innocent Laborers Democratically (CHILD) in
Iowa raised $300 by raking leaves, bake sales and
public appeal. CHILD is a student club that was formed
in October 2004 by 6th graders at Lucas Elementary
School in Iowa City to raise awareness and take action
for child laborers around the world. Now CHILD includes
students from other Iowa City schools. CHILD members
know that one of the major challenges for child laborers
is being able to buy school supplies. So they asked
Chivy Sok, former Deputy Director of the University
of Iowa Center for Human Rights, who was planning
a trip to China and Vietnam in December 2004, to take
their hard-earned money to Cambodia to purchase school
supplies and deliver them to needy child scavengers
in Cambodia.
For direction they turned to Mr. Chea Pyden, Head
of Vulnerable Children’s Assistance Organization
(VCAO), a respected NGO, and Chairperson of the NGO
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)-Cambodia.
Mr. Chea arranged for two staff members to help them
purchase notebooks, pens and some packaged instant
noodles for 154 child scavengers registered with VCAO’s
program at Stung Meanchey, which is the largest dump
in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Through the program, these
children are able to access clean water and learn
how to read and write during their breaks from collecting
garbage.
When Ms. Sok and her husband arrived, the child laborers,
who earn barely $1 a day for scavenging, were excited
to receive new books, pens and several packages of
noodles. During the ensuing two hours, they learned
that other youth in America cared enough to help them.
They sent back their heartfelt thanks to members of
CHILD for their generosity. To express their gratitude
they yelled, "Rean!," which means “study”!
If all youth in the world were able to multiply such
an effort, imagine how wonderful out world would be.
Participate in Global Action
Week, April 24-30, 2005
While education is key to ending
extreme poverty, more than 100 million children around
the world are not in school. Eight times this many
adults (800 million) are illiterate. In 2000, world
leaders committed to achieving universal primary education
when they signed first the Dakar Framework for Action
on Education for All and then the Millennium Declaration.
Today – five years later – world leaders
are at risk of not ensuring Education for All children
by 2015. Conversely, the refutation of children’s
right to education ensures the continuation of their
status quo in poverty.
Global Action Week is a worldwide effort organized
by the Global Campaign for Education to remind world
leaders of their promise that every child should have
an education. Every year, through its global network
of non-governmental organizations and teacher’s
unions the Campaign mobilizes millions of people to
promote the right to education for every child in
over 150 countries.
To build pressure on politicians to provide political
leadership and investment in children’s educations,
this year’s Global Action theme is "Send
My Friend to School". Many activities will take
place in many countries, but the global objective
is to raise awareness of the 103 million children
(friends) out of school by making and sending 1 million
letters or cut-out friends representing out-of-school
children to NetAid, who will in turn deliver them
to world leaders during the July 6-8, 2005, 'Group
of Eight' Nations (G-8) Summit in Scotland. The G-8
Summit is an annual meeting of leaders from the eight
economically advanced countries in the world. The
U.S. goal is to generate 25,000 letters or "friends"
by May 15th. All cutouts and letters sent to NetAid
by May 15 will be sent to the 'Group of Eight' Nations
Summit.
The aim is to confront politicians and leaders with
as many "friends" as possible and ask them
to sign a personal pledge to take specific action(s)
during 2005 to work towards the achievement of the
education Millennium Development Goals.
For more information on Action Week in the U.S. visit
the U.S. Chapter of the Global Campaign for Education
at:
http://www.campaignforeducationusa.org/events_default.asp
Register to participate in Action Week via the NetAid
web site:
http://www.netaid.ga0.org/act_now/education-for-all/gce/2005/GCE-Index-Page.html
Tamarack
(Restaurant) Fined Again for Child Labor Violations
By John Koziol
March 24, 2005
LACONIA — The owners of a popular
seasonal eatery in The Weirs have again been fined
by the federal government for violating child labor
laws. On Tuesday the U.S. Department of Labor announced
that it levied $28,600 in penalties against EG’s
Homeward Bound Corp., doing business as the Tamarack
Restaurant, 691 Endicott Street North, and its principals,
Ed and Nancy El- Far, of Medfield, Mass., for violating
the youth employment provisions of the Fair Labor
Standards Act.
Authorities found that 32 minors
were illegally employed there. Nine 13-year- olds
were employed in violation of the minimum age requirement
and 23 14- and 15-year-olds worked too late into the
day, too many hours per day or too many hours per
week. Some of the 13-year-olds were also employed
in violation of the time standards.
Federal labor laws prohibit 14-and
15-year olds from working more than three hours a
day on school days; more than 18 hours per week in
school weeks; more than eight hours a day on non-school
days and more than 40 hours per week when school is
not in session.
Also, 14 and 15-year-olds may not
work before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m., except from June
1 through Labor Day when they can work until 9 p.m.
The El-Fars, who bought the 43-year old business in
May 2001 from Gil and Regina Furnald, were unavailable
for comment.
The couple has agreed to comply with
the FLSA and to pay off the penalty by Sept. 30, according
to federal authorities.
"What makes this case particularly
disturbing," said George Rioux, district director
of the department of labor’s Wage and Hour Division
at the department’s Northern New England office
in Boston, "is that this employer had been previously
investigated and fined for employing minors in violation
of the law."
The El-Fars were fined $4,000 in
2002 for similar offenses, said department spokesman
John Chavez.
"The employer was well aware
of the child labor requirements and for whatever reason
forgot about them when it came time to hire these
kids," said Chavez.
http://www.citizen.com/March_2005/03.24.05/news/laconia_032405h.asp
Government
Bans Child Labor in T'boli Mines, The Philippines
March 14, 2005
By Inquirer News Service
Children working, voluntarily or forcibly, in mining
sites in the hinterlands of T'boli town in South Cotabato
province would soon find themselves back to school.
This after Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman
ordered an immediate end to the widespread practice
of employing children in mining operations in the
province.
In her visit to T'boli's Barangay Kematu, one of
the mining areas in the town, Soliman saw how several
mining operators violated the rights of the children
by employing them.
If the practice continued, Soliman warned, mining
operators, and even the parents, would have to face
the law for using children.
"We have to focus on the plight of these children
-- mostly from indigenous people communities -- and
send them back to school," Soliman said.
Data from the Social Welfare Office in Southwestern
Mindanao (formerly called Central Mindanao) showed
that at least 55 minors, aged 13 to 18 years old,
are involved in the illegal operation of sluice (Banlas)
mining.
Sluice mining involves the process where miners move
the soil for easier extraction of gold particles.
Miners would pour large volumes of water into the
soil until it washes down to box-type diggings called
sluice boxes. The boxes have screens that separate
the fine gold particles from the soil. The accumulated
gold particles are placed in a container and panned
using mercury.
Social worker Ismael Ngitngit said the operation
has posed a great danger to the health of the children,
especially because they are exposed to unmonitored
quantity of mercury.
"We are very alarmed by their operations because
of the use of mercury," Ngitngit said, adding
that the miners’ wastes ultimately flow down
to the rivers of nearby Norallah and Banga towns,
also in South Cotabato.
The provincial government has already ordered a halt
to the illegal mining operations.
At least P7 million has been allotted for a livelihood
program for the villages affected by the government's
stoppage of Banlas mining.
Cover-up of Child Labor Deaths in Hebei
March 2, 2005
Hebei
Human Rights in China (HRIC) has been informed by
a source in China of a cover-up in the workplace deaths
of five child and juvenile workers.
According to sources in China, a man named Wang Wei,
the owner of a private company in Luancheng County,
Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, illegally employed
a number of child laborers. Due to substandard conditions
in the factory dormitory, five girls were found unconscious
from inhaling charcoal fumes at the end of last year.
Sources say that without checking if the girls were
actually dead, Wang put them into coffins for cremation,
with the result that two of the girls who were apparently
still alive died of asphyxiation.
According to HRIC’s sources, Wang Wei is the
proprietor of the Lihua Textile Factory in Xixuying
Village near Shijiazhuang. He employed five girls
ranging in age from 14 to 17 years old, who came from
impoverished peasant families in a nearby village.
Some of these girls had already been working for Wang
for two years. On December 23, 2004 the girls were
sleeping in a shared dormitory room measuring less
than 10 square meters (approximately 90 square feet)
when they were overcome by charcoal fumes. Upon discovering
them unconscious, Wang did not call for medical assistance,
but took them to a crematorium to quickly dispose
of their remains. An employee of the crematorium noticed
that the bodies of the girls were still warm and their
limbs soft, and that no medical certificate accompanied
their bodies, so he refused to accept the bodies.
Wang and other factory managers then called in a barefoot
doctor to certify that the girls were dead, after
which they were placed into coffins for cremation.
Sources say that when the girls’ families heard
of the matter, they insisted on viewing their daughters’
corpses, but were refused. The factory also insisted
that the families make no further inquiries into the
girls’ deaths as a condition of paying each
family 15,000 yuan in compensation. However, the families
still insisted on viewing the corpses, and four days
later the factory finally acceded to their request.
Upon viewing the corpses, the families were horrified
to discover that at least two of the girls, 14-year-old
Wang Yajuan and 17-year-old Wang Shimian, appeared
to have been alive when they were placed in the coffins.
Their faces were caked with vomit and tears, their
noses had bled and their necks were swollen. Wang
Shimian was found to have kicked through the cardboard
lining of her coffin, and her body was twisted in
apparent struggle.
The families, extremely angry with what they had
seen, insisted on a formal medical examination of
the corpses. In the meantime, the families of 70 other
child laborers held a vigil for the dead girls on
December 29. But around 11:00 that night, sources
say, more than 100 local public security policy drove
up in 20-odd cars and motorcycles and broke up the
ceremony. The family members of the dead girls were
taken to a welfare facility, where they were detained
for one day and one night without food. The families
were denied further access to their daughters’
corpses, and one family member, Liu Lianyang, was
so badly abused by police that he had to be taken
to the hospital for treatment.
In spite of the local government’s suppressive
efforts, news of the tragedy has gradually leaked
out and raised considerable concern in the community.
Some news organizations in Shijiazhuang have attempted
to report on the matter, but local authorities have
denied them access. Sources say the local government
pressured the parents to accept a total of only 70,000
yuan in compensation for the girls’ deaths as
a condition for allowing the families to take the
girls’ bodies. The families reluctantly accepted
the lower compensation rather than allow the factory
to retain possession of the bodies and destroy evidence.
The girls have been buried in temporary graves, but
the families worry that warmer weather will cause
decay that will eliminate any evidence of wrongdoing.
According to HRIC’s sources, Luancheng County
officials have closed their eyes to the existence
of some 100 local factories employing child labor.
At Wang Wei’s Lihua Textile Factory, children
as young as 14 years old worked 12-hour days, from
noon until midnight, in a poor environment and under
conditions so strenuous that they collapsed into bed
every night. In their poorly ventilated, unheated
room, the girls warmed themselves in the dead of winter
with charcoal burned in a metal bucket, setting the
scene for tragedy.
“This tragic case presents a whole catalog
of human rights abuses,” said HRIC president
Liu Qing. “The incident is particularly egregious
given that China recently submitted its initial and
second periodic reports on its implementation of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, which will
be discussed at the pre-sessional meetings of the
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in June. China
should make a special effort to eradicate child labor,
which anecdotal evidence such as this suggests is
a serious problem throughout China. And since it appears
that local authorities are only interested in covering
up this particular case, law enforcement officials
at the provincial level or higher should intervene
and ensure that justice is done.”
Source: http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/press?revision%5fid=20716&item%5fid=20715
World Day Against Child Labour 2005 to Focus
on Child Labor in Mines and Quarries
February 27, 2005
Tacy Ltd. Israel
The plight of children who work in mines and quarries
that are often dangerous, dirty and can post a grave
risk to their health and safety will be the focus
of the fourth World Day Against Child Labour, scheduled
for 12 June 2005, says the Geneva based International
Labour Organization (ILO).
The ILO estimates that some one million children
work in small scale mining and quarrying around the
world. What's more, ILO studies show that these children
work in some of the worst conditions imaginable, where
they face serious risk of dying on the job or sustaining
injuries and health problems that will affect them
throughout their lives.
In both surface and underground mines, children work
long hours, carry heavy loads, set explosives, sieve
sand and dirt, crawl down narrow tunnels, breathe
in harmful dusts and work in water - often in the
presence of dangerous toxins such as lead and mercury,
the ILO says. Children mine diamonds, gold, and precious
metals in Africa, gems and rock in Asia, and gold,
coal, emeralds and tin in South America.
The experience of the ILO International Programme
on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) - which
has conducted pilot projects in Mongolia, Tanzania,
Niger and the Andean countries of South America -
demonstrates that it is feasible to eliminate child
labor in dangerous conditions by helping the mining
and quarrying communities acquire legal rights, organize
cooperatives or other productive units, improve the
health and safety and productivity of adult workers,
and secure essential services - such as schools, clean
water and sanitation systems - in these often remote
regions.
The ILO launched the World Day in June 2002 as a
means of raising the visibility of the problem and
highlighting the global movement to eliminate child
labor, particularly its worst forms. This year, on
and about 12 June, local and national organizations
and many children's groups are expected to join with
ILO constituents around the world to observe the World
Day, which occurs during the annual International
Labour Conference in Geneva, and to emphasize the
need for the immediate removal of child workers from
small scale mines and quarries
Source:
http://www.tacyltd.com/Research_Materials_Full.asp?id=54851
1 in 12 Children Worldwide Involved in Child
Labor, says UN
Associated Press
February 21, 2005
LONDON (AP) - One in 12 of the world's children is
involved in the worst forms of child labor, including
slavery, forced labor, hazardous work, militant action
and the commercial sex industry, according to a report
published Monday by the U.N. child welfare agency,
UNICEF.
UNICEF UK said that globally, 352 million children
aged 5 to 17 are engaged in some type of work, including
211 million who work in family homes or farms.
Ninety-seven percent of all working children live
in developing countries; in Africa alone, nearly half
the children between 5 and 14 are working, the agency
said.
The report said children are driven into work and
exploitation by poverty and inadequate education,
exacerbated by the effects of HIV and AIDS.
"One way to put an end to the exploitation of
children ... is by taking action to make poverty history
and ensuring a commitment to more and better international
aid," said David Bull, executive director of
UNICEF UK, in a statement.
He noted that more than 30 years ago, the world's
richest countries agreed to provide 0.7 percent of
their gross national income for development assistance.
"Yet today only five countries - Denmark, Norway,
Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden - are fulfilling their
promise," he said. "One billion children
around the world are still living in poverty and this
is an unacceptable injustice."
Bull said Britain had shown "significant leadership"
by committing to meet the 0.7 percent target by 2013,
"but we are now calling for a firm pledge to
reach this target before 2013 because it will really
make a difference to children's lives.
"By 2013, still only half of Africas children
will complete primary school and one in six will die
before their fifth birthday."
UNICEF UK says that in the 43 countries with an average
annual income of US$500 or less per person, the percentage
of children in child labor is usually 30-60 percent,
while in countries where income is between US$500
to US$1000, the percentage of child laborers drops
to between 10 and 30 percent.
Globally, an estimated 114 million children of primary
school age are not enrolled in school, depriving one
in five children of an education.
UNICEF says children are exploited wherever there
are gaps in the structures created to protect them.
Even in developing countries, they are often exposed
to unacceptable risks; in Britain, for example there
are large holes in the protection provided for children
trafficked into the country from abroad to work.
Source: http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1&display=rednews/2005/02/21/build/world/33-childlabor.inc
Education a weapon against child labor:
National Strategy to Combat Widespread Practice Launched
The Daily Star- Lebanon
February 8, 2005
By Jessy Chahine
BEIRUT: Unless education becomes mandatory for every
child in the country and a basic right for every youngster,
there will be no hope of eradicating child labor,
according to Labor Minister Assem Qanso.
Speaking during a conference on child labor on Monday
at the Gefinor Rotana Hotel, Qanso announced the release
of a national strategy to fight the epidemic, the
result of collaborations by the Labor Ministry and
the International Labor Organization (ILO).
Compulsory and free education for each and every
child was at the heart of the new strategy, he added.
"Education must become an automatic basic right
for every child in this country," the minister
said, "regardless of their background and social
status."
Jamal Hafez, head of the parliamentary committee
to fight child labor, commented on the necessity to
protect every child and insure a proper and safe environment
for all children in Lebanon.
"It is a national duty to do so and we must
all mobilize our efforts to ensure every child's social
and intellectual growth in this country," he
said.
Taleb Rifai, head of ILO's regional bureau, said
that the new national strategy ought to be followed
in every country in the region.
"Working children are easy prey to many dangers
and the only way to keep them away from those dangers
is to prevent them from working at an early age,"
Rifai said. "Preventing child labor should be
a priority of every agenda in the government."
Many families in Lebanon, he added, were living beneath
the poverty line, a fact indicated by several recent
studies. That is the reason why, obviously, many poor
families send their children to work," Rifai
said.
Source: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=12473#
|
